Other tags that relate to Penta Place
Interactivities. Interlocking cubes. Working systematically. Addition & subtraction. Visualising. Practical Activity. Investigations. Tessellations. Multiplication & division. Combinations.There are 339 results
Broad Topics > Using, Applying and Reasoning about Mathematics > Working systematically
Penta Place
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Penta people, the Pentominoes, always build their houses from five square rooms. I wonder how many different Penta homes you can create?
How Many Times?
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
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.?
Home City
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Use the clues to work out which cities Mohamed, Sheng, Tanya and Bharat live in.
Family Tree
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Use the clues to find out who's who in the family, to fill in the family tree and to find out which of the family members are mathematicians and which are not.
Elf Suits
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
If these elves wear a different outfit every day for as many days as possible, how many days can their fun last?
Encouraging Primary Children to Work Systematically
Age 3 to 11
This article for primary teachers suggests ways in which to help children become better at working systematically.
This Pied Piper of Hamelin
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Investigate the different numbers of people and rats there could have been if you know how many legs there are altogether!
Seating Arrangements
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Sitting around a table are three girls and three boys. Use the clues to work out were each person is sitting.
Finding All Possibilities Upper Primary
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
These activities focus on finding all possible solutions so if you work in a systematic way, you won't leave any out.
Tetrafit
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
A tetromino is made up of four squares joined edge to edge. Can this tetromino, together with 15 copies of itself, be used to cover an eight by eight chessboard?
Finding All Possibilities Upper Primary
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
These activities focus on finding all possible solutions so working in a systematic way will ensure none are left out.
Stairs
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
This challenge is to design different step arrangements, which must go along a distance of 6 on the steps and must end up at 6 high.
Folded Number Line
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
When I fold a 0-20 number line, I end up with 'stacks' of numbers on top of each other. These challenges involve varying the length of the number line and investigating the 'stack totals'.
The Third Dimension
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
Here are four cubes joined together. How many other arrangements of four cubes can you find? Can you draw them on dotty paper?
Pasta Timing
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
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?
Professional Circles
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Six friends sat around a circular table. Can you work out from the information who sat where and what their profession were?
Ordered Ways of Working Upper Primary
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
These activities lend themselves to systematic working in the sense that it helps if you have an ordered approach.
Four Colours
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
Kate has eight multilink cubes. She has two red ones, two yellow, two green and two blue. She wants to fit them together to make a cube so that each colour shows on each face just once.
Cubes Here and There
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
How many shapes can you build from three red and two green cubes? Can you use what you've found out to predict the number for four red and two green?
Painting Possibilities
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
This task, written for the National Young Mathematicians' Award 2016, involves open-topped boxes made with interlocking cubes. Explore the number of units of paint that are needed to cover the boxes. . . .
Creating Cubes
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Arrange 9 red cubes, 9 blue cubes and 9 yellow cubes into a large 3 by 3 cube. No row or column of cubes must contain two cubes of the same colour.
Possible Pieces
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
Can you create jigsaw pieces which are based on a square shape, with at least one peg and one hole?
Bunny Hop
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
What is the smallest number of jumps needed before the white rabbits and the grey rabbits can continue along their path?
Wag Worms
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
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.
Crack the Code
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
The Zargoes use almost the same alphabet as English. What does this birthday message say?
Team Scream
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
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?
Two on Five
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
Take 5 cubes of one colour and 2 of another colour. How many different ways can you join them if the 5 must touch the table and the 2 must not touch the table?
Ordered Ways of Working Upper Primary
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
These activities lend themselves to systematic working in the sense that it helps to have an ordered approach.
Train Carriages
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
Suppose there is a train with 24 carriages which are going to be put together to make up some new trains. Can you find all the ways that this can be done?
Calendar Cubes
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Make a pair of cubes that can be moved to show all the days of the month from the 1st to the 31st.
Ancient Runes
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
The Vikings communicated in writing by making simple scratches on wood or stones called runes. Can you work out how their code works using the table of the alphabet?
Fake Gold
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
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?
Whose Face?
Age 5 to 11 Challenge Level:
These are the faces of Will, Lil, Bill, Phil and Jill. Use the clues to work out which name goes with each face.
Two by One
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
An activity making various patterns with 2 x 1 rectangular tiles.
Multilink Cubes
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
If you had 36 cubes, what different cuboids could you make?
New House
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
In this investigation, you must try to make houses using cubes. If the base must not spill over 4 squares and you have 7 cubes which stand for 7 rooms, what different designs can you come up with?
Buying a Balloon
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
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?
Dodecamagic
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Here you see the front and back views of a dodecahedron. Each vertex has been numbered so that the numbers around each pentagonal face add up to 65. Can you find all the missing numbers?
Calcunos
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
If we had 16 light bars which digital numbers could we make? How will you know you've found them all?
Brush Loads
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
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.
A Square of Numbers
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Can you put the numbers 1 to 8 into the circles so that the four calculations are correct?
Palindromic Date
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
What is the date in February 2002 where the 8 digits are palindromic if the date is written in the British way?
Map Folding
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Take a rectangle of paper and fold it in half, and half again, to make four smaller rectangles. How many different ways can you fold it up?
The Moons of Vuvv
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
The planet of Vuvv has seven moons. Can you work out how long it is between each super-eclipse?
Is a Square a Rectangle?
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
How many rectangles can you find in this shape? Which ones are differently sized and which are 'similar'?
Plates of Biscuits
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
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?
Two Egg Timers
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
You have two egg timers. One takes 4 minutes exactly to empty and the other takes 7 minutes. What times in whole minutes can you measure and how?
Multiplication Squares
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
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.
Multiples Grid
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
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?
Difference
Age 7 to 11 Challenge Level:
Place the numbers 1 to 10 in the circles so that each number is the difference between the two numbers just below it.
NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.