Use four numbers and the four operations to reach the target, 24 by default. Race the clock here, then print it for your class two ways: an individual worksheet for homework and practice, or a group competition that cuts into race squares with a winner line on each. The answer key matches either one exactly.
Here is a small puzzle with a lot of mileage: you are handed four numbers and a target, and you have to combine the numbers with addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division, using each one exactly once, until you land exactly on the target. The default target is 24, the classic, but you can set it to anything. It looks simple and then it is not, which is exactly why teachers and families reach for puzzles like this to build real mental-math fluency.
Play right in the browser by tapping a number, an operator, and a second number to combine them, then repeat until one card shows the target. When you want to move it off the screen, download a printable worksheet of fresh exercises with instructions written for your chosen target, and a matching answer sheet that shows a worked solution for every one. Every puzzle is checked by an exact fraction solver before it is served, so there are no unsolvable duds and the answer key is always right, even when the path to the target runs through a fraction.
You get four numbers and a target. Combine the numbers with the four operations, each used once, until a single result equals the target. In the game, tap a number, tap an operator, then tap a second number to merge them, and repeat until one card shows the target.
Yes, to any whole number you like. The game generates fresh, guaranteed-solvable puzzles for the new target, and the worksheet and answer sheet automatically rewrite their instructions to match, so everything stays consistent.
Yes, two ways. The individual worksheet is built for homework or a take-home practice quiz: a student name line, your name, class, date, and grade in a box at the top right (anything left blank becomes a fill-in line), editable instructions, and boxed exercises with room to show work. The group competition sheet instead cuts into race squares. Either way, the answer key matches the sheet exercise for exercise, in Letter or A4.
Download the group competition PDF and cut along the dashed lines: every square is one round, carrying the four numbers and the target. Everyone races the same numbers, the first correct solution wins, and the winner writes their name on the square's winner line. The individual worksheet deliberately has no winner lines, so homework stays homework.
Always. An exact fraction-based solver validates each puzzle before it appears and produces the answer key, so you never get a dud, and the answers are correct even when the solution needs division along the way.
The difficulties map to grade bands. Easy fits grades 2-4: smaller numbers, and every puzzle can be solved without division and without any step dipping below zero. Medium fits grades 4-6 with all four operations in play. Hard fits grades 6 and up, through adults, where division matters and solutions can pass through fractions.
It is one of the best low-tech ways to build number sense: it exercises all four operations, order of operations, and flexible thinking at once. The difficulty settings scale it from early learners to adults, and the printables make it easy to use away from a screen.