Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
Arrange the shapes in a line so that you change either colour or shape in the next piece along. Can you find several ways to start with a blue triangle and end with a red circle?
This activity investigates how you might make squares and pentominoes from Polydron.
An activity making various patterns with 2 x 1 rectangular tiles.
Ana and Ross looked in a trunk in the attic. They found old cloaks and gowns, hats and masks. How many possible costumes could they make?
A thoughtful shepherd used bales of straw to protect the area around his lambs. Explore how you can arrange the bales.
Investigate all the different squares you can make on this 5 by 5 grid by making your starting side go from the bottom left hand point. Can you find out the areas of all these squares?
Can you draw a square in which the perimeter is numerically equal to the area?
If we had 16 light bars which digital numbers could we make? How will you know you've found them all?
These rectangles have been torn. How many squares did each one have inside it before it was ripped?
The challenge here is to find as many routes as you can for a fence to go so that this town is divided up into two halves, each with 8 blocks.
Are all the possible combinations of two shapes included in this set of 27 cards? How do you know?
When newspaper pages get separated at home we have to try to sort them out and get things in the correct order. How many ways can we arrange these pages so that the numbering may be different?
You cannot choose a selection of ice cream flavours that includes totally what someone has already chosen. Have a go and find all the different ways in which seven children can have ice cream.
What is the smallest number of tiles needed to tile this patio? Can you investigate patios of different sizes?
What is the greatest number of counters you can place on the grid below without four of them lying at the corners of a square?
This practical challenge invites you to investigate the different squares you can make on a square geoboard or pegboard.
If you have three circular objects, you could arrange them so that they are separate, touching, overlapping or inside each other. Can you investigate all the different possibilities?
What can you say about these shapes? This problem challenges you to create shapes with different areas and perimeters.
Place the 16 different combinations of cup/saucer in this 4 by 4 arrangement so that no row or column contains more than one cup or saucer of the same colour.
How many ways can you find of tiling the square patio, using square tiles of different sizes?
Using the statements, can you work out how many of each type of rabbit there are in these pens?
Start with three pairs of socks. Now mix them up so that no mismatched pair is the same as another mismatched pair. Is there more than one way to do it?
Building up a simple Celtic knot. Try the interactivity or download the cards or have a go on squared paper.
This 100 square jigsaw is written in code. It starts with 1 and ends with 100. Can you build it up?
Find all the numbers that can be made by adding the dots on two dice.
These are the faces of Will, Lil, Bill, Phil and Jill. Use the clues to work out which name goes with each face.
Use the interactivity to help get a feel for this problem and to find out all the possible ways the balls could land.
Can you cover the camel with these pieces?
Investigate the smallest number of moves it takes to turn these mats upside-down if you can only turn exactly three at a time.
Find your way through the grid starting at 2 and following these operations. What number do you end on?
What happens when you try and fit the triomino pieces into these two grids?
Can you fill in the empty boxes in the grid with the right shape and colour?
Let's say you can only use two different lengths - 2 units and 4 units. Using just these 2 lengths as the edges how many different cuboids can you make?
In this town, houses are built with one room for each person. There are some families of seven people living in the town. In how many different ways can they build their houses?
In a bowl there are 4 Chocolates, 3 Jellies and 5 Mints. Find a way to share the sweets between the three children so they each get the kind they like. Is there more than one way to do it?
El Crico the cricket has to cross a square patio to get home. He can jump the length of one tile, two tiles and three tiles. Can you find a path that would get El Crico home in three jumps?
In how many ways could Mrs Beeswax put ten coins into her three puddings so that each pudding ended up with at least two coins?
Place eight queens on an chessboard (an 8 by 8 grid) so that none can capture any of the others.
Place the numbers 1 to 8 in the circles so that no consecutive numbers are joined by a line.
Take 5 cubes of one colour and 2 of another colour. How many different ways can you join them if the 5 must touch the table and the 2 must not touch the table?
Investigate the different ways you could split up these rooms so that you have double the number.
Using the cards 2, 4, 6, 8, +, - and =, what number statements can you make?
There are 4 jugs which hold 9 litres, 7 litres, 4 litres and 2 litres. Find a way to pour 9 litres of drink from one jug to another until you are left with exactly 3 litres in three of the jugs.
In the planet system of Octa the planets are arranged in the shape of an octahedron. How many different routes could be taken to get from Planet A to Planet Zargon?
This problem is based on the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Investigate the different numbers of people and rats there could have been if you know how many legs there are altogether!
How many DIFFERENT quadrilaterals can be made by joining the dots on the 8-point circle?
How many different ways can you find of fitting five hexagons together? How will you know you have found all the ways?
This problem focuses on Dienes' Logiblocs. What is the same and what is different about these pairs of shapes? Can you describe the shapes in the picture?
This magic square has operations written in it, to make it into a maze. Start wherever you like, go through every cell and go out a total of 15!
In this challenge, buckets come in five different sizes. If you choose some buckets, can you investigate the different ways in which they can be filled?