Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
Dotty Six is a simple dice game that you can adapt in many ways.
Use your addition and subtraction skills, combined with some strategic thinking, to beat your partner at this game.
Can you design a new shape for the twenty-eight squares and arrange the numbers in a logical way? What patterns do you notice?
Noah saw 12 legs walk by into the Ark. How many creatures did he see?
How would you count the number of fingers in these pictures?
Exactly 195 digits have been used to number the pages in a book. How many pages does the book have?
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?
Can you follow the rule to decode the messages?
Sweets are given out to party-goers in a particular way. Investigate the total number of sweets received by people sitting in different positions.
Explore Alex's number plumber. What questions would you like to ask? Don't forget to keep visiting NRICH projects site for the latest developments and questions.
Jack's mum bought some candles to use on his birthday cakes and when his sister was born, she used them on her cakes too. Can you use the information to find out when Kate was born?
Can you each work out the number on your card? What do you notice? How could you sort the cards?
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?
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!
Mrs Morgan, the class's teacher, pinned numbers onto the backs of three children. Use the information to find out what the three numbers were.
The Scot, John Napier, invented these strips about 400 years ago to help calculate multiplication and division. Can you work out how to use Napier's bones to find the answer to these multiplications?
Choose four different digits from 1-9 and put one in each box so that the resulting four two-digit numbers add to a total of 100.
Where can you draw a line on a clock face so that the numbers on both sides have the same total?
A lady has a steel rod and a wooden pole and she knows the length of each. How can she measure out an 8 unit piece of pole?
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?
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?
There were chews for 2p, mini eggs for 3p, Chocko bars for 5p and lollypops for 7p in the sweet shop. What could each of the children buy with their money?
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?
Here are the prices for 1st and 2nd class mail within the UK. You have an unlimited number of each of these stamps. Which stamps would you need to post a parcel weighing 825g?
I throw three dice and get 5, 3 and 2. Add the scores on the three dice. What do you get? Now multiply the scores. What do you notice?
I was looking at the number plate of a car parked outside. Using my special code S208VBJ adds to 65. Can you crack my code and use it to find out what both of these number plates add up to?
Look carefully at the numbers. What do you notice? Can you make another square using the numbers 1 to 16, that displays the same properties?
Can you draw a continuous line through 16 numbers on this grid so that the total of the numbers you pass through is as high as possible?
A game for 2 people. Use your skills of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division to blast the asteroids.
Leah and Tom each have a number line. Can you work out where their counters will land? What are the secret jumps they make with their counters?
Use your logical-thinking skills to deduce how much Dan's crisps and ice-cream cost altogether.
Investigate what happens when you add house numbers along a street in different ways.
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?
These two group activities use mathematical reasoning - one is numerical, one geometric.
You have 5 darts and your target score is 44. How many different ways could you score 44?
What is happening at each box in these machines?
An investigation involving adding and subtracting sets of consecutive numbers. Lots to find out, lots to explore.
Katie had a pack of 20 cards numbered from 1 to 20. She arranged the cards into 6 unequal piles where each pile added to the same total. What was the total and how could this be done?
The value of the circle changes in each of the following problems. Can you discover its value in each problem?
Can you score 100 by throwing rings on this board? Is there more than way to do it?
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?
Find at least one way to put in some operation signs (+ - x ÷) to make these digits come to 100.
Place the digits 1 to 9 into the circles so that each side of the triangle adds to the same total.
Cassandra, David and Lachlan are brothers and sisters. They range in age between 1 year and 14 years. Can you figure out their exact ages from the clues?
On the planet Vuv there are two sorts of creatures. The Zios have 3 legs and the Zepts have 7 legs. The great planetary explorer Nico counted 52 legs. How many Zios and how many Zepts were there?
Write the numbers up to 64 in an interesting way so that the shape they make at the end is interesting, different, more exciting ... than just a square.
Can you substitute numbers for the letters in these sums?
Can you work out how many flowers there will be on the Amazing Splitting Plant after it has been growing for six weeks?
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?
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.