During the third hour after midnight the hands on a clock point in
the same direction (so one hand is over the top of the other). At
what time, to the nearest second, does this happen?
Make your own double-sided magic square. But can you complete both
sides once you've made the pieces?
On Planet Plex, there are only 6 hours in the day. Can you answer
these questions about how Arog the Alien spends his day?
Which times on a digital clock have a line of symmetry? Which look
the same upside-down? You might like to try this investigation and
If you have only four weights, where could you place them in order
to balance this equaliser?
Can you each work out the number on your card? What do you notice?
How could you sort the cards?
This article for teachers suggests ideas for activities built around 10 and 2010.
A lady has a steel rod and a wooden pole and she knows the length
of each. How can she measure out an 8 unit piece of pole?
Mr. Sunshine tells the children they will have 2 hours of homework.
After several calculations, Harry says he hasn't got time to do
this homework. Can you see where his reasoning is wrong?
Investigate the different distances of these car journeys and find
out how long they take.
How could you put eight beanbags in the hoops so that there are
four in the blue hoop, five in the red and six in the yellow? Can
you find all the ways of doing this?
Ahmed is making rods using different numbers of cubes. Which rod is
twice the length of his first rod?
Use the number weights to find different ways of balancing the equaliser.
Where can you draw a line on a clock face so that the numbers on
both sides have the same total?
This problem is based on the story of the Pied Piper of Hamelin. Investigate the different numbers of people and rats there could have been if you know how many legs there are altogether!
Winifred Wytsh bought a box each of jelly babies, milk jelly bears,
yellow jelly bees and jelly belly beans. In how many different ways
could she make a jolly jelly feast with 32 legs?
You have 5 darts and your target score is 44. How many different
ways could you score 44?
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?
Using the cards 2, 4, 6, 8, +, - and =, what number statements can
Can you hang weights in the right place to make the equaliser
This magic square has operations written in it, to make it into a
maze. Start wherever you like, go through every cell and go out a
total of 15!
Can you put plus signs in so this is true? 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 = 99
How many ways can you do it?
On the table there is a pile of oranges and lemons that weighs
exactly one kilogram. Using the information, can you work out how
many lemons there are?
48 is called an abundant number because it is less than the sum of
its factors (without itself). Can you find some more abundant
There are 44 people coming to a dinner party. There are 15 square
tables that seat 4 people. Find a way to seat the 44 people using
all 15 tables, with no empty places.
Find your way through the grid starting at 2 and following these
operations. What number do you end on?
Can you make a cycle of pairs that add to make a square number
using all the numbers in the box below, once and once only?
Well now, what would happen if we lost all the nines in our number
system? Have a go at writing the numbers out in this way and have a
look at the multiplications table.
Investigate what happens when you add house numbers along a street
in different ways.
Find all the numbers that can be made by adding the dots on two dice.
We start with one yellow cube and build around it to make a 3x3x3
cube with red cubes. Then we build around that red cube with blue
cubes and so on. How many cubes of each colour have we used?
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
Arrange eight of the numbers between 1 and 9 in the Polo Square
below so that each side adds to the same total.
Can you find which shapes you need to put into the grid to make the
totals at the end of each row and the bottom of each column?
What happens when you add the digits of a number then multiply the
result by 2 and you keep doing this? You could try for different
numbers and different rules.
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?
This project challenges you to work out the number of cubes hidden
under a cloth. What questions would you like to ask?
If the answer's 2010, what could the question be?
Explore Alex's number plumber. What questions would you like to ask? What do you think is happening to the numbers?
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?
This challenging activity involves finding different ways to distribute fifteen items among four sets, when the sets must include three, four, five and six items.
This challenge extends the Plants investigation so now four or more children are involved.
Can you use the information to find out which cards I have used?
Skippy and Anna are locked in a room in a large castle. The key to that room, and all the other rooms, is a number. The numbers are locked away in a problem. Can you help them to get out?
Choose a symbol to put into the number sentence.
Can you design a new shape for the twenty-eight squares and arrange
the numbers in a logical way? What patterns do you notice?
Use these head, body and leg pieces to make Robot Monsters which
are different heights.
Place the numbers 1 to 10 in the circles so that each number is the
difference between the two numbers just below it.
Zumf makes spectacles for the residents of the planet Zargon, who
have either 3 eyes or 4 eyes. How many lenses will Zumf need to
make all the different orders for 9 families?
Move from the START to the FINISH by moving across or down to the
next square. Can you find a route to make these totals?