Magic Square

Starter of The Day Transum Mathematics Topics

Transum,
Teachers can vary the difficulty of this starter. Classes requiring more support could be told the line total (15) and the teacher could drag some numbers into position to give the students a less difficult problem to solve. Answers can be found below and a self marking student version of this activity, for which the students can earn trophies, can also be found by following the link near the bottom of this page.
Mrs Boussouara's Maths Class S1, Holyrood Secondary School Gasgow
Mrs Boussouara's first year class thought this was hard but Charelle got the corrct answer. Well done Charelle!!
Mrs Dumble, Shanghai United International School, China
This was the first magic square for Mrs Dumble's class. We also talked about Lewis Carrol and his diagrams. Well done Lancelot!!

How did you use this starter? Can you suggest how teachers could present or develop this resource? Do you have any comments? It is always useful to receive feedback and helps make this free resource even more useful for Maths teachers anywhere in the world.
Click here to enter your comments.

Previous Day | This starter is for 14 May | Next Day

Answers

Your access to the majority of the Transum resources continues to be free but you can help support the continued growth of the website by doing your Amazon shopping using the links on this page. Below is an Amazon link. As an Amazon Associate I earn a small amount from qualifying purchases which helps pay for the upkeep of this website.

Educational Technology on Amazon

GCSE Revision and Practice

Whatever exam board you use for GCSE Mathematics, this book by David Rayner remains an all-round winner. With this latest edition presented in full colour and completely updated for the new GCSE(9-1) specifications, this uniquely effective text continues to increase your chance of obtaining a good grade.

This book is targeted at the Higher tier GCSE, and provides a wealth of practice with careful progression, alongside substantial revision support for the new-style grading and exam questions. With all the new topics included, and a dedicated section on using and applying mathematics, this unique resource can be used either as a course book over two or three years or as a revision text in the run-up to exams. more... #ad

Maths T-Shirts

Maths T-Shirts on Amazon

Teacher, do your students have access to computers such as tablets, iPads or Laptops? This page was really designed for projection on a whiteboard but if you really want the students to have access to it here is a concise URL for a version of this page without the comments:

Transum.org/go/?Start=May14

However it would be better to assign one of the student interactive activities below.

Laptops In Lessons

Here is the URL which will take them to a multi-level version of this activity.

Transum.org/go/?to=Magic

Suggested

Magic Square

This is the pupil version of the Magic Square activity which has a number of levels to suit a range of abilities.

The short web address is:

Transum.org/go/?to=magic

Suggested

Unmagic Square

This activity is similar to the Magic Square challenge but all of the totals should be different.

The short web address is:

Transum.org/go/?to=unmagic

Suggested

Magic Square Puzzle

Find all of the possible ways of making the magic total from the numbers in this four by four magic square.

The short web address is:

Transum.org/go/?to=magicsquarepuzzle

Here are the oldest magic squares we know of:

Lo Shu Square

The Lo Shu square on the back of a small turtle in the centre, surrounded by the signs of the Chinese Zodiac and the Eight trigrams, all carried by a large turtle

Durer's Magic Square