8 Jubilee Maths Activities For Schools: Platinum Jubilee Fun For Key Stage 2 

Jubilee maths activities for schools provide a great opportunity to engage children in open-ended problem solving and creative maths activities. This maths Jubilee party pack links to key areas of the maths curriculum and offers a great way to engage learners in exploring maths in novel ways. 

There are many ways for schools to commemorate the first British monarch reaching 70 years on the throne: from hosting Buckingham Palace style garden parties, challenging students to design commemorative bunting, and participating in The Queen’s Green Canopy project. As maths specialists, Third Space Learning is here to inject some maths into your celebrations!

Jubilee maths activities 

Now KS2 SATs are over, it’s a great time to revisit skills learnt earlier in the year, ensure they are embedded, and that children can apply knowledge within new contexts. Also, after a turbulent two years, it’s likely that there are still areas to cover and gaps to fill. Hopefully, these Platinum Jubilee activities can act as a recap of past topics and even introduce new topics in a fun and engaging way. 

This is a busy time of year, so the resources and preparation for these activities have been kept low. Feel free to pick and choose the best fit for your class and enjoy digging in to celebrate Her Majesty The Queen’s Jubilee!

There are suggested ages for the activities and ways to increase or reduce the demand for the activity so they can be deployed throughout the whole school.

Activities for Lower Key Stage 2, Years 3 & 4

Flag symmetry

The Queen is the monarch of the United Kingdom, which includes 4 different countries. Each of these nations has its own flag, as well as the combined flag: the Union Jack. This activity is a great link to the Geography curriculum and helps reinforce students’ knowledge of the United Kingdom. 

What you will need:

• Copies of each of the 4 flags for each child
• Large versions of the 4 flags for demonstration
• 1 mirror for each child

Step-by-step:

• Discuss what symmetry is and how they can use a mirror as one technique for finding a line of symmetry, and how folding and careful observations can be a second technique. Review some simple shapes and discuss how to identify lines of symmetry.
• Give children all 4 flags. Ask them to discuss and share which flag they think will have the least and most lines of symmetry.
• Children should then explore each flag to see if their predictions are correct.

Making it less challenging:

• Give children fewer flags to explore

Dress the Queen

The Queen is known for her signature fashion sense of a single block of bright colour for each outfit. Here, we’re going to style her by dressing her up in different combinations of colours. 

This activity is very accessible as it can be completed with manipulatives to make it really engaging. Dressing the Queen offers an activity where logical thinking, working systematically or a trial and error approach can all be used to successfully find a solution. Being able to physically manipulate the components and record pictorially makes this activity feel different to ‘normal’ maths. Children can also learn about the Platinum Jubilee colours!

What you need: 

• The Queen’s clothing pieces cut out
• The Queen to dress

Step-by-step:

• Explain to the children that the Queen never likes to be seen wearing the same outfit twice! Show them her wardrobe, which consists of a crown, coat, shoes and handbag in each colour – pink, yellow, green and blue.
• Give the children a Queen to dress, and ask them to create her an outfit. Share the different outfits that have been made and discuss ways to record how they have chosen to dress the Queen.
• Pose the problem: How many different outfit combinations can they make?
• Children should spend time exploring this. A mini-plenary could be great to encourage children to share how they are working and explore the techniques for a systematic approach.

Making it more challenging:

• Give the children a red crown, coat, handbag and shoes to increase the number of solutions

Making it less challenging:

• Remove a colour outfit to reduce the number of solutions

Is Queen Elizabeth II the longest-reigning monarch?

Queen Elizabeth is celebrating her Platinum Jubilee, which means she has been ruling the United Kingdom for 70 years! This is an impressive number, but is she the longest-reigning monarch? This activity is a great opportunity to use some data handling to answer a question to help children understand just how special this celebration is.

What you will need:

• Squared paper, ideally 1cm squared
• Monarch fact cards

Step-by-step:

• Discuss what a Platinum Jubilee stands for and that this signifies the Queen has been our monarch for 70 years. Then pose the question, ‘Is Queen Elizabeth the longest-ruling monarch’? Discuss what children would need to know to answer this question.
• Provide children with the monarch fact cards and ask them to arrange them from longest to shortest rule. These cards contain the top 6 and then some others for familiarity or contrast. 
• Explain that you can show this quickly and clearly using a bar chart. Discuss and agree on an appropriate scale for the y-axis, which should show the years of reign (on 1cm A4 paper, 1 square equalling 5 years would be a good square). Discuss and agree on how to spread data along the x-axis (2 squares for each monarch).
• Model how to draw the bars for the first 2 or 3 monarchs and then let children complete this independently.
• Children should add an appropriate title and label for each axis.

Making it more challenging:

• Children could use a different scale to allow greater accuracy
• Children could research more monarchs to include

Making it less challenging:

• Provide children with the axis drawn and marked out
• Reduce the number of monarchs to the top 6

Queen digits

This is a lovely short activity to look at the digits in the date from the Queen’s Coronation to help children remember this special date. Queen Elizabeth was crowned in 1953, which will create an interesting discussion as to why we are celebrating in 2022 and not 2023.

This happens because her father died in 1952 and she automatically became Queen following his death. However, it is not appropriate to have a celebration and welcome a new monarch so soon after the death of the previous one. Therefore, the actual coronation of a monarch is always held sometime later.

What you will need:

• Digit cards 1, 9, 5, 3

Step-by-step:

• Give children digit cards and discuss the significance of the year 1953 for the Queen.
• Ask children questions using the digits to practise using them to make numbers and solve problems e.g. What is the total of the largest two-digit cards? What is the total of the smallest two-digit cards? What is the largest product you can make? Choose two cards that make the number closest to 100.
• Then provide children with some independent questions to solve on their own.

1. What is the largest number you can make using these digits? 
2. What is the smallest number you can make? 
3. What is the nearest number you can make to 200? You do not have to use all the digits.
4. How many different 4-digit numbers can you make using these digits? 
5. Order the numbers you made in question 3, starting with the smallest. 
6. Use all 4 digits to make this number sentence correct.

7. Make as many 3-digit numbers as you can that round to 200 when rounded to the nearest hundred.

Activities for Upper Key Stage 2, Years 5 & 6

Make 70!

Let’s start by celebrating the Queen’s 70 years of service with some mental calculations around the number 70. This activity can address lots of different areas of mental calculation. It is a naturally open-ended challenge which means that it is easily adjustable to suit learners with a range of differing abilities. 

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 x ÷ – +

What you will need:

• 0-9 digit cards
• Four operation cards
• Optional bracket cards
• Optional indices cards

Step-by-step:

• Display the number 70. Discuss why the number 70 is important today and relate it to the Queen’s Platinum Jubilee celebrations. In this activity, students must make the number 70.
• Give children the digit cards and explain that they need to use the digit and operation cards to create a number sentence that gives a total of 70.
• Students can only use each card once. If your class is familiar with the rules of BODMAS, they could have the optional brackets and indices cards to enable them to build more complex number sentences.
• Give children time to trial ideas for about 10 minutes. After that, stop the children and share the calculations they’ve been creating so far. This should help to make sure that anyone who is struggling to get going can see what they could try.
• Children then just need time to get stuck in and spend lots of time trying their ideas and trying to find a solution.

Making it more challenging:

• Tell children that they have to use the digits in order from 0 – 9.

Making it less challenging:

• Children can use more than 1 of each card.

Jubilee baking

Up and down the country, bakers will be busy preparing tasty treats for Platinum Jubilee parties. Why not give your class the challenge of adjusting a recipe so that the quantities are correct to make a sweet treat to enjoy as part of your school celebrations. If they can tell you the right quantities, you’ll go shopping for them… and then you can bake a cake as a class!

Note: If you really do this, you will need to think about how many 9-inch cake tins you’ll need to split the mixture (to ensure that it cooks according to the original timing) e.g. if you have 30 children, you’d be better to make enough for 36 and make 3 cakes… because the adults want some too! 

What you need:

• Copies of the recipe
• Quantities template worksheet

Step-by-step:

• Share the recipe card and discuss the quantities for the ingredients to make a Victoria Sandwich Cake. Explain that this is a recipe for 12 slices of cake.
• How much of each ingredient will there be in 1 slice? Discuss how to divide each quantity by 12 to find out how much will be in each slice of cake. Discuss how to use fractions to reduce the teaspoon quantities e.g 1/12 tsp for the vanilla extract.
• How much of each ingredient will there be in 24 slices of cake?
• How much of each ingredient will be needed to make a cake big enough for everyone in the class to have a slice of?

Recipe

Ingredients:

For the sponge cake

• 360g caster sugar
• 360g butter
• 360g self-raising flour
• 6 eggs
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 1 tbsp icing sugar

For the filling

• 180g strawberry jam
• 300ml double cream

Instructions:

1. Preheat the oven to 180 (160 fan, gas mark 4).
2. Cream the sugar and butter together until smooth.
3. Next, add the eggs one at a time with a tablespoon of the flour, mixing in between each egg to prevent it from curdling.
4. Then add the vanilla.
5. Slowly mix in the remaining flour until fully combined.
6. Divide the mixture between two greased/lined 9-inch cake tins.
7. Bake for 30-35 mins or until a knife comes out clean.
8. While the cakes cool, whip the double cream until it can hold peaks.
9. When completely cool, spread the jam on the underside of one cake and cream on the underside of the other.
10. Carefully place the jam covered cake onto the cream covered one.
11. Dust the icing sugar over the top and serve!

Baking is a great way to demonstrate maths in a real-world context. Third Space Learning’s online one-to-one tuition lessons often try to show the everyday application of maths.

Simplifying fractions

Supporting children to recognise that fractions are everywhere is really important. Also, helping them recognise that many things can be a whole – for example, the whole of the Queen’s reign! Queen Elizabeth has spent 70 years on the throne and this number creates a great denominator to use to create fractions.

What you will need:

• Key information cards

Step-by-step:

• Hand out key information cards and discuss the Royal Family and the events that have taken place over the Queen’s life. Ask children to order the events from oldest to most recent.
• How long has the Queen’s whole life been? Discuss that she is 96 years old.
• Discuss that the key events of her life represent parts of that whole e.g. Princess Anne was born in 1950. What fraction of her life has Princess Anne been alive for? Discuss that this is 72/96. Can this be simplified? Discuss that this can be simplified to 36/47.
• What fraction of her life has Prince Edward been alive for? Discuss that it is 58/96. Can this be simplified? Discuss that it can be simplified to 29/47.
• Explain that simple fractions are considered to have the smallest numerator and denominator. Pose the problem: Which key event in her life produces the simplest fraction?

Making it more challenging:

• What if the whole is the time she has been on the throne for? Do you get a different simplest fraction?

Making it less challenging:

• Provide children with the differences in time to remove the need to calculate this
• Provide children with a multiplication square

Card facts:

• Elizabeth was born in 1926
• Elizabeth married Phillip Mountbatten in 1947
• Prince Charles was born in 1948 
• Princess Anne was born in 1950
• George VI, her father, died in 1952
• Queen crowned in 1953
• Prince Edward was born in 1964
• Prince Charles married Diana in 1981
• Prince William was born in 1982
• Prince Harry was born in 1984
• Prince William married Kate in 2011
• Prince George was born in 2013
• Princess Charlotte was born in 2015
• Prince Louis was born in 2018

Shilling conversion!

When the Queen came to the throne 70 years ago, lots of things were different, including money!  

What you need:

Step-by-step:

• Explain to children that in 1953 different coins were used and they had different names. Introduce the words ‘shillings’ and ‘guineas’. Explain that they also had pounds and pence, as well as many more coins e.g. farthing, tuppence, crown, thruppence, ‘two bit bob’ etc.
• Share the conversion amounts. 20 shillings = 1 pound.  1 guinea = 1 pound and 1 shilling. Give some amounts of money for children to practise converting e.g. 10 pounds = ? shillings. 5 pounds = ? shillings. 3 guineas = ? pounds. 1 shilling = ? pence.
• Discuss that pennies weren’t recorded with a p, but a d instead because the Latin word for this coin was ‘denarius’. Discuss that guineas were recorded with gn, and shillings with s.
• Show children the prices for items in old money. How much would they be if we convert them to the pounds and pence values we use today?
• Once children have converted the items, they could research how much these items would cost today to compare how the value of items has increased over time.

Making it more challenging:

• Children could research their own items to extend the list
• Children could research other coin amounts 

Making it less challenging:

• Give children fewer items to convert
• Give children partially completed conversions to complete as a model for what to do

Commemorating the Platinum Jubilee

We hope that these teaching resources can play a part in your primary school’s official celebration and Jubilee events. Enjoy the bank holiday weekend!

Looking for more? Try these event based ks2 maths problem solving investigations, our favourite fun maths lessons or more fun KS1 and KS2 maths activities.

Do you have pupils who need extra support in maths?
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