Mathematical Challenges for Able Pupils in Key Stages One and Two

This book of challenges for more able students from the National Numeracy Strategy contains puzzles and problems. These are accessible to a wide range of students. There are four separate files covering Years One and Two, Years Three and Four, and Years Five and Six and the solutions.

The problems are intended to challenge students and extend their thinking. While some of them may be solved fairly quickly, others will need perseverance and may extend beyond a single lesson. Students may need to draw on a range of skills to solve the problems. These include: working systematically, sorting and classifying information, reasoning, predicting and testing hypotheses, and evaluating the solutions.

Many of the problems can be extended by asking questions such as: ‘What if .....?’. Problems can also be extended by asking students to design similar problems of their own to give to their friends or families.

Learning objectives appropriate to each problem are indicated so relevant problems can be integrated into the main teaching programme.