The tasks in this feature are all about practising times tables, but with a difference... All too often, we are given a question and asked to work out the answer. By turning this around and starting from the answer, as these problems do, we hope you will be more curious to explore and make connections.
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Tables Teaser
How will you work out which numbers have been used to create this multiplication square?
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Starfish Spotting
How many starfish could there be on the beach, and how many children, if I can see 28 arms?
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Multiplication Square Jigsaw
Can you complete this jigsaw of the multiplication square?
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Shape Times Shape
These eleven shapes each stand for a different number. Can you use the number sentences to work out what they are?
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Missing Multipliers
What is the smallest number of answers you need to reveal in order to work out the missing headers?
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Looking at Lego
This task offers an opportunity to explore all sorts of number relationships, but particularly multiplication.
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Ducking and Dividing
Your vessel, the Starship Diophantus, has become damaged in deep space. Can you use your knowledge of times tables and some lightning reflexes to survive?
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Mystery Matrix
Can you fill in this table square? The numbers 2 -12 were used to generate it with just one number used twice.
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Catrina's Cards
How would you find out how many football cards Catrina has collected?
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Clapping Times
If you count from 1 to 20 and clap more loudly on the numbers in the two times table, as well as saying those numbers loudly, which numbers will be loud?
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Lots of Lollies
Frances and Rishi were given a bag of lollies. They shared them out evenly and had one left over. How many lollies could there have been in the bag?
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Zios and Zepts
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?
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Factor Lines
Arrange the four number cards on the grid, according to the rules, to make a diagonal, vertical or horizontal line.
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Multiples Grid
What do the numbers shaded in blue on this hundred square have in common? What do you notice about the pink numbers? How about the shaded numbers in the other squares?
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Factor-Multiple Chains
Can you see how these factor-multiple chains work? Find the chain which contains the smallest possible numbers. How about the largest possible numbers?
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Table patterns go wild!
Nearly all of us have made table patterns on hundred squares, that is 10 by 10 grids. This problem looks at the patterns on differently sized square grids.