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Maths in everyday life: 38 quick activities

Some of the best maths practice doesn't look like maths at all. When children use numbers for a real reason, such as working out if they have enough money or how long until tea, the maths makes sense and sticks. None of these ideas needs any preparation, and most take less than five minutes.

The activities are grouped by age, but children vary a lot. If something is too hard, drop back a section; if it's not enough of a challenge, move on. The links take you to our guides to each year group.

Ages 4 to 6 (Reception and Year 1)

At this age, children are learning to count reliably, recognise numbers, and understand "one more" and "one less". See our Reception and Year 1 guides for more.

Cooking and mealtimes

1. Count the spoonfuls. "Can you put in 3 spoons of sugar?" Count them out loud together.
2. Lay the table. "There are 4 of us. How many plates do we need? Grandma's coming, so how many now?"
3. Fair shares. Share 10 grapes between two bowls. Is it fair? How do you know?
4. Full, half full, empty. Use cups at the sink or in the bath. Which holds the most?

Shopping and money

5. Count into the bag. "We need 6 apples. Can you count them in?"
6. Number spotting. Look for a particular number on price labels, aisle signs and doors.
7. Coin sort. Tip out some coins and sort them. Can they name the 1p, 2p, 5p and 10p?

Travel, games and time

8. Car counting. Count red cars or buses on a journey. Who saw more, you or me?
9. Dice spotting. Roll a dice and say how many dots without counting them one by one.
10. Board games. Snakes and ladders and other track games are perfect for counting on.
11. Countdown to bath time. Count down from 10, or from 20 for a challenge.
12. First, next, last. Talk through the order of the day: "What did we do first this morning? What comes after lunch?"

Ages 7 to 9 (Years 2 to 4)

Now children are adding and subtracting bigger numbers, learning their times tables, telling the time and working with money. See our Year 2, Year 3 and Year 4 guides for more.

Cooking

13. Read the scales. Let them weigh the flour. What number is the pointer nearest to?
14. Double the recipe. If a recipe needs 150 g of flour and 2 eggs, how much for twice as many? (300 g and 4 eggs.)
15. When will it be ready? A cake goes in at 4:10 and needs 25 minutes. When does it come out? (4:35.)

Shopping and money

16. Round and estimate. Round each item in a small basket to the nearest pound and add them up. How close was the estimate to the real total?
17. Work out the change. If you pay with £5 for something that costs £3.40, how much change? (£1.60. Count up: 60p makes £4, then £1 more makes £5.)
18. Which pack? Is 3 packs of 4 more or less than 2 packs of 6? (They're the same: both are 12.)
19. Saving up. If they save £2 a week, how many weeks until they can buy a £15 toy? (8 weeks. After 7 weeks they'd only have £14.)

Travel, games, sport and time

20. Are we nearly there yet? The journey takes 40 minutes and we've been going 15. How long is left? (25 minutes.)
21. Number plate challenge. Add up the digits on number plates, or make the biggest number you can from them.
22. Train times. The train leaves at 14:30. What is that in 12-hour time? (2:30 pm.)
23. Times tables snap. Turn over two playing cards and multiply them. First to say the answer keeps the cards.
24. League points. A football team gets 3 points for a win and 1 for a draw. They won 4 and drew 2. How many points? (14.)
25. Stopwatch races. Time a run round the garden or park in seconds. Can they beat it? By how much?

Ages 10 to 11 (Years 5 and 6)

Older children are working with fractions, decimals, percentages, ratio and larger numbers. Real-life problems are a great way to practise all of these. See our Year 5 and Year 6 guides for more.

Cooking

26. Scale a recipe. A recipe for 4 people uses 200 g of pasta. How much for 6? (300 g, because 6 is one and a half times 4.)
27. Mix the squash. If the bottle says 1 part squash to 4 parts water, how much water goes with 50 ml of squash? (200 ml, making 250 ml in all.)

Shopping and money

28. Work out the sale price. A £15 top has 20% off. What does it cost now? (10% is £1.50, so 20% is £3. It costs £12.)
29. Best value. 500 g of cereal costs £2.00 and 750 g costs £2.70. Which is better value? (Price per 100 g: 40p against 36p, so the bigger box.)
30. Party budget. Give them £20 to plan a picnic from the supermarket website. Can they get the most for the money without going over?
31. Ticket totals. Four tickets cost £12.50 each. What's the total? (£50.)

Travel, games, sport and time

32. Map scales. On a map where 1 cm stands for 2 km, how far is 7 cm? (14 km.)
33. Journey planner. We leave at 09:45 and arrive at 13:20. How long is the journey? (3 hours 35 minutes.)
34. Miles and kilometres. 5 miles is about 8 km. Road signs in miles can be turned into rough distances in kilometres.
35. Goal averages. A team scores 2, 0, 3, 1 and 4 goals in five matches. What's the mean? (10 goals ÷ 5 matches = 2 goals a match.)
36. Race times. One swimmer finishes in 15.4 seconds and another in 16.1 seconds. What's the difference? (0.7 seconds.)
37. Countdown to bedtime. It's 6:45 pm and bedtime is 8:30 pm. How many minutes is that? (1 hour 45 minutes, which is 105 minutes.)
38. Numbers game. Pick six playing cards and a target number between 100 and 200. Can they make the target using +, −, × and ÷?

Making it work

• Pick one a day. You don't need to do them all. One question at the shops or in the car is enough.
• Let them ask you questions too. Children love catching grown-ups out, and making up a question takes real understanding.
• Talk about how, not only what. "How did you work it out?" matters more than the answer.
• Keep it light. If they're tired or not in the mood, leave it. There's always tomorrow.

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