Family Activities

Maths inspired arts & crafts, games, puzzles, baking and more!

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How to turn two circles in to a square

  • Age groups
  • 5-7
  • 8-11
  • 12-15
  • 16+

It's time for a little geometry magic! Children will love this geometry paper trick - first you can impress them with it, and then they can impress their friends.

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Intergalactic Adventure

  • Age groups
  • 8-11
  • 12-15

Are you ready for a mathematical space adventure? Prepare for a journey to the Planet Turasmara. Download and complete your passport application ready for boarding, then solve the six space maths challenges!

Created by the Scottish Mathematical Council

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Pig Dice Game

  • Age groups
  • 5-7
  • 8-11
  • 12-15
  • 16+

Pig is a dice game for two or more players. All you need to play is one six sided die, some paper and a pen or pencil to keep score. Pig is what's known as a jeopardy game, where you have to decide whether to jeopardise previous points gained by rolling again to gain even more points. As well as practicing basic maths skills counting up your scores, Pig teaches you to think strategically - if you are too greedy and take too many risks, you might lose your points!

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Flip 3 Equations Game

  • Age groups
  • 5-7
  • 8-11
  • 12-15

This is a great card game for practicing simple equations, including addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. All you need is one deck of regular playing cards, with the face cards (Jack, Queen, King) removed.

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Origami Hexagon

  • Age groups
  • 8-11
  • 12-15
  • 16+

How to fold an origami hexagon out of a sheet of A4 paper! You could write a letter inside your sheet of paper first, before folding it up.

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Numerical Doodles

  • Age groups
  • 5-7
  • 8-11
  • 12-15

Numerical doodles are a fun way for children to gain more confidence in recognising and naming numbers. Older learners can also still have fun getting creative. Try your hand at recreating our doodles, or create your own - what can you turn each number in to?

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Triangle Puzzle Brain Teaser

  • Age groups
  • 8-11
  • 12-15
  • 16+

In this video, we show you how to make a fun geometric brain teaser. You will need a square piece of paper, a ruler, a pencil, and a pair of scissors. Then find a willing volunteer to solve the puzzle. It's not as easy as it looks!

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Lego Symmetry Puzzles

  • Age groups
  • 0-4
  • 5-7
  • 8-11

Puzzles are a fun way to learn about symmetry, and you can make your own out of Lego bricks and a base board. For younger kids, use Duplo bricks and simple patterns, for older kids use regular Lego bricks and make the patterns more challenging.

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Maths War Card Game

  • Age groups
  • 5-7
  • 8-11
  • 12-15

Maths War is a great little game to practice different kinds of maths skills, including number values, place value, addition and multiplication. All you need is one of two packs of regular playing cards, with the face cards (Jack, Queen, King) removed.

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Tower of Hanoi

  • Age groups
  • 8-11
  • 12-15
  • 16+

Time to get your scissors & paints out to create your own Tower of Hanoi puzzle - and then of course you'll have to solve it! But don't worry, we've included the solutions at the end of the video. You can try it with 3, 4 or 5 discs.

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Geometric Dot Grid Drawings

  • Age groups
  • 5-7
  • 8-11
  • 12-15

Pencils at the ready! Using dot grid paper to create pictures, connect adjacent dots vertically, horizontally or diagonally to create geometric drawings.

If you don't have any dot grid paper, you can download and print off some for free via the link below. Or you can use graph paper and connect the corners of the squares instead.

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Numberella Interactive Adventure

  • Age groups
  • 5-7
  • 8-11
  • 12-15

Join Numberella, Ronnie Resist, Miss A Go and The Thief in an exciting interactive adventure that will take you deep into the jungle of the lost world of Meravilium. Use your maths skills to help the adventurers outwit the mysterious talking creatures who guard the great pyramid… and help them discover the secrets that lie inside!

There are two difficulty levels to choose from, one for the 7-10 age group and one for the 11-14 age group. Everyone who completes the adventure wins a certificate!

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Parent Club Maths Tips

  • Age groups
  • 0-4
  • 5-7
  • 8-11
  • 12-15

Some tips from the Scottish Government's Parent Club on how to make maths homework fun, plus some suggestions for maths games to play together at home.

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Geometric Bat

  • Age groups
  • 5-7
  • 8-11

Here's a simple but fun geometric puzzle activity to set up for kids, either as a non spooky alternative to Halloween or for bat lovers all year round. Cut out shapes from black paper and challenge kids to create a bat out of them.

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I-Spy Halloween

  • Age groups
  • 0-4
  • 5-7

Are you ready for some spooky counting fun? We've created a seasonal activity sheet for you, to keep the kids busy in the run up to Halloween. How many of each of the symbols can you find?

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Roll-a-Snowflake Game

  • Age groups
  • 5-7
  • 8-11

This open ended drawing game encourages number recognition and counting, and celebrates the symmetry of snowflakes. Discuss why the die has only even numbers, and where to place your symbols on the grid to keep your snowflake symmetrical

>> Download Roll-a-Snowflake Instructions