An interactive story in five chapters with maths puzzles and activities
Finn Finity and the Wild Maths Zoo Adventure is an interactive story that you can read together with your class or as a family. It incorporates maths puzzles and activities, that you solve as you read. If you complete the story, the final puzzle lets you 'unlock' a hidden webpage where you can download a small reward.
The story is set at Edinburgh Zoo, but can be completed from anywhere in Scotland, you don't need to be at the zoo for this. However, the story does follow an actual route through the zoo, so if you are visiting the zoo why not follow in Finn Finity's footsteps as you go round and complete the puzzles in real time. We have included a map that highlights the locations Finn stops at.
Who is it for?
The interactive story is suitable for schools, home learners, families and individuals who enjoy storytelling and puzzles. There is a full colour version available, which has all the images embedded in the text; as well as a special text-only version for teachers with an accompanying slideshow to project the images on to a whiteboard or similar.
What age is it aimed at?
The upper end of First Level through to Second Level, so P3/P4 to P7. If you are taking part as a family with a mixed age group, older and younger members of the group can help each other solve the puzzles together.
How does it work?
There are 5 chapters in total, plus a short epilogue. Read each chapter, then solve the puzzle for that chapter. Chapter 3 is a drawing task which includes a printable template; all other puzzles can be done on screen, with a pencil and paper to take notes, if you want to avoid printing.
There are prompts that tell you when to complete the puzzles. Solutions to all puzzles are included (with spoiler alerts to stop you scrolling too far in advance).
The complete story is available to download as a bundle, you don’t need to wait for any chapters to be released, so you can decide whether to spread it out over several days or whether to read it all in one go. All the downloads are available below.
Downloads
To complete the story, you will need a copy of the chapters and one of the puzzles for each chapter (there are different levels of difficulty to choose from). The map is optional, but lets you follow the route Finn Finity takes through the zoo.
Please note: All files are PDFs, except where indicated.
Finn Finity and the Wild Maths Zoo Adventure was developed by Maths Week Scotland, in collaboration with Edinburgh Zoo.
If you complete Finn Finity and the Wild Maths Zoo Adventure we would love to hear about it! Please feel free to share photos on social media and tag in Maths Week Scotland on Facebook or Bluesky, and Edinburgh Zoo on Facebook or Instagram. Don't forget to use the hashtag #MathsWeekScot!
In advance of this year's 30 Days Wild, we caught up with Christine from Welly Walkers Childminding Family in Aberdeenshire, to have a chat about how they used our 30 Days Wild maths resources last year.
