Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
Investigate what happens when you add house numbers along a street in different ways.
In this section from a calendar, put a square box around the 1st, 2nd, 8th and 9th. Add all the pairs of numbers. What do you notice about the answers?
If the answer's 2010, what could the question be?
Start with four numbers at the corners of a square and put the total of two corners in the middle of that side. Keep going... Can you estimate what the size of the last four numbers will be?
What happens when you add the digits of a number then multiply the result by 2 and you keep doing this? You could try for different numbers and different rules.
At the beginning of May Tom put his tomato plant outside. On the same day he sowed a bean in another pot. When will the two be the same height?
Use these head, body and leg pieces to make Robot Monsters which are different heights.
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 caterpillars have 16 parts. What different shapes do they make if each part lies in the small squares of a 4 by 4 square?
These sixteen children are standing in four lines of four, one behind the other. They are each holding a card with a number on it. Can you work out the missing numbers?
Well now, what would happen if we lost all the nines in our number system? Have a go at writing the numbers out in this way and have a look at the multiplications table.
48 is called an abundant number because it is less than the sum of its factors (without itself). Can you find some more abundant numbers?
Explore Alex's number plumber. What questions would you like to ask? What do you think is happening to the numbers?
Investigate this balance which is marked in halves. If you had a weight on the left-hand 7, where could you hang two weights on the right to make it balance?
Complete these two jigsaws then put one on top of the other. What happens when you add the 'touching' numbers? What happens when you change the position of the jigsaws?
There were 22 legs creeping across the web. How many flies? How many spiders?
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.
Noah saw 12 legs walk by into the Ark. How many creatures did he see?
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?
Using the cards 2, 4, 6, 8, +, - and =, what number statements can you make?
Woof is a big dog. Yap is a little dog. Emma has 16 dog biscuits to give to the two dogs. She gave Woof 4 more biscuits than Yap. How many biscuits did each dog get?
Can you work out how many flowers there will be on the Amazing Splitting Plant after it has been growing for six weeks?
Sam got into an elevator. He went down five floors, up six floors, down seven floors, then got out on the second floor. On what floor did he get on?
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?
Fill in the numbers to make the sum of each row, column and diagonal equal to 15.
Annie and Ben are playing a game with a calculator. What was Annie's secret number?
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.
Put operations signs between the numbers 3 4 5 6 to make the highest possible number and lowest possible number.
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!
Arrange the numbers 1 to 6 in each set of circles below. The sum of each side of the triangle should equal the number in its centre.
A game for 2 or more players. Practise your addition and subtraction with the aid of a game board and some dried peas!
Find all the numbers that can be made by adding the dots on two dice.
Find your way through the grid starting at 2 and following these operations. What number do you end on?
Can you hang weights in the right place to make the equaliser balance?
There are three baskets, a brown one, a red one and a pink one, holding a total of 10 eggs. Can you use the information given to find out how many eggs are in each basket?
Can you make a train the same length as Laura's but using three differently coloured rods? Is there only one way of doing it?
Using the statements, can you work out how many of each type of rabbit there are in these pens?
In this 100 square, look at the green square which contains the numbers 2, 3, 12 and 13. What is the sum of the numbers that are diagonally opposite each other? What do you notice?
If the numbers 5, 7 and 4 go into this function machine, what numbers will come out?
Place the numbers 1 to 6 in the circles so that each number is the difference between the two numbers just below it.
Can you design a new shape for the twenty-eight squares and arrange the numbers in a logical way? What patterns do you notice?
This big box adds something to any number that goes into it. If you know the numbers that come out, what addition might be going on in the box?
Can you each work out the number on your card? What do you notice? How could you sort the cards?
On Planet Plex, there are only 6 hours in the day. Can you answer these questions about how Arog the Alien spends his day?
Find the next number in this pattern: 3, 7, 19, 55 ...
Twizzle, a female giraffe, needs transporting to another zoo. Which route will give the fastest journey?
Arrange eight of the numbers between 1 and 9 in the Polo Square below so that each side adds to the same total.
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!
Can you arrange fifteen dominoes so that all the touching domino pieces add to 6 and the ends join up? Can you make all the joins add to 7?
In your bank, you have three types of coins. The number of spots shows how much they are worth. Can you choose coins to exchange with the groups given to make the same total?