KS1 Problem Solving

A mixture of Y1 and Y2 problems

 Spending Money
Millie goes to the shop with some coins in her purse.
She has two 1p coins, two 2p coins and two 5p coins.

She spends two of them.

• How much might she spend?
• What if she spent 3 coins?
• What if she started with different coins in her
purse?
 Faces
Eric has a bag containing cubes and cones.
He counts the total number of faces in his bad,
curved and flat. There are 20 faces.

• How many of each shape could there be in his

bag?
• What if there were 30 faces?
• What if his bag just held cylinders and cubes?
 Cards
After removing the picture cards from a pack, 4
cards are chosen at random.
2
The total of the 4 cards is 11.

• Could you choose 4 different cards but still

have a total of 11?
• What if you only chose 3 cards?
• What if the total was 12?
 More Cards
After removing the picture cards from a pack, 4
cards are chosen at random.

• Choose from these four cards, What us the

smallest total you can make using three of them?
• What is the largest total you can make using two
cards?
• Using any combination from these four cards,
what different totals can you make?
 Sticks
Aggie finds some sticks.
They are 10cm long or 6cm long.
She uses three of them as the sides of a shape.

• Draw the shapes she might have made.

• What if she used four of them to make a shape?
• What might her shapes be now?

• What if she finds some more sticks 8cm long?

• Can she make any new shapes?
 Plates
You need 4 plates and 13 counters.
Put the plates in a line.
A B C D

Use all the counters so that plates A, B and C have 8 counters

on them in total, and plates C and D have a total of 8 too.
• How many ways can you do it?

• Can you do it using 14 counters?

• Can you do it using other numbers of counters?
 Target 2 4

Jake throws beanbags at the target. 5 3

• Which parts of the target must Jake hit with

his beanbags to score exactly 8?
• Can he score 8 with two beanbags? Three
beanbags? Four beanbags?
• How can he score exactly 9?
• What if you changed the scores on the target?
 Dominoes
• How many dominoes can you find with a total
of 8 dots?

• How could you record your thinking?

• What if you change the total of number of
dots to 9?
• Using 2 dominoes, can you find 6 different
ways to have a total of 12 dots?
 Differences
Choose from these cards:

14 7 12 8
• Pick two cards and find the difference. How
many differences can you make?
• What if you swapped one of the cards for 18?
• What different differences can you make now?
 Double or Halve part 1
Make notes as you solve these.

Bobby thinks of a number.

He doubles it, then he doubles it again.
His new number is 20.
What was his starting number?
 Double or Halve part 2
Make notes as you solve these.

Jill thinks of a number.

She doubles it, then she doubles it again.
Her new number is 28.
What was her starting number?
 Double or Halve part 3
Make notes as you solve these.

Danny thinks of a number.

He halves it, then he halves it again.
His new number is 6.
What was his starting number?

• Look at all of your notes – what do you notice?

• Can you explain what happens?
 Biscuits
When Ally opens a packet of biscuits, she find they
are all broken. They are either in halves or quarters.
• If she east a total of two biscuits, how many
halves is that? How many quarters?
• If she ate a mixture of halves and quarters, how
many different combinations would make a total
of two biscuits?
• What if she ate a different total number of
biscuits?
 Thirsty
A 2 litre jug of juice is used to pour drinks.
The drinks are either half a litre or quarter of a
litre.

• How many drinks could be poured?

• What if a 3 litre jug was used?
 Greedy Cats
Three cats scoff 18 treats between them.

Each cat eats a different even number of treats.

• How many treats could they each have eaten?

• What if there 17 treats and they each ate a different odd number
of treats?
 Buttons
Buttons come on cards of 4 or 2 buttons.

Milly needs 20 buttons.

• How many of each card could she buy?

• What if the total number of buttons she needs was

26?
 Saving Money
Jenny and Mandy have been saving money.
When you count Mandy’s money, double it and
add £3, it comes to £17.
• How much has she saved?

When you count Jenny’s money, halve it and

subtract £2, it comes to £4.
• How much has she saved?
 Cakes
Jo’s caked either have 3 sweets or 4 sweets on
them.
She arranges some cakes on a plate and counts
21 sweets.
• How many of each type of cake could there
have been?
• How many of each type of cake could there
have been if she counted 28 sweets?
 Stamps
Jade has some stamps. They are either 1p or 10p stamps.
She sticks 7 of them on a parcel.
• What might be the total value of the stamps?

2 stamps fall off of the parcel.

• What could be the value of the stamps left on the parcel?

• What if you started with 6 stamps and then 3 fell off?

 100 square
Ellie puts her finger on a number on the 100 square.
She then moves 4 squares up, down, left or right.
She ends up on 45.
• What could her starting number have been?
• List at least 8 of the possible starting numbers.
• What do you notice?
• What if the number she ends up on is 36?

Use the hundred square on the next slide to help you.

 String
Mark’s string is 75cm long.
He cuts it into 3 pieces. All except one of the pieces is
a multiple of 10cm.
• What lengths could the pieces be?
• List as many suggestions as you can.
• What do you notice?
• Why does this happen?
• What if he started with a piece of string 63cm long?
Answers: Slides 2-26
 Answers: Slides 27-48
Spending Money (Slide 27)
1+1 = 2 1+2 = 3 1+5 = 6 2+2 = 4 2+5 = 7
5+5 = 10
1,1,2 1,1,5 1,2,2 1,2,5 1,5,5
2,5,5 2,2,5
So
4p, 5p, 7p, 8p, 9p, 11p, 12p

Faces (Slide 28)

20 faces: 1 cone, 3 cubes; 4 cones, 2 cubes; 7 cones, 1 cube
30 faces: 5 cubes; 4 cubes, 3 cones; 3 cubes, 6 cones; 2 cubes, 9
cones; 1 cube, 12 cones
Cards (Slide 29)
4 cards = 11 possible ways
1+1+1+8 1+1+2+7 1+1+3+6 1+1+4+5 1+2+2+6
1+2+3+5 1+2+4+4 1+3+3+4 2+2+2+5 2+2+3+4
2+3+3+3
3 cards = 10 possible ways
1+1+9 1+2+8 1+3+7 1+4+6 1+5+5 2+2+7 2+3+6
2+4+5 3+3+5 3+4+4

More Cards (Slide 30)

Smallest is 9, largest is 10.
Make all totals from 5-15 except 14.
Sticks (Slide 31)
4 different triangles:
10,10,10 6,6,6 10,10,6 6,6,10
Quadrilaterals made from the following combinations of sides:
10,10,10,10 10,10,10,6 10,10,6,6 10,6,6,6 6,6,6,6

Plates (Slide 32) A B C D

1 4 3 5
2 3 3 5
3 2 3 5
4 1 3 5

Using 4 counters
A B C D
for example: 1 5 2 6
2 4 2 6
3 3 6 2
Target (Slide 33)
2+2+2+2 2+2+4 2+3+3 3+5 4+4
2+3+4 2+2+5 2+2+2+3 3+3+3 4+5

Dominoes (Slide 34)

1 2 3 4 5 6
1
2 8
3 8 9
4 8 9
5 8 9
6 8 9
Differences (Slide 35)
1= 8-7 2= 14-12 4 = 12-8 5= 12-7 6 = 14-8 7= 14-7

Double or Halve (Slides 36-38)

Bobby: 5 (notes: 5, 10, 20)
Jill: 7 (notes: 7, 14, 28)
Danny: 24 (notes: 6, 12, 24)
Numbers with a difference of 1 when doubled have a difference
of two, then a difference of 4 when doubled again.

Biscuits (Slide 39)

4 halves or 8 quarters six quarters and one half
Four quarters and two halves two quarters and 3 halves
Thirsty (Slide 40)
Eight quarters
Six quarters and one half = 7 drinks
Four quarters and 2 halves = 6 drinks
Two quarters and three halves = 5 drinks
Four halves = 4 drinks

Greedy Cats (Slide 41)

2,4,12 2,6,10 4,6,8
each in six different combinations to make 18
Buttons (Slide 42) If 26 buttons
10 x 2 13 x 2
or 8 x 2 and 1 x 4 or 11 x 2 and 1 x 4
or 6 x 2 and 2 x 4 or 9 x 2 and 2 x 4
or 4 x 2 and 3 x 4 or 7 x 2 and 3 x 4
or 2 x 2 and 4 x 4 or 5 x 2 and 4 x 4
or 4 x 5 or 3 x 2 and 5 x 4
or 1 x2 and 6 x 4

Saving Money (Slide 43)

Mandy = x2 +3 = 17 so £7

Jenny = ÷ 2 – 2 = 4 so £12
Cakes (Slide 44)
7 x 3 or 4 x 3 + 3 x 3
7 x 4 or 4 x 4 + 3 x 4

Stamps (Slide 45)

All totals when 2
Total
fall off are 50,
41, 32, 23, 14 or
10 10 10 10 10 10 10 70 5
10 10 10 10 10 10 1 61
10 10 10 10 10 1 1 52
10 10 10 10 1 1 1 43
10 10 10 1 1 1 1 34
10 10 1 1 1 1 1 25
10 1 1 1 1 1 1 16
1 1 1 1 1 1 1 7
100 Square (Slides 46-47)

5
14 16
23 27
32 38
41 45 49
52 58
63 67
74 76
85
String (Slide 48)

10 10 55 10 20 45

10 30 35 10 40 25

10 50 15 10 60 5

20 20 35 20 30 25

20 40 15 20 50 5

30 40 5