KS3 Roadshow
Two Stones
This game is known as Pong hau k'i in China and Ou-moul-ko-no in Korea. Find a friend to play or try the interactive version online.
Matching Fractions, Decimals and Percentages
Can you match pairs of fractions, decimals and percentages, and beat your previous scores?
More Less Is MoreLive
In each of these games, you will need a little bit of luck, and your knowledge of place value to develop a winning strategy.
Twinkle Twinkle
A game for 2 people. Take turns placing a counter on the star. You win when you have completed a line of 3 in your colour.
Got It
A game for two people, or play online. Given a target number, say 23, and a range of numbers to choose from, say 1-4, players take it in turns to add to the running total to hit their target.
Remainders
I'm thinking of a number. My number is both a multiple of 5 and a multiple of 6. What could my number be?
Fifteen
Can you spot the similarities between this game and other games you know? The aim is to choose 3 numbers that total 15.
Number Sandwiches
Can you arrange the digits 1, 1, 2, 2, 3 and 3 to make a Number Sandwich?
Tea Cups
Place the 16 different combinations of cup/saucer in this 4 by 4 arrangement so that no row or column contains more than one cup or saucer of the same colour.
Factors and Multiples Game
A game in which players take it in turns to choose a number. Can you block your opponent?
Pentanim
A game for 2 players with similarities to NIM. Place one counter on each spot on the games board. Players take it is turns to remove 1 or 2 adjacent counters. The winner picks up the last counter.
Low Go
A game for 2 players. Take turns to place a counter so that it occupies one of the lowest possible positions in the grid. The first player to complete a line of 4 wins.
Colour in the Square
Can you put the 25 coloured tiles into the 5 x 5 square so that no column, no row and no diagonal line have tiles of the same colour in them?
Prime Magic
Place the numbers 1, 2, 3,..., 9 one on each square of a 3 by 3 grid so that all the rows and columns add up to a prime number. How many different solutions can you find?
Dominoes
Everthing you have always wanted to do with dominoes! Some of these games are good for practising your mental calculation skills, and some are good for your reasoning skills.
Domino Magic Rectangle
An ordinary set of dominoes can be laid out as a 7 by 4 magic rectangle in which all the spots in all the columns add to 24, while those in the rows add to 42. Try it! Now try the magic square...
Eight Dominoes
Using the 8 dominoes make a square where each of the columns and rows adds up to 8
Air Nets
Can you visualise whether these nets fold up into 3D shapes? Watch the videos each time to see if you were correct.
Guess my Quad
How many questions do you need to identify my quadrilateral?
Sticky Numbers
Can you arrange the numbers 1 to 17 in a row so that each adjacent pair adds up to a square number?
Shady Symmetry
How many different symmetrical shapes can you make by shading triangles or squares?
Olympic Records
Can you deduce which Olympic athletics events are represented by the graphs?
Factors and Multiples Puzzle
Using your knowledge of the properties of numbers, can you fill all the squares on the board?
Gabriel's Problem
Gabriel multiplied together some numbers and then erased them. Can you figure out where each number was?
Dicey Operations
Who said that adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing couldn't be fun?
Consecutive Seven
Can you arrange these numbers into 7 subsets, each of three numbers, so that when the numbers in each are added together, they make seven consecutive numbers?
Add to 200
By selecting digits for an addition grid, what targets can you make?
Special Numbers
My two digit number is special because adding the sum of its digits to the product of its digits gives me my original number. What could my number be?
Odds, Evens and More Evens
Alison, Bernard and Charlie have been exploring sequences of odd and even numbers, which raise some intriguing questions...
Fractions Jigsaw
A jigsaw where pieces only go together if the fractions are equivalent.
Forwards Add Backwards
What happens when you add a three digit number to its reverse?
Magic Letters
Charlie has made a Magic V. Can you use his example to make some more? And how about Magic Ls, Ns and Ws?
Reflecting Squarely
In how many ways can you fit all three pieces together to make shapes with line symmetry?
American Billions
Play the divisibility game to create numbers in which the first two digits make a number divisible by 2, the first three digits make a number divisible by 3...
Olympic Measures
These Olympic quantities have been jumbled up! Can you put them back together again?
Sociable Cards
Move your counters through this snake of cards and see how far you can go. Are you surprised by where you end up?
Can They Be Equal?
Can you find rectangles where the value of the area is the same as the value of the perimeter?
Cinema Problem
A cinema has 100 seats. Show how it is possible to sell exactly 100 tickets and take exactly £100 if the prices are £10 for adults, 50p for pensioners and 10p for children.
Substitution Cipher
Find the frequency distribution for ordinary English, and use it to help you crack the code.
Colourful Cube
A colourful cube is made from little red and yellow cubes. But can you work out how many of each?
Frogs
How many moves does it take to swap over some red and blue frogs? Do you have a method?
Multiples Sudoku
Each clue in this Sudoku is the product of the two numbers in adjacent cells.
Cayley
The letters in the following addition sum represent the digits 1 ... 9. If A=3 and D=2, what number is represented by "CAYLEY"?
What Numbers Can We Make?
Imagine we have four bags containing a large number of 1s, 4s, 7s and 10s. What numbers can we make?
1 Step 2 Step
Liam's house has a staircase with 12 steps. He can go down the steps one at a time or two at time. In how many different ways can Liam go down the 12 steps?
3388
Using some or all of the operations of addition, subtraction, multiplication and division and using the digits 3, 3, 8 and 8 each once and only once make an expression equal to 24.
Making Rectangles, Making Squares
How many differently shaped rectangles can you build using these equilateral and isosceles triangles? Can you make a square?
Tower of Hanoi
The Tower of Hanoi is an ancient mathematical challenge. Working on the building blocks may help you to explain the patterns you notice.
Stars
Can you work out what step size to take to ensure you visit all the dots on the circle?
Zin Obelisk
In the ancient city of Atlantis a solid rectangular object called a Zin was built in honour of the goddess Tina. Your task is to determine on which day of the week the obelisk was completed.
Peaches Today, Peaches Tomorrow...
A monkey with peaches, keeps a fraction of them each day, gives the rest away, and then eats one. How long can his peaches last?
Always a Multiple?
Think of a two digit number, reverse the digits, and add the numbers together. Something special happens...
Squares in Rectangles
A 2 by 3 rectangle contains 8 squares and a 3 by 4 rectangle contains 20 squares. What size rectangle(s) contain(s) exactly 100 squares? Can you find them all?
Overlaps
Can you find ways to put numbers in the overlaps so the rings have equal totals?
Route to Infinity
Can you describe this route to infinity? Where will the arrows take you next?
Bow Tie
Show how this pentagonal tile can be used to tile the plane and describe the transformations which map this pentagon to its images in the tiling.
Fibonacci Surprises
Play around with the Fibonacci sequence and discover some surprising results!
Where Can We Visit?
Charlie and Abi put a counter on 42. They wondered if they could visit all the other numbers on their 1-100 board, moving the counter using just these two operations: x2 and -5. What do you think?
Temperature
Is there a temperature at which Celsius and Fahrenheit readings are the same?
Opposite Vertices
Can you recreate squares and rhombuses if you are only given a side or a diagonal?
Soma - So Good
Can you mentally fit the 7 SOMA pieces together to make a cube? Can you do it in more than one way?
Tourism
If you can copy a network without lifting your pen off the paper and without drawing any line twice, then it is traversable. Decide which of these diagrams are traversable.
Domino Tetrads
Is it possible to use all 28 dominoes arranging them in squares of four? What patterns can you see in the solution(s)?
Cuboids
Can you find a cuboid that has a surface area of exactly 100 square units. Is there more than one? Can you find them all?
Getting Round the City
In a city with a grid system of roads, how do you get from A to B?
Take Ten Sticks
Take ten sticks in heaps any way you like. Make a new heap using one from each of the heaps. By repeating that process could the arrangement 7 - 1 - 1 - 1 ever turn up, except by starting with it?
What's it Worth?
There are lots of different methods to find out what the shapes are worth - how many can you find?
Square It
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.
Marbles in a Box
How many winning lines can you make in a three-dimensional version of noughts and crosses?
Connect Three
In this game the winner is the first to complete a row of three. Are some squares easier to land on than others?
Who's Who?
Can you solve the clues to find out who's who on the friendship graph?
Product Sudoku
The clues for this Sudoku are the product of the numbers in adjacent squares.
Take Three from Five
Caroline and James pick sets of five numbers. Charlie tries to find three that add together to make a multiple of three. Can they stop him?
Nine Colours
Can you use small coloured cubes to make a 3 by 3 by 3 cube so that each face of the bigger cube contains one of each colour?
Two and Two
How many solutions can you find to this sum? Each of the different letters stands for a different number.
Times Right
Using the digits 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 8, mulitply a two two digit numbers are multiplied to give a four digit number, so that the expression is correct. How many different solutions can you find?
One, Three, Five, Seven
A game for 2 players. Set out 16 counters in rows of 1,3,5 and 7. Players take turns to remove any number of counters from a row. The player left with the last counter looses.
Last Biscuit
Can you find a strategy that ensures you get to take the last biscuit in this game?
Crossing the Bridge
Four friends must cross a bridge. How can they all cross it in just 17 minutes?
Instant Insanity
Given the nets of 4 cubes with the faces coloured in 4 colours, build a tower so that on each vertical wall no colour is repeated, that is all 4 colours appear.