Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
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?
A game for two players on a large squared space.
A variant on the game Alquerque
Move just three of the circles so that the triangle faces in the opposite direction.
Exchange the positions of the two sets of counters in the least possible number of moves
A game for two players. You'll need some counters.
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?
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?
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?
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?
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.
Can you cover the camel with these pieces?
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!
What happens when you try and fit the triomino pieces into these two grids?
Make one big triangle so the numbers that touch on the small triangles add to 10. You could use the interactivity to help you.
Players take it in turns to choose a dot on the grid. The winner is the first to have four dots that can be joined to form a square.
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,. . . .
The aim of the game is to slide the green square from the top right hand corner to the bottom left hand corner in the least number of moves.
Can you see why 2 by 2 could be 5? Can you predict what 2 by 10 will be?
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?
A game for 2 people. Take turns joining two dots, until your opponent is unable to move.
Imagine a wheel with different markings painted on it at regular intervals. Can you predict the colour of the 18th mark? The 100th mark?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outline of Little Ming?
Find your way through the grid starting at 2 and following these operations. What number do you end on?
This 100 square jigsaw is written in code. It starts with 1 and ends with 100. Can you build it up?
What can you see? What do you notice? What questions can you ask?
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.
Imagine a 3 by 3 by 3 cube. If you and a friend drill holes in some of the small cubes in the ways described, how many will have holes drilled through them?
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.
Investigate how the four L-shapes fit together to make an enlarged L-shape. You could explore this idea with other shapes too.
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.
Use the three triangles to fill these outline shapes. Perhaps you can create some of your own shapes for a friend to fill?
How many different cuboids can you make when you use four CDs or DVDs? How about using five, then six?
A package contains a set of resources designed to develop pupils' mathematical thinking. This package places a particular emphasis on “visualising” and is designed to meet the needs. . . .
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?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outline of the child walking home from school?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outlines of the lobster, yacht and cyclist?
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?
We start with one yellow cube and build around it to make a 3x3x3 cube with red cubes. Then we build around that red cube with blue cubes and so on. How many cubes of each colour have we used?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outlines of the chairs?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outline of this shape. How would you describe it?
How many different ways can you find of fitting five hexagons together? How will you know you have found all the ways?
Here are shadows of some 3D shapes. What shapes could have made them?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outline of Granma T?
This second article in the series refers to research about levels of development of spatial thinking and the possible influence of instruction.
Mathematics is the study of patterns. Studying pattern is an opportunity to observe, hypothesise, experiment, discover and create.
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?
Can you fit the tangram pieces into the outlines of the watering can and man in a boat?