The Number Gym

(KS1,2,3: age 6-16)

The Number Gym won the 2007 Pirelli Internet Award for the Communication of Mathematics

"for its ability to provide children, by means of interactive tools and games, with an informal and fun approach to the complex world of mathematics".

The Number Gym version 2.7 (released in 2009) is now even bigger and better, comprising 50 separate activities, targeted at the primary numeracy strategy. These can be broadly divided into two categories: open ended explorations and pupil challenges. Many of the activities can be used throughout the Primary age and ability range by simply clicking on a few settings. The Number Gym has been praised consistently for its clarity in presenting complex mathematical concepts in simple but engaging interactives. This software enables teachers to quickly create interesting and engaging lessons while making differentiation between ability levels easy. Accompanying the software is a comprehensive user guide written by Ian Sugarman, formerly a Senior Primary Maths Lecturer at Manchester Metropolitan University which is packed full of teaching hints and tips for getting the most out of this highly versatile software package.

Here are our latest additions to our broad list of activities

Ideal for the ICT Suite. All players click start at a given signal. The task is to drag selected number cards into a frame to make sums with answers matching the red targets above. As each correct target floats away the turtle moves slowly towards the finish line. There's a sound and vision spectacular for the winner.

Choose from a range of nine levels of difficulty: simple addition and subtraction, multiplication tables, division, decimals and even three cards with two operators!

Teams or individuals can compete against each other to see who can score the most points after 5 challenges.

Note: There are two preparatory activities leading to this one using the compass points and the chockface as templates to help with angle estimation.

This is a game for 2 teams or players. The goal is to find pairs of matching cards.

These games use a variety of images of small numbers that are designed to exploit children’s capacity to subitise the quantity rather than count each object. Familiar dice or domino images are accompanied by the five-rack images that highlight the “5 and something” structure of numbers and Numicon images, that highlight the odd/even structure of numbers.

This game will soon be extended to show equivalent fractions, decimals and percentages etc

This activity is ideally designed to teach the strategy of multiplying a 2-digit number by partitioning the 10. But it is also good for investigating partitionings of numbers less than 10, especially focusing on those products in the times tables that tend to get learned last, e.g. 7x8

The challenge is to drag the liquid level to the stated amount. If incorrect, further attempts are offered.

A range of different scales are provided, with a more challenging scale automatically offered if two correct solutions are provided at the first attempt. Optionally some scale entries can be omitted.

This activity can be used as a teaching tool, where pupils are engaged in discussion about the identity of positions on the scale or as a competitive game between two teams or individuals. It has been designed to provide a challenge but also offers support if it is needed.

The teacher may select from a range of possible decimal units. Clicking Go will randomly set a challenge from the selected units.