There are 69 results
Broad Topics > Patterns, Sequences and Structure > Describing patterns and sequences
The Numbers Give the Design
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
Make new patterns from simple turning instructions. You can have a go using pencil and paper or with a floor robot.
Times Tables Shifts
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
In this activity, the computer chooses a times table and shifts it. Can you work out the table and the shift each time?
Holes
Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level
I've made some cubes and some cubes with holes in. This challenge invites you to explore the difference in the number of small cubes I've used. Can you see any patterns?
Caterpillars
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
These caterpillars have 16 parts. What different shapes do they make if each part lies in the small squares of a 4 by 4 square?
Cuisenaire Environment
Age 5 to 16
Challenge Level
An environment which simulates working with Cuisenaire rods.
Chairs and Tables
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Make a chair and table out of interlocking cubes, making sure that the chair fits under the table!
Carrying Cards
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
These sixteen children are standing in four lines of four, one behind the other. They are each holding a card with a number on it. Can you work out the missing numbers?
Hundred Square
Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level
A hundred square has been printed on both sides of a piece of paper. What is on the back of 100? 58? 23? 19?
The Tomato and the Bean
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
At the beginning of May Tom put his tomato plant outside. On the same day he sowed a bean in another pot. When will the two be the same height?
Chain of Changes
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Arrange the shapes in a line so that you change either colour or shape in the next piece along. Can you find several ways to start with a blue triangle and end with a red circle?
Sticky Triangles
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
Can you continue this pattern of triangles and begin to predict how many sticks are used for each new "layer"?
Pebbles
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
Place four pebbles on the sand in the form of a square. Keep adding as few pebbles as necessary to double the area. How many extra pebbles are added each time?
Magic Crosses
Age 7 to 14
Challenge Level
Can you find examples of magic crosses? Can you find all the possibilities?
Counting Stick Conjectures
Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level
How many rectangles can you see? Are they all the same size? Can you predict how many rectangles there will be in counting sticks of different lengths?
Bundles of Cubes
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
Watch this animation. What do you notice? What happens when you try more or fewer cubes in a bundle?
Swimming Pool Tiles
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
This activity creates an opportunity to explore all kinds of number-related patterns.
Diagonal in a Spiral
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
Investigate the totals you get when adding numbers on the diagonal of this pattern in threes.
Centred Squares
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
This challenge, written for the Young Mathematicians' Award, invites you to explore 'centred squares'.
More Lower Primary Number Pattern Tasks
Age 5 to 7
Here are some more lower primary number pattern tasks for you to try.
More Number Patterns Upper Primary
Age 7 to 11
These upper primary activities offer opportunities for children to recognise, extend and explain number patterns.
More Number Patterns Lower Primary
Age 5 to 7
These lower primary activities offer opportunities for children to create, recognise and extend number patterns.
Pattern Sniffing
Age 5 to 11
This article for primary teachers outlines how we can encourage children to create, identify, extend and explain number patterns and why being able to do so is useful.
Rods and Rods
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
Using only the red and white rods, how many different ways are there to make up the other colours of rod?
Steps to the Podium
Age 7 to 14
Challenge Level
It starts quite simple but great opportunities for number discoveries and patterns!
Polygonals
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
Polygonal numbers are those that are arranged in shapes as they enlarge. Explore the polygonal numbers drawn here.
Cube Bricks and Daisy Chains
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Daisy and Akram were making number patterns. Daisy was using beads that looked like flowers and Akram was using cube bricks. First they were counting in twos.
Sorting the Numbers
Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level
Complete these two jigsaws then put one on top of the other. What happens when you add the 'touching' numbers? What happens when you change the position of the jigsaws?
So It's 28
Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level
Here is your chance to investigate the number 28 using shapes, cubes ... in fact anything at all.
Birds in the Garden
Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level
This activity asks you to collect information about the birds you see in the garden. Are there patterns in the data or do the birds seem to visit randomly?
Mobile Numbers
Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level
In this investigation, you are challenged to make mobile phone numbers which are easy to remember. What happens if you make a sequence adding 2 each time?
Investigating Pascal's Triangle
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
In this investigation, we look at Pascal's Triangle in a slightly different way - rotated and with the top line of ones taken off.
Street Sequences
Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level
Investigate what happens when you add house numbers along a street in different ways.
Digital Roots
Age 7 to 14
In this article for teachers, Bernard Bagnall describes how to find digital roots and suggests that they can be worth exploring when confronted by a sequence of numbers.
Triangular Hexagons
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
Investigate these hexagons drawn from different sized equilateral triangles.
Tables Without Tens
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
Investigate and explain the patterns that you see from recording just the units digits of numbers in the times tables.
Function Machines
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
If the numbers 5, 7 and 4 go into this function machine, what numbers will come out?
Sets of Four Numbers
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
There are ten children in Becky's group. Can you find a set of numbers for each of them? Are there any other sets?
Unravelling Sequences
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
Can you describe what is happening as this program runs? Can you unpick the steps in the process?
Number Tracks
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
Ben's class were cutting up number tracks. First they cut them into twos and added up the numbers on each piece. What patterns could they see?
All Seated
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
Look carefully at the numbers. What do you notice? Can you make another square using the numbers 1 to 16, that displays the same properties?
Pattern Power
Age 5 to 14
Mathematics is the study of patterns. Studying pattern is an opportunity to observe, hypothesise, experiment, discover and create.
Light Blue - Dark Blue
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
Investigate the successive areas of light blue in these diagrams.
Taking Steps
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
In each of the pictures the invitation is for you to: Count what you see. Identify how you think the pattern would continue.
Beads
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
Three beads are threaded on a circular wire and are coloured either red or blue. Can you find all four different combinations?
Sept03 Sept03 Sept03
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
This number has 903 digits. What is the sum of all 903 digits?
Sets of Numbers
Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level
How many different sets of numbers with at least four members can you find in the numbers in this box?
NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.