As part of the 2026 Cambridge Festival, Liz and Charlie from the NRICH Team offered a couple of workshops. Here are links to the resources they introduced, and to some follow-up resources that teachers might like to use in schools.
The problem that was introduced to 9-11 year-olds was Magic Vs. Charlie and Liz posed the following questions at the end:
- Can you predict what the magic totals will be for magic Vs made using the numbers 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8? And using 5, 6, 7, 8 and 9? And...? How do you know?
- Which five consecutive numbers would a magic V with a magic total of 99 contain? How do you know?
Liz and Charlie also suggested a good follow-up problem, Magic Letters.
Similar problems can be found in our Thinking Mathematically collection. In particular, you might like to take a look at the following:
Less is More
Seeing Squares
Got It
The problem that was introduced to 11-14 year-olds was Summing Consecutive Numbers. Similar problems can be found in our Thinking Mathematically collection.
In particular, you might like to take a look at the following:
Xavi's T-shirt
Fruity Totals
Charlie's Delightful Machine
Factors and Multiples Game
The Number Jumbler
Teachers may be interested in our collections of resources linked to the different areas of the curriculum. The resources have been chosen because they are ideal for developing subject content knowledge as well as mathematical thinking and problem-solving skills:
Primary
Secondary
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