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.

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!

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.

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

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?

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

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.

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!

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.

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.

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

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

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?