Or search by topic
There are 207 NRICH Mathematical resources connected to Practical activity, you may find related items under Physical and digital manipulatives.
Broad Topics > Physical and digital manipulatives > Practical activityGenerate three random numbers to determine the side lengths of a triangle. What triangles can you draw?
A group of children are discussing the height of a tall tree. How would you go about finding out its height?
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?
Watch the video to see how to fold a square of paper to create a flower. What fraction of the piece of paper is the small triangle?
Interior angles can help us to work out which polygons will tessellate. Can we use similar ideas to predict which polygons combine to create semi-regular solids?
If you have ten counters numbered 1 to 10, how many can you put into pairs that add to 10? Which ones do you have to leave out? Why?
Move your counters through this snake of cards and see how far you can go. Are you surprised by where you end up?
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?
This practical activity challenges you to create symmetrical designs by cutting a square into strips.
Here is a chance to create some attractive images by rotating shapes through multiples of 90 degrees, or 30 degrees, or 72 degrees or...
Can you lay out the pictures of the drinks in the way described by the clue cards?
The class were playing a maths game using interlocking cubes. Can you help them record what happened?
The challenge for you is to make a string of six (or more!) graded cubes.
This project challenges you to work out the number of cubes hidden under a cloth. What questions would you like to ask?
Make new patterns from simple turning instructions. You can have a go using pencil and paper or with a floor robot.
Can you each work out what shape you have part of on your card? What will the rest of it look like?
The Tower of Hanoi is an ancient mathematical challenge. Working on the building blocks may help you to explain the patterns you notice.
You have a set of the digits from 0 to 9. Can you arrange these in the five boxes to make two-digit numbers as close to the targets as possible?
Try continuing these patterns made from triangles. Can you create your own repeating pattern?
Ahmed is making rods using different numbers of cubes. Which rod is twice the length of his first rod?
Kaia is sure that her father has worn a particular tie twice a week in at least five of the last ten weeks, but her father disagrees. Who do you think is right?
Can you predict when you'll be clapping and when you'll be clicking if you start this rhythm? How about when a friend begins a new rhythm at the same time?
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?
A game in which players take it in turns to choose a number. Can you block your opponent?
A jigsaw where pieces only go together if the fractions are equivalent.
Delight your friends with this cunning trick! Can you explain how it works?
Using your knowledge of the properties of numbers, can you fill all the squares on the board?
Can you put these shapes in order of size? Start with the smallest.
How can you arrange the 5 cubes so that you need the smallest number of Brush Loads of paint to cover them? Try with other numbers of cubes as well.
The Man is much smaller than us. Can you use the picture of him next to a mug to estimate his height and how much tea he drinks?
This practical problem challenges you to make quadrilaterals with a loop of string. You'll need some friends to help!
Make a chair and table out of interlocking cubes, making sure that the chair fits under the table!
If you split the square into these two pieces, it is possible to fit the pieces together again to make a new shape. How many new shapes can you make?
You have been given three shapes made out of sponge: a sphere, a cylinder and a cone. Your challenge is to find out how to cut them to make different shapes for printing.
Use the lines on this figure to show how the square can be divided into 2 halves, 3 thirds, 6 sixths and 9 ninths.
Where can you put the mirror across the square so that you can still "see" the whole square? How many different positions are possible?
These pictures show squares split into halves. Can you find other ways?
Put the steps of this proof in order to find the formula for the sum of an arithmetic sequence
Imagine you have an unlimited number of four types of triangle. How many different tetrahedra can you make?
What is the greatest number of counters you can place on the grid below without four of them lying at the corners of a square?
The ancient Egyptians were said to make right-angled triangles using a rope with twelve equal sections divided by knots. What other triangles could you make if you had a rope like this?
Can you use small coloured cubes to make a 3 by 3 by 3 cube so that each face of the bigger cube contains one of each colour?
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?
Kimie and Sebastian were making sticks from interlocking cubes and lining them up. Can they make their lines the same length? Can they make any other lines?
Can you split each of the shapes below in half so that the two parts are exactly the same?
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?
What is the greatest number of squares you can make by overlapping three squares?
Let's say you can only use two different lengths - 2 units and 4 units. Using just these 2 lengths as the edges how many different cuboids can you make?