Are these statements always true, sometimes true or never true?
Use your logical reasoning to work out how many cows and how many sheep there are in each field.
Bernard Bagnall recommends some primary school problems which use numbers from the environment around us, from clocks to house numbers.
Number problems at primary level to work on with others.
Can you design a new shape for the twenty-eight squares and arrange the numbers in a logical way? What patterns do you notice?
Number problems at primary level that require careful consideration.
Exactly 195 digits have been used to number the pages in a book. How many pages does the book have?
Peter, Melanie, Amil and Jack received a total of 38 chocolate eggs. Use the information to work out how many eggs each person had.
Number problems at primary level that may require determination.
Find the next number in this pattern: 3, 7, 19, 55 ...
What do the digits in the number fifteen add up to? How many other numbers have digits with the same total but no zeros?
What is the sum of all the three digit whole numbers?
Here are the prices for 1st and 2nd class mail within the UK. You have an unlimited number of each of these stamps. Which stamps would you need to post a parcel weighing 825g?
How would you count the number of fingers in these pictures?
In a square in which the houses are evenly spaced, numbers 3 and 10 are opposite each other. What is the smallest and what is the largest possible number of houses in the square?
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.
If the answer's 2010, what could the question be?
Put operations signs between the numbers 3 4 5 6 to make the highest possible number and lowest possible number.
Who said that adding couldn't be fun?
This article gives you a few ideas for understanding the Got It! game and how you might find a winning strategy.
The clockmaker's wife cut up his birthday cake to look like a clock face. Can you work out who received each piece?
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?
Use 4 four times with simple operations so that you get the answer 12. Can you make 15, 16 and 17 too?
If the numbers 5, 7 and 4 go into this function machine, what numbers will come out?
Annie cut this numbered cake into 3 pieces with 3 cuts so that the numbers on each piece added to the same total. Where were the cuts and what fraction of the whole cake was each piece?
Find out what a Deca Tree is and then work out how many leaves there will be after the woodcutter has cut off a trunk, a branch, a twig and a leaf.
Rocco ran in a 200 m race for his class. Use the information to find out how many runners there were in the race and what Rocco's finishing position was.
Amy has a box containing domino pieces but she does not think it is a complete set. She has 24 dominoes in her box and there are 125 spots on them altogether. Which of her domino pieces are missing?
Fill in the numbers to make the sum of each row, column and diagonal equal to 34. For an extra challenge try the huge American Flag magic square.
On a calculator, make 15 by using only the 2 key and any of the four operations keys. How many ways can you find to do it?
Fill in the missing numbers so that adding each pair of corner numbers gives you the number between them (in the box).
There are three buckets each of which holds a maximum of 5 litres. Use the clues to work out how much liquid there is in each bucket.
In this game, you can add, subtract, multiply or divide the numbers on the dice. Which will you do so that you get to the end of the number line first?
Try adding together the dates of all the days in one week. Now multiply the first date by 7 and add 21. Can you explain what happens?
There are over sixty different ways of making 24 by adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing all four numbers 4, 6, 6 and 8 (using each number only once). How many can you find?
Use the information to work out how many gifts there are in each pile.
Dotty Six game for an adult and child. Will you be the first to have three sixes in a straight line?
Can you each work out the number on your card? What do you notice? How could you sort the cards?
Can you follow the rule to decode the messages?
On the planet Vuv there are two sorts of creatures. The Zios have 3 legs and the Zepts have 7 legs. The great planetary explorer Nico counted 52 legs. How many Zios and how many Zepts were there?
Dotty Six is a simple dice game that you can adapt in many ways.
Can you score 100 by throwing rings on this board? Is there more than way to do it?
The value of the circle changes in each of the following problems. Can you discover its value in each problem?
What is happening at each box in these machines?
Use the 'double-3 down' dominoes to make a square so that each side has eight dots.
Use these four dominoes to make a square that has the same number of dots on each side.
Put a number at the top of the machine and collect a number at the bottom. What do you get? Which numbers get back to themselves?
Three dice are placed in a row. Find a way to turn each one so that the three numbers on top of the dice total the same as the three numbers on the front of the dice. Can you find all the ways to do. . . .
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?
Where can you draw a line on a clock face so that the numbers on both sides have the same total?