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For younger learners

  • Early Years Foundation Stage

More Number Patterns Upper Primary

These activities for upper primary children provide opportunities to recognise, extend and explain number patterns.  They supplement the tasks in our Number Patterns feature.

Ip Dip

Age 5 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star

"Ip dip sky blue! Who's 'it'? It's you!" Where would you position yourself so that you are 'it' if there are two players? Three players ...?

Tables Without Tens

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star

Investigate and explain the patterns that you see from recording just the units digits of numbers in the times tables.

Magic Vs

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star

Can you put the numbers 1-5 in the V shape so that both 'arms' have the same total?

Number Differences

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star

Place the numbers from 1 to 9 in the squares below so that the difference between joined squares is odd. How many different ways can you do this?

Up and Down Staircases

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow star

One block is needed to make an up-and-down staircase, with one step up and one step down. How many blocks would be needed to build an up-and-down staircase with 5 steps up and 5 steps down?

Light the Lights Again

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow star

Each light in this interactivity turns on according to a rule. What happens when you enter different numbers? Can you find the smallest number that lights up all four lights?

Sticky Triangles

Age 7 to 11
Challenge Level Yellow starYellow starYellow star

Can you continue this pattern of triangles and begin to predict how many sticks are used for each new "layer"?

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Counter Ideas

Here are some ideas to try in the classroom for using counters to investigate number patterns.

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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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