Filter by: Content type: ALL Problems Articles Games Stage: All Stage 1&2 Stage 2&3 Stage 3&4 Stage 4&5 Challenge level:
Start by putting one million (1 000 000) into the display of your calculator. Can you reduce this to 7 using just the 7 key and add, subtract, multiply, divide and equals as many times as you like?
Can you substitute numbers for the letters in these sums?
Who said that adding couldn't be fun?
This 100 square jigsaw is written in code. It starts with 1 and ends with 100. Can you build it up?
What do the digits in the number fifteen add up to? How many other numbers have digits with the same total but no zeros?
A game to be played against the computer, or in groups. Pick a 7-digit number. A random digit is generated. What must you subract to remove the digit from your number? the first to zero wins.
Some Games That May Be Nice or Nasty for an adult and child. Use your knowledge of place value to beat your opponent.
Number problems at primary level that require careful consideration.
The letters in the following addition sum represent the digits 1 ... 9. If A=3 and D=2, what number is represented by "CAYLEY"?
Can you replace the letters with numbers? Is there only one solution in each case?
This multiplication uses each of the digits 0 - 9 once and once only. Using the information given, can you replace the stars in the calculation with figures?
Which is quicker, counting up to 30 in ones or counting up to 300 in tens? Why?
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.
Find the sum of all three-digit numbers each of whose digits is odd.
You have two sets of the digits 0 – 9. Can you arrange these in the five boxes to make four-digit numbers as close to the target numbers as possible?
Dicey Operations for an adult and child. Can you get close to 1000 than your partner?
Find the values of the nine letters in the sum: FOOT + BALL = GAME
In the multiplication calculation, some of the digits have been replaced by letters and others by asterisks. Can you reconstruct the original multiplication?
What happens when you round these three-digit numbers to the nearest 100?
In this 100 square, look at the green square which contains the numbers 2, 3, 12 and 13. What is the sum of the numbers that are diagonally opposite each other? What do you notice?
Each child in Class 3 took four numbers out of the bag. Who had made the highest even number?
Have a go at balancing this equation. Can you find different ways of doing it?
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.
There are six numbers written in five different scripts. Can you sort out which is which?
This activity involves rounding four-digit numbers to the nearest thousand.
Use two dice to generate two numbers with one decimal place. What happens when you round these numbers to the nearest whole number?
Can you complete this calculation by filling in the missing numbers? In how many different ways can you do it?
Number problems for inquiring primary learners.
Four of these clues are needed to find the chosen number on this grid and four are true but do nothing to help in finding the number. Can you sort out the clues and find the number?
There are nasty versions of this dice game but we'll start with the nice ones...
Number problems at primary level to work on with others.
Becky created a number plumber which multiplies by 5 and subtracts 4. What do you notice about the numbers that it produces? Can you explain your findings?
A school song book contains 700 songs. The numbers of the songs are displayed by combining special small single-digit boards. What is the minimum number of small boards that is needed?
This is a game in which your counters move in a spiral round the snail's shell. It is about understanding tens and units.
Number problems at primary level that may require determination.
Can you work out some different ways to balance this equation?
Can you arrange the digits 1,2,3,4,5,6,7,8,9 into three 3-digit numbers such that their total is close to 1500?
How many solutions can you find to this sum? Each of the different letters stands for a different number.
Investigate the different ways these aliens count in this challenge. You could start by thinking about how each of them would write our number 7.
Follow the clues to find the mystery number.
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?
This addition sum uses all ten digits 0, 1, 2...9 exactly once. Find the sum and show that the one you give is the only possibility.
Replace each letter with a digit to make this addition correct.
Exploring the structure of a number square: how quickly can you put the number tiles in the right place on the grid?
What happens when you round these numbers to the nearest whole number?
A church hymn book contains 700 hymns. The numbers of the hymns are displayed by combining special small single-digit boards. What is the minimum number of small boards that is needed?
What is the sum of all the digits in all the integers from one to one million?
Choose any 3 digits and make a 6 digit number by repeating the 3 digits in the same order (e.g. 594594). Explain why whatever digits you choose the number will always be divisible by 7, 11 and 13.
When the number x 1 x x x is multiplied by 417 this gives the answer 9 x x x 0 5 7. Find the missing digits, each of which is represented by an "x" .
Amazing as it may seem the three fives remaining in the following `skeleton' are sufficient to reconstruct the entire long division sum.