maths problem solving game ks2

Most Popular Free Maths Games

The most popular free interactive KS2 maths games in the last week.

Birds v Robots - Maths Battle

Help the birds defend their eggs from the evil robots by answering the maths questions correctly.

• Online in HTML5 format

Answer the maths questions and then help your bird to get home safely.

Tommy's Trek - Times Tables

A fun platform game for children to practise their times tables. This game will work on any device.

Use the arrow keys to move Tommy. The ctrl key makes him jump and the up arrow selects a number.

Having problems controllingTommy on an iPad? Go to your browser's settings and make sure 'Request Desktop Mode' has not been selected.

For more multiplication games click here.

For more Tommy's Trek games click here.

Maths Choppity Chop

Answer the maths questions and then chop the vegetables. Avoid the steel bar and the saw.

Caterpillar Carnage

Angry Andy Must Have Candy

Answer the maths questions and then collect as much candy as you can for Angry Andy.

Stone Age Stu - Addition

Snowball Smash

Answer the maths questions and then see how many opponents you can defeat in a snowball fight.

Maths Climber

Answer the maths questions and then drive your car as quickly (and safely) as you can. Be careful - drive too fast and you might flip it over.

Monkey Maths

Subtraction - Mini Maths Golf

Super Maths Bowling - Multiplication

Answer the multiplication questions quickly and accurately and you will find it much easier to aim your bowling ball at the pins. 

Multiplication Tile Crash

Break into the tomb using your multiplication skills.

Marlon's Magical Maths Mission - Multiplication

Help Marlon defeat the evil beasts with your multiplication knowledge.

Maths Fairground Shoot

Use your maths skills to earn time in the game and see how many ducks you can shoot.

Parachute Number Line

Land on the correct position on the number line. A fun game to develop an understanding of place value.

Multiplication Miner

Find the two numbers that multiply together to make a given product. Choose one or more times tables to play.

Archery Arithmetic - Multiplication

Choose which times tables to practise. Answer questions as quickly as possible and you will get more time to aim your arrow. Play on your own or against a partner. Who can score the most points in your class?

Telling the Time

Read the time on an analogue clock. Lots of choice over levels, including: reading time to the nearest hour, half hour, quarter hour, five minutes or minute. Options include using a 24 hour clock and seeing how many correct answers you can get in a given time.

This new version will work on any tablet or computer.

For more measuring and time resources click here.

KS2 Maths Invaders

** New tablet-friendly version added 14th February 2018. Please let me know if you have any problems - [email protected]

Shoot the spaceship with the correct answer and dodge the incoming fire. A fun game to practise a wide range of key mathematical skills.  

There are over a hundred carefully differentiated levels linked to objectives from the new maths curriculum. The game can be used to teach: Multiplication, Addition, Reading Numbers, Subtraction, Fractions of Numbers, Roman Numerals, Rounding Numbers, Division, Converting Fractions to Decimals, Converting Fractions to Percentages, Telling the Time in Words, Recognising Multiples, Factors, Prime, Square and Cube Numbers, and Simplifying Fractions. A full list of levels is below. This game is also available as an iOS and Android app.

Placing Numbers on a Number Line - Tablet Version

23/11/17 - new version added. This version is tablet friendly and can be played directly on any device.

Drag the flag to the correct position on a number line. Lots of choice over level, including whole numbers, negative number and decimals. Can be used to teach place value, approximation skills, and reading varying scales.

Choose one type of number line or for more of a challenge you can select several. Work quickly to get more time, build your score and climb up the leaderboard.

For more resources involving partitioning and place value click here.

Sorting 2D shapes on a Venn diagram

Updated December 2017 - this is a new version that will work on a tablet or computer.

Sort a variety of 2D shapes on a Venn diagram. Sort by one or two conditions. Sort triangles - scalene, equilateral and isosceles. Sort quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, heptagons and octagons, as well as parallelograms, rhombus, kites and trapeziums. Also sort according to a shapes properties such as acute, obtuse, reflex or right angles and symmetry or whether it is a regular shape.

For more resources involving sorting shapes and numbers click here.

For more shape and space resources click here.

Monty's Maths Wall - Tablet Version

Use the arrow keys to guide your brick and destroy the wall or if you are using a tablet, tap either side to direct your brick and both sides to make it fall faster.

A great game for practising a wide range of mathematical skills. Levels are based on objectives from the new maths curriculum from Year 1 to Year 6. Topics include: multiplication, addition, reading numbers, subtraction, fractions of numbers, Roman numerals, division, converting fractions to decimals and percentages and simplifying fractions. 

You can choose to play a single level, a selection of levels, or choose all the objectives from a year group (within the same topic). There is a full list of levels below.

Maths Fishing - Multiplication

Practise your multiplication skills while catching Fish! This game is tablet friendly and will work on any device.

Having problems on an iPad? Go to your browser's settings and make sure 'Request Desktop Mode' has not been selected.

Crystal Crash - Fractions of Numbers

Find fractions of numbers and throw your pickaxe at the correct answer. This game can be played directly on any tablet or computer.

Compare Numbers on a Number Line

Compare the numbers on two different number lines and decide which is bigger. A great game to get children thinking about place value and reading varying scales.

Adding Time Word Problems

Read the time on either an analogue or digital clock and then answer a word problem involving adding a given time. Find the correct time on an anologue or digital clock. Lots of choice of level, including: adding 1 hour, multiples of 5, or 10 minutes or adding multiples of a quarter of an hour.

Sorting 3D Shapes on a Venn Diagram

Use a Venn diagram to sort a variety of 3D shapes according to their properties, including: whether they are pyramids or prisms, the number of faces, edges and vertices and whether they have a curved surface.

Coordinates - reasoning about position and shapes

Find the missing coordinates on a given shape, reflected in a mirror line, or the midpoints of straight lines. Choose to find coordinates in the first quadrant, or all four quadrants. Provides lots of opportunity to reason about shape and position.

Sorting 2D shapes on a Carroll diagram

Sort a variety of 2d shapes on a Carroll diagram. Sort by one or two conditions. Sort triangles - scalene, equilateral and isosceles. Sort quadrilaterals, pentagons, hexagons, heptagons and octagons, as well as parallelograms, rhombus, kites and trapeziums. Also sort according to a shapes properties such as acute, obtuse, reflex or right angles and symmetry or whether it is a regular shape.

Telling the Time in Words

Tell the time in words. Use language such as 'o'clock', 'half past' and 'quarter to'.

Hundred Square

An incredibly versatlie teaching tool. Can be used to explore number patterns, multiples, prime numbers and lots more.

Using a Calendar

Answer word problems using a calendar. This new version will work on any tablet or computer.

Find the Start Time

Find the start time for a given time interval.

Find the correct time on an analogue or digital clock. Lots of choice of level, including: subtracting 1 hour, multiples of 5, or 10 minutes or subtracting multiples of a quarter of an hour.

Angles Alien Attack

Defend the Earth from an alien invasion using your knowledge of angles. Choose to read them from the protractor or estimate them without a protractor. 

Multiplication Tables Check

This activity exactly mirrors the 'Multiplication Tables Check' that will be given to children at the end of Year 4. They are tested on their multiplication tables up to 12 x 12. There are twenty-five questions and children have six seconds to answer each question and three seconds between questions. The questions are generated randomly using the same rules as the 'Multiplication Tables Check' (see below).

Results can be downloaded and printed at the end of the test.

A similar activity which tests recall of number bonds can be found here.

Dienes - Identify and Represent Numbers

Choose to either identify the number shown by dienes or represent a given number using dienes. Choose 'Game Mode' and you will be rewarded for correct answers in a penalty shoot out.

Y6 Arithmetic Practice

This activity provides practice of the types of questions that appear in the Y6 Arithmetic test.

All questions are based on those that have appeared in the Year 6 Arithmetic tests from 2016-2018. We have not included questions that require a written method of calculation. There are hundreds of potential questions. Ideal for assessing gaps and progress.

Results can be saved and printed at the end of the test.

Mastery-Aligned Maths Tutoring

“The best thing has been the increase in confidence and tutors being there to deal with any misunderstandings straight away."

FREE daily maths challenges

A new KS2 maths challenge every day. Perfect as lesson starters - no prep required!

KS2 Maths Investigations Based On Real Life In Primary School

Sophie Bessemer

It’s been a long week and it is time to hand out your latest ‘exciting’ KS2 maths investigations, carefully crafted problem solving investigations focused specifically on the work you’ve been doing this week.

But then you hear the the immortal words from your Year 6: ” What Does This Have To Do With The Real World?”

Any good teacher knows, of course, exactly how relevant maths is in the real world and how, without maths, modern society as we know it would never have existed.

The problem is, not all 11 year olds know it too – and you’re going to have a hard time convincing some of them.

In defence of 11 year olds, the curriculum – maths in particular – can sometimes feel all too distant from what’s ‘real’.

So the question then becomes, how do we show young learners how Maths intersects and dominates our day to day life?

How do we give our KS2 pupils maths investigations that inspire them, change their perceptions and help them to move beyond a fixed mindset to see maths problem solving as entirely relevant to what may come next in life?

If you’re just interested in maths investigations for Year 5 and Year 6 we’ve created jump to the end of the blog where they’re all listed by term.

KS2 Maths Investigations: Problem solving in context

Benefits of maths investigations at ks2, 5 top tips for creating your own ks2 maths investigations, year 5 and year 6 maths investigations.

We believe that one of the answers is putting your maths problem solving activities into a context that your pupils can relate to.

We call this Topical Maths, and we’ve used this idea as the source for several of our most popular Year 5 and Year 6 maths problem solving resources, all offering the kind of KS2 maths investigations we know your pupils will love!

KS2 Topical Maths Problems

25 real world maths investigations to practise reasoning and problem solving based on primary school calendar events

There are lots of benefits of course, but the most important as far as we’re concerned are these:

• Pupils are required to talk and reason about their maths
• The maths problem solving investigations cement higher order reasoning skills and problem solving
• Starting early with Year 5 maths investigations you can support familiarity with the sorts of questions that come up in Year 6 SATs.

To encourage you to give these KS2 maths investigations a go, we’ll first look at the benefits and principles of introducing them for your reasoning and problem solving at Year 5 and Year 6, we’ll then give you some ideas for how you can create these problem solving activities for the rest of KS2 yourself.

We guarantee you’ll see your pupils’ reasoning and problems solving skills improve!

1. KS2 Maths Investigations Involve Pupils Talking and Reasoning

Getting pupils to verbalise their numerical reasoning has a knock-on effect on pupils’ overall reasoning skills, which is why the core element of our  KS2 maths intervention  is mathematical reasoning; asking pupils to explain not just what they’re doing, but why they’re doing it.

As a teacher of a large class, it can be difficult to provide the teacher time necessary for each pupil to verbalise to you their reasoning.

The inherently collaborative nature of year 5 and year 6 maths investigations gives pupils the opportunities to to reason out loud and work on their maths problem solving skills.

2. KS2 Maths Investigations Cement Higher Order Reasoning Skills

Our experience teaching thousands of primary school pupils maths every week has shown us that at KS2, even by Year 5 or Year 6, pupils often have good procedural understanding, but struggle with higher order problem solving questions.

The problem solving element to these topical maths investigations naturally improves reasoning skills in Year 5 and Year 6 pupils, as they are more likely on reaching an answer to have to think about not just how but why that answer is correct.

By setting topical maths investigations at KS2 as group-work or a whole class activity, you can ensure that all pupils get to experience this deep level of reasoning.

Many of our topical maths investigations are open ended, but if you’re teaching a fully mixed ability class, we’ve also created some  low threshold high ceiling open ended maths investigations  specifically for mixed ability classes.

3. KS2 Maths Investigations Give Early Exposure To SATs Style, Reasoning Questions

Most, if not all, schools will provide their pupils with exposure to reasoning via SATs-style questions, but this often comes hand in hand with exams and assessment.

Yet, it is equally important to get pupils reasoning and problem solving in a low stakes classroom setting or as a group.

Creating a learning environment where the types of problem solving questions found in SATs just become part of  your lessons will help pupils feel comfortable with exam terminology, and ensures they are more at ease with being asked the same kind of question (say, multiplying and dividing fractions) in lots of different ways.

These maths problem solving investigations and downloadable resources enable you to include these type of SATs style questions in a way which is fun and confidence boosting.

More problem solving and reasoning articles

• Ultimate Guide to Maths Problem Solving Techniques
• Maths Investigations: How To Develop Mathematical Reasoning
• 35 Year 6 Maths Reasoning Questions .

You don’t need to create your own problem solving investigations – the links at the end of this article should provide you with everything you need. However if you do want to have a go these were our principles and, judging by the number of visits. to the date related articles and downloads of these resources we get every year, they’re still very popular.

1. Date-based themes for maths problem solving activities

Nothing solidifies maths in the real world quite like the real world. Nearly, if not everyday of the year holds some significance to someone.

February? Pancake day, Valentines Day, and Fairtrade Fortnight.

March? Red Nose Day, World Book Day, and Holi.

Why not spice your lesson up and throw in some Pancake Day Maths for ratios, or Bonfire Night Maths for measurements. Capitalise on special celebrations throughout the world to excite and enthuse young learners.

For example these  Christmas activities always prove popular with KS1 and KS2  or at a different time of year you could try these summer  holiday maths investigations  or any of these  maths activities .

2. Trends and pop-culture KS2 maths investigations

Peers and pop culture hold huge sway over most pupils, and the reason for this is that as growing persons we want to fit in and find friends.

Nothing achieves this more effectively than mutual interest. As a teacher, utilise it – whether this is measuring the speed of explosions in the latest Transformer film, or totalling the high notes in Disney’s Moana – you’ll have pupils hooked in no time.

For the exceptionally savvy teacher, you might want to capitalise on the latest fads and trends within your school. How about measuring amounts via the infamous bottle trick, or examining angles through the lens of the dab?

3. Simple stuff engages pupils with maths problem solving and reasoning

Sometimes when teachers link maths back to real world issues, politics, and the universe at large, it can still feel a little dissonant for the younger pupils.

Don’t be afraid to stick with the simple stuff and the smaller aspects of the world.

Everybody needs to know how much change they’ll have left over after a bus ride home, everyone wants to know exactly how many chocolate bars they can gorge themselves on with two pounds, and everyone wants to know how many times they can go on the log-flume with five tickets.

Keeping it simple can be one of the most effective ways to engage pupils by showing them the mathematics they will employ in every-day life.

4. Cool factor for primary teachers – even in maths

Generally – note this is a generalisation – as a secondary teacher, one can spend eternity being uncool. Luckily primary school teachers get an easier rap, and KS2 pupils are willing to be ‘wowed’. All students can be ‘wowed’ under the right circumstances, but with younger, more malleable minds it can be somewhat easier.

Astronauts, magicians, superheroes, cute animals, cartoons, all carry the power of enthusiasm. They can be your secret weapon for making percentages fun – you’re not halving a number, you’re a magician halving a 167cm person in a special box, etc.

5. Make your maths investigations REALLY relevant

Relevance can be highly underrated when it comes to linking seemingly abstract topics to the real world.

One trick is to instead of distributing your problem solving activity sheets with strangers’ names and unrelatable allegories in the questions, why not make those names and allegories about your class.

Instead of a stranger gathering four apples and eating three, make your pupil.

Instead of apples, why not their favourite snack?

Letting students pick names in questions gives them greater agency in their learning and can be highly engaging.

Better still, putting their names/hobbies/likes/dislikes will not only show them that you know them, and that you care, but it will establish clear links between the work they are doing and the world proper.

Here’s our complete list of topical maths investigations for year 5 and year 6.

Autumn Term maths investigations year 6 and year 5

• Autumn maths activities
• Halloween maths activities
• Bonfire Night maths activities
• Christmas maths activities

Spring Term maths investigations year 6 and year 5

• Heart Month Months activities
• Shrove Tuesday Maths activities
• Pancake Day Maths activities
• World Book Day Maths activities
• International Women’s Day Maths activities
• British Science Week Maths activities
• Holi Maths activities
• Easter/Lent Maths activities

Summer term maths investigations year 6 and year 5

• Share-a-Story Month activities
• FA Cup Maths activities
• Walk to School Week activities
• Ramadan Maths activities
• Child Safety Week activities

And if that’s not enough we’ve even got maths activities for Year 5 and Year 6 for events you’re likely to celebrate in primary school but don’t come round every year… 

• Red Nose Day Maths activities
• World Cup Maths activities
• Election Maths
• Jubilee Maths activities

We update these blog posts every year so keep an eye on your calendar, and let us know how you get on @thirdspacetweet.

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Solving Problems (Year 6)

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Learning KS2 Maths is like solving puzzles from everyday life. In Year Six, you'll tackle big numbers and explore measures like millilitres, litres, grams, kilograms, millimetres, kilometres, minutes, and hours.

Solving problems means using multiplication, division, addition, or subtraction - maybe even all of them! Imagine figuring out how much something costs in pounds and pence or its weight in grams and kilograms. Some puzzles are unique, like this one: If you need to take a tablet every day for 3 months, how many tablets do you need all together?

Test your new skills with this quiz on solving fun problems with different measures!

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Problem Solving

Problem Solving and the New Curriculum   Age 5 to 11

Developing a Classroom Culture That Supports a Problem-solving Approach to Mathematics   Age 5 to 11

Developing Excellence in Problem Solving with Young Learners   Age 5 to 11

Using NRICH Tasks to Develop Key Problem-solving Skills   Age 5 to 11

Trial and Improvement at KS1   Age 5 to 7

Trial and Improvement at KS2   Age 7 to 11

Working Systematically - Primary Teachers   Age 5 to 11

Number Patterns   Age 5 to 11

Working Backwards at KS1   Age 5 to 7

Working Backwards at KS2   Age 7 to 11

Reasoning   Age 5 to 11

Visualising at KS1 - Primary Teachers   Age 5 to 7

Visualising at KS2 - Primary Teachers   Age 7 to 11

Conjecturing and Generalising at KS1 - Primary Teachers   Age 5 to 7

Conjecturing and Generalising at KS2 - Primary Teachers   Age 7 to 11

• Mathematical Problem Solving in the Early Years
• Low Threshold High Ceiling - an Introduction
• What's All the Talking About?
• Group-worthy Tasks and Their Potential to Support Children to Develop Independent Problem-solving Skills
• Developing the Classroom Culture: Using the Dotty Six Activity as a Springboard for Investigation