Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
You have 4 red and 5 blue counters. How many ways can they be placed on a 3 by 3 grid so that all the rows columns and diagonals have an even number of red counters?
A game for two players. You'll need some counters.
A game for two players on a large squared space.
Take it in turns to place a domino on the grid. One to be placed horizontally and the other vertically. Can you make it impossible for your opponent to play?
Imagine a pyramid which is built in square layers of small cubes. If we number the cubes from the top, starting with 1, can you picture which cubes are directly below this first cube?
Can you cover the camel with these pieces?
Can you see why 2 by 2 could be 5? Can you predict what 2 by 10 will be?
This 100 square jigsaw is written in code. It starts with 1 and ends with 100. Can you build it up?
A tetromino is made up of four squares joined edge to edge. Can this tetromino, together with 15 copies of itself, be used to cover an eight by eight chessboard?
Make one big triangle so the numbers that touch on the small triangles add to 10. You could use the interactivity to help you.
A variant on the game Alquerque
Exchange the positions of the two sets of counters in the least possible number of moves
This article for teachers discusses examples of problems in which there is no obvious method but in which children can be encouraged to think deeply about the context and extend their ability to. . . .
A magician took a suit of thirteen cards and held them in his hand face down. Every card he revealed had the same value as the one he had just finished spelling. How did this work?
If you can post the triangle with either the blue or yellow colour face up, how many ways can it be posted altogether?
What does the overlap of these two shapes look like? Try picturing it in your head and then use the interactivity to test your prediction.
A game for 1 person. Can you work out how the dice must be rolled from the start position to the finish? Play on line.
What happens when you try and fit the triomino pieces into these two grids?
Cut four triangles from a square as shown in the picture. How many different shapes can you make by fitting the four triangles back together?
Hover your mouse over the counters to see which ones will be removed. Click to remover them. The winner is the last one to remove a counter. How you can make sure you win?
Which of these dice are right-handed and which are left-handed?
An activity centred around observations of dots and how we visualise number arrangement patterns.
How can the same pieces of the tangram make this bowl before and after it was chipped? Use the interactivity to try and work out what is going on!
Move just three of the circles so that the triangle faces in the opposite direction.
In a square in which the houses are evenly spaced, numbers 3 and 10 are opposite each other. What is the smallest and what is the largest possible number of houses in the square?
Here are shadows of some 3D shapes. What shapes could have made them?
A game for 2 players. Given a board of dots in a grid pattern, players take turns drawing a line by connecting 2 adjacent dots. Your goal is to complete more squares than your opponent.
If you split the square into these two pieces, it is possible to fit the pieces together again to make a new shape. How many new shapes can you make?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outlines of the candle and sundial?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outlines of Mai Ling and Chi Wing?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outlines of the watering can and man in a boat?
Investigate how the four L-shapes fit together to make an enlarged L-shape. You could explore this idea with other shapes too.
Find your way through the grid starting at 2 and following these operations. What number do you end on?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outlines of the lobster, yacht and cyclist?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outlines of the chairs?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outline of the child walking home from school?
How many balls of modelling clay and how many straws does it take to make these skeleton shapes?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outlines of these clocks?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outline of this shape. How would you describe it?
Mathematics is the study of patterns. Studying pattern is an opportunity to observe, hypothesise, experiment, discover and create.
Use the three triangles to fill these outline shapes. Perhaps you can create some of your own shapes for a friend to fill?
A shape and space game for 2,3 or 4 players. Be the last person to be able to place a pentomino piece on the playing board. Play with card, or on the computer.
An extension of noughts and crosses in which the grid is enlarged and the length of the winning line can to altered to 3, 4 or 5.
Investigate the number of paths you can take from one vertex to another in these 3D shapes. Is it possible to take an odd number and an even number of paths to the same vertex?
How many different ways can you find of fitting five hexagons together? How will you know you have found all the ways?
A game for 2 players. Can be played online. One player has 1 red counter, the other has 4 blue. The red counter needs to reach the other side, and the blue needs to trap the red.
This article for teachers describes how modelling number properties involving multiplication using an array of objects not only allows children to represent their thinking with concrete materials,. . . .
A game for 2 people. Take turns joining two dots, until your opponent is unable to move.
Can you work out what is wrong with the cogs on a UK 2 pound coin?
Imagine a wheel with different markings painted on it at regular intervals. Can you predict the colour of the 18th mark? The 100th mark?