George and Jim want to buy a chocolate bar. George needs 2p more and Jim need 50p more to buy it. How much is the chocolate bar?
Place the numbers 1 to 10 in the circles so that each number is the difference between the two numbers just below it.
What is the smallest number of coins needed to make up 12 dollars and 83 cents?
Ram divided 15 pennies among four small bags. He could then pay any sum of money from 1p to 15p without opening any bag. How many pennies did Ram put in each bag?
Can you put the numbers 1 to 8 into the circles so that the four calculations are correct?
Place six toy ladybirds into the box so that there are two ladybirds in every column and every row.
First Connect Three game for an adult and child. Use the dice numbers and either addition or subtraction to get three numbers in a straight line.
Only one side of a two-slice toaster is working. What is the quickest way to toast both sides of three slices of bread?
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?
Can you find all the ways to get 15 at the top of this triangle of numbers? Many opportunities to work in different ways.
How many ways can you find to do up all four buttons on my coat? How about if I had five buttons? Six ...?
There are nine teddies in Teddy Town - three red, three blue and three yellow. There are also nine houses, three of each colour. Can you put them on the map of Teddy Town according to the rules?
Can you shunt the trucks so that the Cattle truck and the Sheep truck change places and the Engine is back on the main line?
10 space travellers are waiting to board their spaceships. There are two rows of seats in the waiting room. Using the rules, where are they all sitting? Can you find all the possible ways?
Investigate the different numbers of people and rats there could have been if you know how many legs there are altogether!
Swap the stars with the moons, using only knights' moves (as on a chess board). What is the smallest number of moves possible?
On a digital 24 hour clock, at certain times, all the digits are consecutive. How many times like this are there between midnight and 7 a.m.?
Sitting around a table are three girls and three boys. Use the clues to work out were each person is sitting.
Seven friends went to a fun fair with lots of scary rides. They decided to pair up for rides until each friend had ridden once with each of the others. What was the total number rides?
What is the best way to shunt these carriages so that each train can continue its journey?
Six friends sat around a circular table. Can you work out from the information who sat where and what their profession were?
These activities lend themselves to systematic working in the sense that it helps to have an ordered approach.
The Zargoes use almost the same alphabet as English. What does this birthday message say?
Sweets are given out to party-goers in a particular way. Investigate the total number of sweets received by people sitting in different positions.
What is the smallest number of jumps needed before the white rabbits and the grey rabbits can continue along their path?
Lolla bought a balloon at the circus. She gave the clown six coins to pay for it. What could Lolla have paid for the balloon?
Make a pair of cubes that can be moved to show all the days of the month from the 1st to the 31st.
Can you create jigsaw pieces which are based on a square shape, with at least one peg and one hole?
You have 4 red and 5 blue counters. How many ways can they be placed on a 3 by 3 grid so that all the rows columns and diagonals have an even number of red counters?
Tim's class collected data about all their pets. Can you put the animal names under each column in the block graph using the information?
On a digital clock showing 24 hour time, over a whole day, how many times does a 5 appear? Is it the same number for a 12 hour clock over a whole day?
When intergalactic Wag Worms are born they look just like a cube. Each year they grow another cube in any direction. Find all the shapes that five-year-old Wag Worms can be.
Is it possible to place 2 counters on the 3 by 3 grid so that there is an even number of counters in every row and every column? How about if you have 3 counters or 4 counters or....?
These activities focus on finding all possible solutions so working in a systematic way will ensure none are left out.
Using all ten cards from 0 to 9, rearrange them to make five prime numbers. Can you find any other ways of doing it?
Place the numbers 1 to 8 in the circles so that no consecutive numbers are joined by a line.
Try out the lottery that is played in a far-away land. What is the chance of winning?
There are 4 jugs which hold 9 litres, 7 litres, 4 litres and 2 litres. Find a way to pour 9 litres of drink from one jug to another until you are left with exactly 3 litres in three of the jugs.
These activities lend themselves to systematic working in the sense that it helps if you have an ordered approach.
Nina must cook some pasta for 15 minutes but she only has a 7-minute sand-timer and an 11-minute sand-timer. How can she use these timers to measure exactly 15 minutes?
Stuart's watch loses two minutes every hour. Adam's watch gains one minute every hour. Use the information to work out what time (the real time) they arrived at the airport.
A merchant brings four bars of gold to a jeweller. How can the jeweller use the scales just twice to identify the lighter, fake bar?
Can you put the numbers from 1 to 15 on the circles so that no consecutive numbers lie anywhere along a continuous straight line?
This problem is based on a code using two different prime numbers less than 10. You'll need to multiply them together and shift the alphabet forwards by the result. Can you decipher the code?
How could you put these three beads into bags? How many different ways can you do it? How could you record what you've done?
How will you go about finding all the jigsaw pieces that have one peg and one hole?
Can you rearrange the biscuits on the plates so that the three biscuits on each plate are all different and there is no plate with two biscuits the same as two biscuits on another plate?
Ben has five coins in his pocket. How much money might he have?
Can you fill in this table square? The numbers 2 -12 were used to generate it with just one number used twice.
Can you work out the arrangement of the digits in the square so that the given products are correct? The numbers 1 - 9 may be used once and once only.