Worthwhile Maths Tasks 2026

Term 1 Week 5 - Different Names for Different Shapes

Mrs Fearn thinks that since hexagons and octagons look the same, they should have the same name.

Find as many ways as you can to show Mrs Fearn that they are different.

Term 1 Week 6 - Different Names for Different Shapes Part 2

Is this shape an Octagon?

Give me as many reasons why you think it is or isn’t.

Term 1 Week - Three on a Bench

There are three old men, sitting on a bench: Tom, Dick and Harry.

Tom is 78 years old.

Dick is going to have his 80th birthday next year.

Harry had his 70th birthday six years ago.

Put Tom, Dick and Harry in order from youngest to oldest.

Term - Netball Tournament

There are six netball teams in the local inter-school netball tournament.

During the tournament, they all need to play each other once.

How many matches will be played altogether?

Term - Bears in a Cave

Here are three caves.

There are bears in each cave.

There are 12 bears altogether.

If there are 2 bears in the first cave, how many bears might be in each of the other caves?

Term - What's Next

Imagine you have an envelope with one yellow counter and three blue counters in it.

If you take out one counter without looking, what colour might it be?
What colour is it most likely to be?
If the counter you took out was yellow and you decided to take out another counter, what colour might the second counter be?
Explain your answer.

Term - My Savings

Two thirds of my savings comes to $4.

How much have I saved altogether?

Term - Big and Small

Here are two equilateral triangles. One has sides that are 3cm long and the other has sides that are 6cm long.

What fraction of the large triangle’s area is the small triangle?

Term - An Even Spread

A gardener has 7 bags of compost to spread evenly over 4 flower beds.

How many bags of compost does each bed get?

Term - Card Collections

Ari, Ben, Cam, Dan and Eva are counting their card collections.

Ari has 21 cards. Cam has 2 more than Ari. Ben has 3 fewer than Cam and 1 more than Dan who has 3 fewer than Eva.

How many cards does Eva have?

Put the children’s names in order from the person with the fewest cards to the person with the most.

Term - What's My Number?

I’m thinking of a number.

I get the same answer if I add 8 to my number, or if I don’t add 8 but instead I triple my number.

What number am I thinking of?

Term - Transforming Patterns

Tuila cuts these regular polygons out of cardboard.

She chooses one shape and draws around it. She then reflects (flips) it along one side, and draws around it again. She does this several times to make a pattern. Using the same shape, she makes a second pattern by rotating the shape (turning on a corner) and drawing around it. She then makes a third pattern with this shape by translating (sliding) the shape and drawing around it.

For the chosen shape, she finds that all of the patterns look the same, no matter whether she reflects, rotates or translates the shape to make the pattern.

Tuila says this happens with all three shapes.

Do you think Tuila is right? Show how you know.
Choose some other regular polygons and investigate to find if this is true for them.

Term - The Deal

Tane has 23 collector cards that he wants to share with his three friends.

He deals the cards out evenly to himself and to each of his friends, then he keeps the leftovers himself.

How many cards does Tane have after sharing?

Term - Bakers Dozen

A bag of‘a dozen’ doughnuts has 12 donuts in it.

If the bag is labelled ‘a baker’s dozen’ then it has 13 in it.

Explain the difference between a dozen and a baker’s dozen.

Term - Knitting Patterns

A knitting pattern gives instructions for a row of 47 stitches as ‘Knit 2, Purl 3 then repeat’.

This means the row will be k k p p p k k p p p k k p p p… for 47 stitches.

What will the last stitch on the row be? A knit or a purl?

Term - What Number is That?

A famous past president of the USA, Abraham Lincoln, once started a speech with a number. He said:

“Four score and seven years ago…”

A score is another name for twenty. What number did Abraham Lincoln begin his speech with?

Term 1 Week 6 - Cheese Maze

Jenny has made a maze for her pet mouse to run through.

She wants to see if it can get from the start to the cheese.

Describe a route the mouse can take to get to the cheese.

Term 1 Week - Bakers Dozen

A bag of‘a dozen’ donuts has 12 donuts in it.

If the bag is labelled ‘a baker’s dozen’ then it has 13 in it.

Explain the difference between a dozen and a baker’s dozen.

Term 1 Week 7 - Games on all Fields

A school has three football fields.

At lunchtime, there is a five-a-side football game on each of the fields.

Two of the teams are made up of year one students and the others are all year two students.

How many of the players on the fields are year two students?

Note: Five-a-side means five players on each team. There are no subs.

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