Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
Find your way through the grid starting at 2 and following these operations. What number do you end on?
You have 5 darts and your target score is 44. How many different ways could you score 44?
Winifred Wytsh bought a box each of jelly babies, milk jelly bears, yellow jelly bees and jelly belly beans. In how many different ways could she make a jolly jelly feast with 32 legs?
Here you see the front and back views of a dodecahedron. Each vertex has been numbered so that the numbers around each pentagonal face add up to 65. Can you find all the missing numbers?
Using the cards 2, 4, 6, 8, +, - and =, what number statements can you make?
You have two egg timers. One takes 4 minutes exactly to empty and the other takes 7 minutes. What times in whole minutes can you measure and how?
There are 44 people coming to a dinner party. There are 15 square tables that seat 4 people. Find a way to seat the 44 people using all 15 tables, with no empty places.
Move from the START to the FINISH by moving across or down to the next square. Can you find a route to make these totals?
These two group activities use mathematical reasoning - one is numerical, one geometric.
In Sam and Jill's garden there are two sorts of ladybirds with 7 spots or 4 spots. What numbers of total spots can you make?
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?
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.
There are 78 prisoners in a square cell block of twelve cells. The clever prison warder arranged them so there were 25 along each wall of the prison block. How did he do it?
Place the numbers 1 to 10 in the circles so that each number is the difference between the two numbers just below it.
Can you put plus signs in so this is true? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 = 99 How many ways can you do it?
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!
Place six toy ladybirds into the box so that there are two ladybirds in every column and every row.
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?
Zumf makes spectacles for the residents of the planet Zargon, who have either 3 eyes or 4 eyes. How many lenses will Zumf need to make all the different orders for 9 families?
Can you put the numbers 1 to 8 into the circles so that the four calculations are correct?
Find all the numbers that can be made by adding the dots on two dice.
How could you put eight beanbags in the hoops so that there are four in the blue hoop, five in the red and six in the yellow? Can you find all the ways of doing this?
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!
Using the statements, can you work out how many of each type of rabbit there are in these pens?
Arrange eight of the numbers between 1 and 9 in the Polo Square below so that each side adds to the same total.
Suppose there is a train with 24 carriages which are going to be put together to make up some new trains. Can you find all the ways that this can be done?
There are to be 6 homes built on a new development site. They could be semi-detached, detached or terraced houses. How many different combinations of these can you find?
Can you arrange 5 different digits (from 0 - 9) in the cross in the way described?
Place the numbers 1 to 6 in the circles so that each number is the difference between the two numbers just below it.
Cherri, Saxon, Mel and Paul are friends. They are all different ages. Can you find out the age of each friend using the information?
Use these head, body and leg pieces to make Robot Monsters which are different heights.
What do the digits in the number fifteen add up to? How many other numbers have digits with the same total but no zeros?
Can you find which shapes you need to put into the grid to make the totals at the end of each row and the bottom of each column?
This activity is best done with a whole class or in a large group. Can you match the cards? What happens when you add pairs of the numbers together?
Choose a symbol to put into the number sentence.
This problem is based on a code using two different prime numbers less than 10. You'll need to multiply them together and shift the alphabet forwards by the result. Can you decipher the code?
Can you make a cycle of pairs that add to make a square number using all the numbers in the box below, once and once only?
Ten cards are put into five envelopes so that there are two cards in each envelope. The sum of the numbers inside it is written on each envelope. What numbers could be inside the envelopes?
Ben has five coins in his pocket. How much money might he have?
Choose four of the numbers from 1 to 9 to put in the squares so that the differences between joined squares are odd.
Can you use the information to find out which cards I have used?
Two children made up a game as they walked along the garden paths. Can you find out their scores? Can you find some paths of your own?
Ram divided 15 pennies among four small bags. He could then pay any sum of money from 1p to 15p without opening any bag. How many pennies did Ram put in each bag?
Can you hang weights in the right place to make the equaliser balance?
Sweets are given out to party-goers in a particular way. Investigate the total number of sweets received by people sitting in different positions.
Add the sum of the squares of four numbers between 10 and 20 to the sum of the squares of three numbers less than 6 to make the square of another, larger, number.
What do you notice about the date 03.06.09? Or 08.01.09? This challenge invites you to investigate some interesting dates yourself.
A group of children are using measuring cylinders but they lose the labels. Can you help relabel them?
Lolla bought a balloon at the circus. She gave the clown six coins to pay for it. What could Lolla have paid for the balloon?
Can you see why 2 by 2 could be 5? Can you predict what 2 by 10 will be?