Learning Resources

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Shape Mice

Best suited for Early, First and Second Level

Celebrate Burns Night with this shape activity, in honour of one of Robert Burns' most well known poems, 'To a Mouse'. Cut out shapes of different sizes from coloured paper or card, and arrange them to create mice. What other shapes can you use? How about a pentagon or a hexagon mouse?

Ancient Egyptian maths resources

Best suited for First Level

These ancient Egyptian maths worksheets are designed to explore maths and ancient Egypt.

  • Count Like An Ancient Egyptian: Explore how ancient Egyptians wrote and used numbers.
  • Pyramid stones: Discover how huge stones were moved across Egypt to build the pyramids.
  • The Rhind papyrus: Try to crack this real ancient Egyptian maths problem.

Created by National Museums Scotland

BBC Rainbow Quizzes

Best suited for First Level

The Rainbow Quiz is a set of audio quizzes for First Level classes, presented by BBC Scotland's Catriona Shearer.

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Busy Things: Wild Maths

Best suited for First Level
 

Busy Things highlight three of their engaging activities for Maths Week Scotland 2025, along with one of their teacher tools, which will support you when celebrating maths in nature.

‘Flowers’ is a Maths activity that explores symmetry. Pupils choose one of the four flower templates to decorate, and can use a whole range of colours, textures and stamps to do so. Want to extend the activity and make it wilder? Print out the Busy Things’ template and ask the children to create a symmetrical flower head using natural materials from the playground or park, like sticks and leaves.

Available for free with a 28 day trial. 

Finn Finity and the Wild Maths Zoo Adventure

Best suited for First and Second Level

Read the interactive story together, set at Edinburgh Zoo, and solve the maths puzzles and challenges along the way. Includes teachers pack with supporting notes, slideshow and more.

Sumdog Times Tables Pack

Best suited for First and Second Level

A good understanding of times tables, and the ability to recall them quickly, is an essential foundation for children’s learning. So at Sumdog, we've made all our practice tools fun and engaging!

Download our free Times Tables pack to access our Pathway to Multiplication Success, lesson plans and times tables cards to use during Maths Week Scotland.

Active Times Table Challenge

Best suited for First and Second Level

Make learning fun by working together in your classroom or at home to get a high score in physically active times tables.

  • Copy the presenter's actions while chanting times tables
  • Solve the on-screen challenge quiz questions correctly for more points
  • Easy to use 10-minute sessions, ideal for a lesson starter or practising at home

The Times Table Challenge resources are available completely FREE for two weeks. After this, you will keep a subset of sessions; if you would like to help your learners master times tables with all resources you can upgrade your subscription.

Online Talk: Environmental Statistics

Best suited for First and Second Level

When we build wind farms, what happens to the wildlife? In this interactive talk, statistician Katherine Whyte looks at how we can use maths and statistics to help us balance the benefits of wind energy with the risks posed to ocean wildlife like seals and seabirds. Where were the animals before we built the wind farm, and how many were there? How many animals leave when a wind farm is built, and do they come back? What do animals do when they are near a wind farm, and can they still find enough food in the sea?

Statistics is an important tool in helping us to answer these questions, and helping us make decisions that are both good for the planet and good for our local wildlife.

Part of the Royal Statistical Society's William Guy Lecture Series

Online Talk: From sweets to streets: Understanding the world through statistics

Best suited for First and Second Level

Numbers can be found everywhere. This talk provides an opportunity to learn more about how statistics can help us understand the world around us, with a strong emphasis on making the examples fun, engaging and applicable to anyone.  

Illustrated examples are provided throughout the talk, supplemented with ideas for practical activities and topics for class discussion. The talk can be watched in one go, or each section can be used to support learning and spark follow-up discussion separately. 

Part of the Royal Statistical Society's William Guy Lecture Series

Pier Arts Centre activities

Best suited for First and Second Level

Explore four artworks from the Pier Arts Centre collection with these art activity sheets. Explore shapes and composition through the work of Ben Nicholson, three-dimensional paper folding inspired by Jim Lambie, Mobius loops through the work of Barbara Hepworth, and geometric drawing inspired by Steven MacIver.

Artwork credit: Steven MacIver, Akasaka, 2010

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Number Doodles

Best suited for First and Second Level

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? We have a Christmas version in our seasonal Family Activities section too.

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DIY Tessellation Templates

Best suited for First and Second Level

A quick tutorial on how pupils can make their own tessellation template, so that the repeating pattern fits together.

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Geometric Heart

Best suited for First and Second Level

Create a geometric heart out of squares and triangles, and learn about patterns, fractions and multiplication along the way.

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Pyramid Addition & Multiplication

Best suited for First and Second Level

Pyramid is a card game for two or more players. The video shows Pyramid addition, but the same game play can be used for multiplication. For either version, you will need a standard set of cards with the face cards (Jack, Queen, King) removed.

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Maths War

Best suited for First and Second level

Maths War is a great little game to practice different kinds of maths skills, including number values, place value, addition and multiplication. It works best with 2-4 children. All you need is one of two packs of regular playing cards, with the face cards (Jack, Queen, King) removed.

'Trash' Card Game

Best suited for First and Second Level

The card game 'Trash' (also known as 'Garbage') is great for number recognition and for practicing number sequences. It can be played with standard playing cards (1 pack of cards per every 2 players).

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Flip 3 Equations Game

Best suited for First and Second Level

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.

'Sevens' Dice Game

Best suited for First and Second Level

Sevens is a dice game for two or more players, that encourages number and quantity recognition, and basic addition skills.

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'Tenzi' Dice Game

Best suited for First and Second Level

Tenzi is a dice game for two or more players, which is great for number recognition. You will need a set of ten dice per player.

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'Pig' Dice Game

Best suited for First and Second Level

Pig is a dice game for two or more players. It's 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.