Matching Triangles
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Can you sort these triangles into three different families and explain how you did it?
Inside Triangles
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
How many different triangles can you draw on the dotty grid which each have one dot in the middle?
Board Block
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Take it in turns to make a triangle on the pegboard. Can you block your opponent?
Repeating Patterns
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Try continuing these patterns made from triangles. Can you create your own repeating pattern?
Chairs and Tables
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Make a chair and table out of interlocking cubes, making sure that the chair fits under the table!
Let's Investigate Triangles
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Vincent and Tara are making triangles with the class construction set. They have a pile of strips of different lengths. How many different triangles can they make?
Opening Patterns
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Look at some of the patterns in the Olympic Opening ceremonies and see what shapes you can spot.
Curve Spotting
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Can you spot circles, spirals and other types of curves in these photos?
Exploded Squares
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
This practical activity challenges you to create symmetrical designs by cutting a square into strips.
Shapely Lines
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
This challenge invites you to create your own picture using just straight lines. Can you identify shapes with the same number of sides and decorate them in the same way?
Data Shapes
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Sara and Will were sorting some pictures of shapes on cards. "I'll collect the circles," said Sara. "I'll take the red ones," answered Will. Can you see any cards they would both want?
What's Happening?
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Shapes are added to other shapes. Can you see what is happening? What is the rule?
A City of Towers
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
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?
Building with Solid Shapes
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
We have a box of cubes, triangular prisms, cones, cuboids, cylinders and tetrahedrons. Which of the buildings would fall down if we tried to make them?
Making Shapes
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Arrange any number of counters from these 18 on the grid to make a rectangle. What numbers of counters make rectangles? How many different rectangles can you make with each number of counters?
Skeleton Shapes
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
How many balls of modelling clay and how many straws does it take to make these skeleton shapes?
Colouring Triangles
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Explore ways of colouring this set of triangles. Can you make symmetrical patterns?
Building with Cubes
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Try to picture these buildings of cubes in your head. Can you make them to check whether you had imagined them correctly?
Chain of Changes
Age 5 to 7
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?
Shadow Play
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Here are shadows of some 3D shapes. What shapes could have made them?
Complete the Square
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Complete the squares - but be warned some are trickier than they look!
Start Cube Drilling
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Imagine a 3 by 3 by 3 cube. If you and a friend drill holes in some of the small cubes in the ways described, how many will have holes drilled through them?
Happy Halving
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Can you split each of the shapes below in half so that the two parts are exactly the same?
Sorting Logic Blocks
Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level
This activity focuses on similarities and differences between shapes.
Poly Plug Rectangles
Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level
The computer has made a rectangle and will tell you the number of spots it uses in total. Can you find out where the rectangle is?
Rolling That Cube
Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level
My dice has inky marks on each face. Can you find the route it has taken? What does each face look like?
Shaping It
Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level
These pictures were made by starting with a square, finding the half-way point on each side and joining those points up. You could investigate your own starting shape.
Triple Cubes
Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level
This challenge involves eight three-cube models made from interlocking cubes. Investigate different ways of putting the models together then compare your constructions.
Four Colours
Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level
Kate has eight multilink cubes. She has two red ones, two yellow, two green and two blue. She wants to fit them together to make a cube so that each colour shows on each face just once.
Cubes
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
How many faces can you see when you arrange these three cubes in different ways?
Square It
Age 11 to 16
Challenge Level
Players take it in turns to choose a dot on the grid. The winner is the first to have four dots that can be joined to form a square.
NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.