Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
Tell your friends that you have a strange calculator that turns numbers backwards. What secret number do you have to enter to make 141 414 turn around?
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?
What is the sum of all the three digit whole numbers?
There are over sixty different ways of making 24 by adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing all four numbers 4, 6, 6 and 8 (using each number only once). How many can you find?
On a calculator, make 15 by using only the 2 key and any of the four operations keys. How many ways can you find to do it?
Fill in the numbers to make the sum of each row, column and diagonal equal to 34. For an extra challenge try the huge American Flag magic square.
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?
Place the digits 1 to 9 into the circles so that each side of the triangle adds to the same total.
Susie took cherries out of a bowl by following a certain pattern. How many cherries had there been in the bowl to start with if she was left with 14 single ones?
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?
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 picture shows a lighthouse and many underwater creatures. If you know the markings on the lighthouse are 1m apart, can you work out the distances between some of the different creatures?
Use the 'double-3 down' dominoes to make a square so that each side has eight dots.
In this problem you have to place four by four magic squares on the faces of a cube so that along each edge of the cube the numbers match.
If each of these three shapes has a value, can you find the totals of the combinations? Perhaps you can use the shapes to make the given totals?
Using 3 rods of integer lengths, none longer than 10 units and not using any rod more than once, you can measure all the lengths in whole units from 1 to 10 units. How many ways can you do this?
Use 4 four times with simple operations so that you get the answer 12. Can you make 15, 16 and 17 too?
Arrange three 1s, three 2s and three 3s in this square so that every row, column and diagonal adds to the same total.
Find the sum of all three-digit numbers each of whose digits is odd.
Fill in the missing numbers so that adding each pair of corner numbers gives you the number between them (in the box).
Find out what a Deca Tree is and then work out how many leaves there will be after the woodcutter has cut off a trunk, a branch, a twig and a leaf.
The clockmaker's wife cut up his birthday cake to look like a clock face. Can you work out who received each piece?
In sheep talk the only letters used are B and A. A sequence of words is formed by following certain rules. What do you notice when you count the letters in each word?
Find another number that is one short of a square number and when you double it and add 1, the result is also a square number.
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?
Max and Mandy put their number lines together to make a graph. How far had each of them moved along and up from 0 to get the counter to the place marked?
Use your logical reasoning to work out how many cows and how many sheep there are in each field.
If the numbers 5, 7 and 4 go into this function machine, what numbers will come out?
Use the information to work out how many gifts there are in each pile.
On the table there is a pile of oranges and lemons that weighs exactly one kilogram. Using the information, can you work out how many lemons there are?
Investigate the different distances of these car journeys and find out how long they take.
Rocco ran in a 200 m race for his class. Use the information to find out how many runners there were in the race and what Rocco's finishing position was.
Look on the back of any modern book and you will find an ISBN code. Take this code and calculate this sum in the way shown. Can you see what the answers always have in common?
Find out why these matrices are magic. Can you work out how they were made? Can you make your own Magic Matrix?
Peter, Melanie, Amil and Jack received a total of 38 chocolate eggs. Use the information to work out how many eggs each person had.
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?
Put operations signs between the numbers 3 4 5 6 to make the highest possible number and lowest possible number.
This group activity will encourage you to share calculation strategies and to think about which strategy might be the most efficient.
Can you follow the rule to decode the messages?
Can you substitute numbers for the letters in these sums?
Can you score 100 by throwing rings on this board? Is there more than way to do it?
The value of the circle changes in each of the following problems. Can you discover its value in each problem?
Vera is shopping at a market with these coins in her purse. Which things could she give exactly the right amount for?
Where can you draw a line on a clock face so that the numbers on both sides have the same total?
What is happening at each box in these machines?
There are three buckets each of which holds a maximum of 5 litres. Use the clues to work out how much liquid there is in each bucket.
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?
Find the next number in this pattern: 3, 7, 19, 55 ...
Put a number at the top of the machine and collect a number at the bottom. What do you get? Which numbers get back to themselves?
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.