Family Activities

Celebrate Burns Night with our fun 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?

In a series of four videos, children demonstrate how mathematical principles including symmetry, tessellation and 3D shapes, can be the basis for a huge range of art and craft projects. Cubic chickens, cat portraits, stained glass windows, stencils, a birthday card for your granny…

The videos are made with children in mind, but are suitable for all ages - try for yourself!

Created by Anne McNaught and Johanna Hall

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, with a different colour of dice each. The basic aim of the game is to be the first player to get all of your dice to show the same number.

Test your problem-solving skills and try to crack our secret messages using clues

Code Break is an interactive web app consisting of three ciphers: Pigpen, Caesar and simple substitution (solved by frequency analysis). Earn stars for each challenge, and learn about code-breaking through the ages by playing our interactive ‘Could you be a code breaker?’

Created by the Open University

Pyramid is a card game for two or more players, to practice addition. For older children, the same game play can also be used for multiplication. To play either version, you will need a standard set of cards with the face cards (Jack, Queen, King) removed.

Here's a fun wee activity for younger learners, to playfully encourage number recognition: dig out your Lego and get creating! Building with Lego is an opportunity to incorporate a little maths in to your children's play time. How many bricks do they need of each colour? What size of bricks - 2x2 blocks, or 2x4? While they're having fun, they're already learning maths without even realising it.

It's time for a little geometry magic! Children will love this geometry paper trick - first you can impress them with it, and then they can impress their friends.

Are you ready for a mathematical space adventure? Prepare for a journey to the Planet Turasmara. Download and complete your passport application ready for boarding, then solve the six space maths challenges!

Can you fit all of your cargo into your spaceship? What number sequence will open the spacecraft door? How will you get the creatures of Turasmara safely across the river without them eating each other?

Created by the Scottish Mathematical Council

Pig is a dice game for two or more players. All you need to play is one six sided die, some paper and a pen or pencil to keep score. Pig is 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 - if you are too greedy and take too many risks, you might lose your points!

Five exhibits at National Museum of Scotland have been written in code! Can you use your code breaking skills to find out what they are?

Created by Open University Faculty of STEM

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.

How to fold an origami hexagon out of a sheet of A4 paper! You could write a letter inside your sheet of paper first, before folding it up.

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?

In this video, we show you how to make a fun geometric brain teaser. You will need a square piece of paper, a ruler, a pencil, and a pair of scissors. Then find a willing volunteer to solve the puzzle. It's not as easy as it looks!

Puzzles are a fun way to learn about symmetry, and you can make your own out of Lego bricks and a base board. For younger kids, use Duplo bricks and simple patterns, for older kids use regular Lego bricks and make the patterns more challenging.

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

Time to get your scissors & paints out to create your own Tower of Hanoi puzzle - and then of course you'll have to solve it! But don't worry, we've included the solutions at the end of the video. You can try it with 3, 4 or 5 discs.

Pencils at the ready! Using dot grid paper to create pictures, connect adjacent dots vertically, horizontally or diagonally to create geometric drawings.

If you don't have any dot grid paper, you can download and print off some for free via the link below. Or you can use graph paper and connect the corners of the squares instead.

Join Numberella, Ronnie Resist, Miss A Go and The Thief in an exciting interactive adventure that will take you deep into the jungle of the lost world of Meravilium. Use your maths skills to help the adventurers outwit the mysterious talking creatures who guard the great pyramid… and help them discover the secrets that lie inside!

There are two difficulty levels to choose from, one for the 7-10 age group and one for the 11-14 age group. Everyone who completes the adventure wins a certificate!

Try your hand at coding and bring a character to life with code in Scratch! Follow along with Claire Quigley from Glasgow Life to try the example below of a “Counting Sheep” to see how it’s done, or watch our video at scienceceilidh.com/codedance and then share your animation!

Content created by Science Ceilidh

Some tips from the Scottish Government's Parent Club on how to make maths homework fun, plus some suggestions for maths games to play together at home.

How did maths shape the castle? How did the radius of a circle help people survive a seige?

Explore Edinburgh Castle through maths with the whole family. Aimed at children aged 8-12.

Adapted for use at home to support remote learning.

Produced by National Museums Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland and The Regimental Museums in Edinburgh Castle

Explore the National Museum of Scotland with a maths lens! Suitable for families or school classes.

From Thomas Bayes through James Clerk Maxwell to Mary Somerville, explore the mathematical delights hidden in Edinburgh's city centre. Along the way, uncover some of the secret history of Edinburgh, discover some highlights of mathematics developed over the past two thousand years, and try your hand at some intriguing puzzles and games. Visit the tour's webpage to start exploring.

Created by University of Edinburgh Maths Outreach Team. Image from Pixabay

There's lots to do for families during Maths Week Scotland, from the events, activities and challenges you can find on our website, to getting busy with maths inspired games, arts, books and baking at home.

We've created a wee booklet for you, which you can print out and record all your Maths Week Scotland activities, plus a section to write about yourself and a couple of brain teasers to get you in the mood for maths.

Just print, fold, and you're good to go!

Here's a simple but fun geometric puzzle activity to set up for kids, either as a non spooky alternative to Halloween or for bat lovers all year round. Cut out shapes from black paper and challenge kids to create a bat out of them.

Are you ready for some spooky counting fun? We've created a seasonal activity sheet for you, to keep the kids busy in the run up to Halloween. How many of each of the symbols can you find? Download your free sheet below!

Check out our Countdown to the Christmas Holidays, for a seasonal mix of puzzles, games, arts and crafts, and more!