Junior Mini Mathematical Murder Mysteries

16 activities to stretch and engage ages 8–11

"Excellent, highly recommended, my class love it." Teacher, Devon

Getting children curious about mathematics, and keeping them exploring, is not easy, especially when lesson time is short. This maths activity book builds core maths skills inside a short maths mystery: each solved case adds confidence and keeps the foundations solid for later success.

How each maths mystery works

KS2 asks pupils to consolidate their number skills while they meet new concepts. Consolidation practice needs to be enjoyable rather than dull, which is a recurring challenge across the curriculum. Each mystery follows the same steps:

• Using an easy-to-follow format, children "solve" the mystery.
• Correct answers reveal who, what, where or when in the murder mystery, narrowing down the suspects.
• Eagerness to find out keeps them working, reinforcing and revising as they go.
• It's self-marking: all you have to do is check that the correct answer has been reached.
• Contents cover key topics in arithmetic. Number and early algebra, angle and shape, money, coordinates and other investigative topics also bring in reasoning and problem solving.

A maths murder mystery for Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6

The 8–11 age range covers most of KS2, across Year 4, Year 5 and Year 6. In the classroom, this works well when a whole class tackles one mystery: self-marking answers free you to support the pupils who are stuck.

For home learning, the workbook format means a parent needs no answer key to hand. Children check their own progress as each clue falls into place.

A puzzle book backed by 50 years of maths enrichment

Finding tried and tested ways of teaching and learning that are fun is hard and takes time. Tarquin has over 50 years' experience of providing enrichment activities and exciting puzzles to teachers, students and parents. In primary school, this puzzle book works as revision before a topic test or as a settled end-of-week task.

This book is also in Tarquin Select packages with hundreds of other resources for a small fee.

Buy Junior Mini Mathematical Murder Mysteries and picture your class racing to name the culprit in each maths murder while they revise arithmetic. If you are not sure yet, get free sample pages emailed to you through the Sample button.