Family Activities

The big circular windows that take pride of place in many churches or cathedrals - often referred to as 'rose windows' - are usually divided into symmetrical sections, with intricate designs made up of shapes. Today, we'll show you how to create your own mini rose window, with a symmetrical design.

Shut the Box is a fun dice game for two or more players, though can also be played by one player as a solitaire game. It's a great game for encouraging number recognition and practicing addition and number bonds.

Can you find your way along the seashore by following the repeating pattern from START to END? Colour each square in the repeating pattern to mark out the correct path.

The card game 'Trash' (also known as 'Garbage') is great for number recognition and for practicing number sequences. All you need is a standard deck of 52 playing cards.

Get hands on with your very own DIY bead & string puzzle. First you'll need to make it, then you'll need to solve it!

Four friends went to the beach together. Can you work out what activity each of them did at the beach, and what flavour of ice cream they ate? There are two levels of difficulty to choose from. In Level 2, you'll also need to work out how they got to the beach.

Tessellations are arrangements of shapes closely fitted together, in a repeated pattern without gaps or overlapping. how to make your own tessellation template, so that your repeating pattern fits together.

Sevens is a fun dice game for two or more players, that you can play anywhere, any time. It encourages number and quantity recognition, and basic addition skills.

Whether you’re travelling and need something to keep the kids busy on the road, or looking for a boredom buster back at home, you can’t go wrong with this quick and easy pen and paper game.

A pentomino puzzle is a tiling puzzle with lots of different solutions, that helps build problem solving skills and strategic thinking. Dig out your Lego to create your own puzzle!

Create your own geometric cityscape, inspired by the artworks of Paul Klee.

Learn how to play Dara - a row building game from Northwest Africa, that encourages number sense, logical thinking and spacial perception.

Oh we do like to be beside the seaside... Keep up your maths over the summer holidays, with our fun games and activities to do at the beach.

We love taking our maths outdoors, so we've come up with 30 fun ideas to do together as a family, that will get you active in nature and incorporate some maths along the way. Complete with downloadable calendar of ideas, and a set of 30 activity 'cards'.

We've put together a selection of Spring and Easter puzzles covering a range of different maths skills including counting, pattern recognition, logical thinking, code breaking, and using tessellation or symmetry to create designs.

To celebrate Pi Day, we're showing you two different ways to make a necklace or bracelet that will help you memorise the digits of pi. Wear yours on Pi Day, or make one to share with a maths loving friend.

A simple but fun maths activity perfect for Valentine's Day. Create a geometric heart out of squares and triangles, and learn about patterns, fractions and multiplication along the way.

Dig out your old magazines, and challenge them to a magazine number hunt! See how many different numbers you can find, then sort them in ascending order. Or do a shape hunt instead and create a collage out of all the different shapes you can find.

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?

We love baking here at Maths Week Scotland, and pancakes are no different. Find out how much maths is involved in baking, have a go at our fun maths facts activities, and download our recipe to bake your own yummy pancakes at home.

A scavenger hunt is a great way to get out and about AND have some fun with maths. Go on a Shape Hunt, looking for how many different shapes you can find in your neighbourhood. Why not document what you find and share your photographs with us online!

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!

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.

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!

Pi Day (14th March) is an annual celebration of the mathematical constant π (pi). Here are seven fun ways to celebrate pi, on Pi Day or all year round.

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?

This open ended drawing game encourages number recognition and counting, and celebrates the symmetry of snowflakes. Discuss why the die has only even numbers, and where to place your symbols on the grid to keep your snowflake symmetrical

>> Download Roll-a-Snowflake Instructions

Use your code cracking skills to work out the punchlines to five Christmas cracker jokes that have been encrypted as secret messages.

You can also have a go at encrypting your own secret messages, using our Cryptography resource developed by the Open University, with five different ciphers to choose from.

>> Download Codebreaker Challenge

>> Download Cryptography Resource

Building with Lego is a great 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.

There are a multitude of maths skills involved in baking - from weighing, measuring and counting, to fractions, conversions, telling the time and more! Put your maths skills to the test as you bake our delicious sugar cookies! (gluten free, nut free, vegetarian)

>> Download Recipe Card

In this simple counting activity with a seasonal twist, early learners can match the buttons to the gingerbread shapes to count from 1 to 5. The download also includes a bigger version of the template for younger children, so that bigger buttons or equivalent can be used.

>> Download Gingerbread Template

Note: Small parts can pose a choking hazard. Please supervise young children when doing this activity.

In this collaborative drawing challenge, one person describes whilst the other draws. It’s not as easy as it sounds! You can use only shapes and directional words in your description. Why not have several people drawing at once and compare your pictures at the end – did you all draw the same thing?

Get stuck in to some maths themed seasonal crafts with our Sierpinski Christmas tree! The Sierpinski triangle is a pattern of equilateral triangles that repeats again and again at different scales. This kind of pattern is called a 'fractal'. Our tree is a large pyramid made of smaller pyramids. Since a fractal can repeat endlessly, you can keep adding layers to build a tree as large as you want!

>> Download tetrahedron template

>> Download Sierpinski tree tutorial

Today you'll need to get your thinking caps on again - fill the squares on the grid with the correct colours, with the help of the coordinates, to reveal our festive mystery picture!

>> Download Mystery Picture Activity Sheet

Happy (belated) Christmas Jumper Day! If, like us, you didn’t get the memo that Christmas Jumper Day was a day early this year, you can have some festive jumper fun with today’s activity. Download our free activity sheet and design your own jumper. Can you give it a mathematical twist? How about adding some shapes, repeating patterns, tessellation or symmetry!

>> Download Festive Jumper Template

In our festive Sudoku for kids, cut out the stars and place them on the grid so that you have one star of each colour in every row, column and 2x2 or 3x2 block. There are two different levels of difficulty to chose from.

>> Download Festive Sudoku (Level 1)

>> Download Festive Sudoku (Level 2)

In this fun Christmas art activity, you need to create pictures just by colouring in squares - no extra diagonal or rounded lines allowed! Try our suggestions or create your own!

Bonus suggestion: If you are into cross stitch, you could also use these doodles as cross stitch patterns, with each square equalling one stitch.

It's the perfect time of year to cuddle down with a good book. With plenty of counting books for kids to choose from, it's also a great opportunity to include some maths in your seasonal story time.

What are your favourite seasonal books to read at this time of year?

A tessellation is an arrangement of shapes fitting together in a repeating pattern without gaps or overlapping. Download our template and fit together the tessellating trees to make one giant tree! The template includes three sizes of tree to choose from. This is a great activity to do with a group or class, or at a family gathering.

Tip: It’s easier to colour the trees in first and then cut them out.

>> Download Tessellating Trees Template

Today we're sending you on a secret holiday mission! But the message for your mission has been encrypted. Use the keyword cipher to work out what it is.

>> Download Keyword Cipher Activity Sheet

There’s two ways to play our Decorate-a-Tree game. In Best of 5, the player with the most points after five rounds wins. In First to 20, it’s the player to reach 20 points first.

For an extra challenge, try to reach 20 points exactly on your last throw – so if e.g. you have 17 points, you need to roll a 3 to win. If you roll a higher number, you’ll need to try again in the next round.

>> Download Tree Game Template

Four friends are planning a party for New Year's Eve. Each of them is bring one decoration and one item of party food. Can you work out who is bringing what? There’s two difficulty levels to choose from. In Level 2 you’ll also need to work out what colour party hat each friend is wearing.

>> Download Logic Puzzle (Level 1)
>> Download Logic Puzzle (Level 2)

A calming art puzzle activity for the weekend. Cut out circles of different sizes from white paper, then cut some in to halves, quarters and eighths. Use the circle fractions to lay out snowflake patterns. Remember, snowflakes are symmetrical!

Today we’re making seasonal decorations with a mathematical twist – using binary code! Download our chart and create ornaments with festive words written in binary code. Binary code is a way to write numbers, letters and symbols using only 0 and 1. It is used in computer coding.

>> Download Binary Code Chart

Get ready for some seasonal counting fun! How many of each of the symbols can you find? For a bonus activity, colour them all in.

>> Download I-Spy Christmas Activity Sheet

Some Christmas fun doodling with numbers! Try our suggestions, or make up your own. And don't forget to share pictures of your artworks with us!

Check out our Countdown to the Christmas Holidays, for more seasonal maths inspired puzzles and art & craft activities.