Being Resourceful - Primary Teachers

Being Resourceful is part of our Developing Mathematical Mindsets - Primary Teachers collection.

Good thinkers are resourceful and reflective. They think critically and can explain and justify the choices that they make. They become absorbed in what they are doing and show attention to detail. They look back on what they have done in order to learn from both successes and failures.

How do we help our learners to become more resourceful?

These problems require careful consideration. If you allow your learners time to immerse themselves in the problems, they may learn to appreciate that the journey is often as important as the destination.

You can browse through the Number, Measures, Geometry or Statistics collections, or scroll down to see the full set of problems below.

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Being Resourceful - Primary Number

Age

5 to 11

Challenge level

Number problems at primary level that require careful consideration.

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Being Resourceful - Primary Measures

Age

5 to 11

Challenge level

Measure problems at primary level that require careful consideration.

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Being Resourceful - Primary Geometry

Age

5 to 11

Challenge level

Geometry problems at primary level that require careful consideration.

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Being Resourceful - Primary Statistics

Age

5 to 11

Challenge level

Statistics problems at primary level that require careful consideration.

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Favourite

Seeing squares

Age

5 to 11

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.

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Favourite

Ladybird count

Age

5 to 7

Challenge level

Some children were playing a game. Make a graph or picture to show how many ladybirds each child had.

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Favourite

Turning man

Age

5 to 7

Challenge level

Use the interactivity to find out how many quarter turns the man must rotate through to look like each of the pictures.

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Favourite

Repeating patterns

Age

5 to 7

Challenge level

Try continuing these patterns made from triangles. Can you create your own repeating pattern?

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Favourite

Dotty six

Age

5 to 11

Challenge level

Dotty Six is a simple dice game that you can adapt in many ways.

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Favourite

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?

problem

Favourite

The animals' sports day

Age

5 to 7

Challenge level

One day five small animals in my garden were going to have a sports day. They decided to have a swimming race, a running race, a high jump and a long jump.

problem

Favourite

Heads and feet

Age

5 to 7

Challenge level

On a farm there were some hens and sheep. Altogether there were 8 heads and 22 feet. How many hens were there?

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Favourite

Eggs in baskets

Age

5 to 7

Challenge level

There are three baskets, a brown one, a red one and a pink one, holding a total of 10 eggs. How many eggs are in each basket?

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Favourite

Wallpaper

Age

5 to 7

Challenge level

These pieces of wallpaper need to be ordered from smallest to largest. Can you find a way to do it?

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Favourite

The tall tower

Age

5 to 7

Challenge level

As you come down the ladders of the Tall Tower you collect useful spells. Which way should you go to collect the most spells?

problem

Favourite

4 dom

Age

5 to 11

Challenge level

Use these four dominoes to make a square that has the same number of dots on each side.

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Favourite

Satisfying four statements

Age

7 to 11

Challenge level

Can you find any two-digit numbers that satisfy all of these statements?

problem

Favourite

Xavi's t-shirt

Age

7 to 16

Challenge level

How much can you read into a t-shirt?

problem

Favourite

A puzzling cube

Age

7 to 11

Challenge level

Here are the six faces of a cube - in no particular order. Here are three views of the cube. Can you deduce where the faces are in relation to each other and record them on the net of this cube?