This three-act math task utilizes videos and questioning to help students explore multiplying decimals (scale).

This task provides a familiar context allowing students to visualize multiplication of a fraction by a whole number. This task could form part of a very rich activity which includes studying soda can labels.

This problem offers a simple context to begin an exploration of the properties of numbers and to make conjectures about those properties. Learners explore the sums of consecutive numbers and whether all positive numbers from 1-30 can be written as the sum of two or more consecutive numbers. The Teachers' Notes page offers suggestions for implementation, key discussion questions, ideas for extension and support.

In this version of a Sumo wrestling bout, players use mathematical skills to move their opponent's counter beyond the track and "out of the ring." Learners reveal playing cards and the player with the large value card pushes their counter a number of spaces equal to the difference between the two card values multiplied by the lower of the two card values. Learners can also explore what happens when a zero card is added to the mix.

This activity provides students with an opportunity to calculate area and perimeter of rectangles in order to determine the pricing system of objects with given costs (in British Pounds). The resource includes the problem, tips on getting started, a teacher resource page, and a printable student page.

This three-act math task utilizes videos and questioning to help students explore multiplying and dividing decimals.

This Flash-based game of chance helps children learn about the relationship between the positive and negative integers. Two players, one Positive, moving left to right, and one Negative, moving right to left, take turns rolling and adding two dice and moving a counter in their respective directions on the number line, with the goal of reaching their end of the number line (13 or -13). The game can be played with the applet or on paper (printable pdf included). A variation involving the choice of adding, subtracting, multiplying or dividing the two dice introduces strategic thinking. The Teacher' Notes page suggests strategies for introducing the game, questions to facilitate students' thinking, and a link to a simpler version of the game, Tug of War, cataloged separately.

In this article Pennant and Woodham discuss the importance of rich tasks in the teaching of fractions. In order to prepare for new more rigorous standards, the authors have compiled a list of rich tasks and a description of others that aim to improve how children think about fractions.

This problem gives children an opportunity to explore patterns in a practical context and to generalize the results with a rule. Students investigate how many blocks would be needed to build an up-and-down staircase with any number of steps up. An interactivity in the hints shows the blocks transformed into a square pattern. The Teachers' Notes page offers suggestions for implementation, key discussion questions, ideas for extension and support.

This problem provides a context in which pupils apply their knowledge of number properties and practice explaining their reasoning. Students decide which of the eight clues provided are necessary in order to determine a specific number on a 0-99 grid. The activity includes teacher notes, hints, sample solutions, a printable pdf of the problem, and a link to a more accessible related problem.

This problem, which acts like a function machine, provides an opportunity to also introduce children to the idea of common factors. Four whole numbers (inputs) are each placed in a small box and those boxes are placed in one special box. Solvers are given the four outcomes and are challenged to find what multiplication might have gone on in the big box to get those results. The Teachers' Notes page offers suggestions for implementation, key discussion questions, ideas for extension and support.

This three-act math task utilizes videos and questioning to help students explore multiplication and division within 1000.

This problem is designed to help young learners use the symbols plus, minus, multiplied by, divided by and equals to, meaningfully, in ten number statements. Students must drag two operational symbols to empty boxes to make a true statement. This problem also helps learners understand inverse operations and to look for alternate solutions. The Teachers' Notes page offers rationale, suggestions for implementation, discussion questions, ideas for extension and support, printable worksheet.

This problem provides an opportunity to introduce a visual way of representing operations on unknown numbers to help lead students to using a symbolic representation. Learners are asked to think of a number and then through an interactivity are given a sequence of operational instructions to follow which leads all students to the same final number. The Teachers' Notes page offers suggestions for implementation, key discussion questions, ideas for extension and support.

This task reminds us of Four 4Õs because students are practicing number combinations to get specific results.

This has become one of our most popular tasks and we are hearing about all sorts of creative adaptations. Some youcubians have made grids of 400 and added dice, others have adapted it to let the grid represent 100%. Please post how you use this task with your students.

This is a really nice task as it is open to everyone, can be solved in different ways and can also extend to work in combinatorics Ð a nice way of organizing counting. Ask students to work on this task in groups, and to display their results on posters. Often we name studentsÕ different approaches and strategies.

Many parents use Ôflash cardsÕ as a way of encouraging the learning of math facts. These usually include 2 unhelpful practices Ð memorization without understanding and time pressure. In our Math Cards activity we have used the structure of cards, which children like, but we have moved the emphasis to number sense and the understanding of multiplication without any time constraints.

This game provides students an opportunity to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication and division as they try to reach 100 on a number chart. The game can be modified by adding more dice or using dice with more than 6 sides. Students will have fun playing as well as making up their own rules for a new game.

Jo has used this task with a lot of success on the first days of school with very hesitant students. Soon after setting the challenge the board area becomes full of students putting up their solutions, then returning to their seat to look for more. For students, it is a very safe and non threatening activity. It builds number sense and is a fun challenge. This task is also a really nice way of helping students become comfortable sharing their work in front of the class. The first appearance of four 4Õs was in English mathematician: WW Rouse BallÕs Mathematical Recreations and Essays in 1892, and then revisited by Constance Reid in ÔFrom Zero to InfinityÕ in 1955.