Match Fish

By moving just three matches can you make it look as
though the fish is swimming to the left?

Match Match Match Match Match Match Match Match

Reset

Answer

Use pencils and pens to try out your ideas.

The solutions to this and other Transum puzzles, exercises and activities are available here when you are signed in to your Transum subscription account. If you do not yet have an account and you are a teacher or parent you can apply for one here.

A Transum subscription also gives you access to the 'Class Admin' student management system and opens up ad-free access to the Transum website for you and your pupils.

Starter of The Day Transum Mathematics Topics


Topics: Starter | Problem Solving | Puzzles | Symmetry

  • Luke Seymour, Sheffield Park Academy
  •  
  • Can you make a supermarket by moving 1 match?

    PLACE 16 MATCHES TO CREATE 4 SQUARES 2 top, 2 bottom

    move one so it spells CO OP
  • Whitly Bay High,
  •  
  • This was a good starter it got the children thinking.
  • Miss Star, Newport Middle
  •  
  • The kids enjoyed it they found it out in around 20 mins they wanted to do it again and again !
  • Mr Moroca, Dykehouse College
  •  
  • I found this really interesting and my class enjoyed doing this starter!
  • Awesome Girl 2012, Eden Prarie, Minnesota Voted Best City To Live In
  •  
  • I learned about this from my 4th grade enriched math teacher. This is a good website.
  • Transum,
  •  
  • This is a great problem solving activity which is really effective if pupils are working in small groups of two or three. The grouping encourages discussion, justification and explanation of ideas. There are more similar puzzles to be found by following the links below. Don't use live matches though!

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 26 May | Next Day

 

Suggested

Stick Squares

Stick Squares

Move four sticks to new positions in the arrangement so that there are three squares instead of two.

The short web address is:

Transum.org/go/?to=stick
Challenges

Matchstick Puzzle

Matchstick Puzzle

Move three matches to new positions in the diagram so that there are five squares instead of three.

The short web address is:

Transum.org/go/?to=matchstick
Sequences

Matchstick Patterns

Matchstick Patterns

Create a formula to describe the nth term of a sequence by examining the structure of the diagrams.

The short web address is:

Transum.org/go/?to=matchpat

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Laptops In Lessons

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=May26

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

Laptops In Lessons

Here are the URLs which will take them to the other interactive stick moving activities.

Transum.org/go/?to=Match

Transum.org/go/?to=Matchstick

Transum.org/go/?to=Stick

 

 

 

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