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For younger learners

  • Early Years Foundation Stage

Visualising at KS1

Young children are often good at imagining - in these tasks we ask them to use their imaginations in a mathematical way.

This collection is one of our Primary Curriculum collections - tasks that are grouped by topic.

Cover the Camel

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level Yellow star

Can you cover the camel with these pieces?

Paper Patchwork 1

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level Yellow star

Can you work out what shape is made when this piece of paper is folded up using the crease pattern shown?

Paper Partners

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level Yellow star

Can you describe a piece of paper clearly enough for your partner to know which piece it is?

Skeleton Shapes

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

How many balls of modelling clay and how many straws does it take to make these skeleton shapes?

Overlaps

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

What does the overlap of these two shapes look like? Try picturing it in your head and then use some cut-out shapes to test your prediction.

Shadow Play

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star

Here are shadows of some 3D shapes. What shapes could have made them?

Happy Halving

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star

Can you split each of the shapes below in half so that the two parts are exactly the same?

Cubes Cut Into Four Pieces

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star

Eight children each had a cube made from modelling clay. They cut them into four pieces which were all exactly the same shape and size. Whose pieces are the same? Can you decide who made each set?

How Many?

Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star

Have a look at these photos of different fruit. How many do you see? How did you count?

Seeing Squares

Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star

Players take it in turns to choose a dot on the grid. The winner is the first to have four dots that can be joined to form a square.

Holes

Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star

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?

How Would We Count?

Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star

An activity centred around observations of dots and how we visualise number arrangement patterns.

Hundred Square

Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

A hundred square has been printed on both sides of a piece of paper. What is on the back of 100? 58? 23? 19?

Arranging Cubes

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

A task which depends on members of the group working collaboratively to reach a single goal.

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The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice.

NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.

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