Goals

The goals of this project are to:

• Provide challenging math activities for interested Grade 3-8 students in Canada.
• Show that mathematical puzzles can be fun and that competing in mathematical contests can be exciting.

Puzzles of the Day

 abc −   dc = ec
   + ÷    × ×  −
dfgc ÷   fc = gh
   = =    = =  =
djcc ÷ abcc =  d

42 − 40 =  2
 − +  − +  ×
 2 + 38 = 40
 = =  = =  =
40 ×  2 = 80

Date and Time

The list of scheduled contests is published at the start of each school year to allow planning participation well ahead. The contests are available Canada wide. On each contest day the competitions are held in three age groups: grades 3/4, 5/6 and 7/8. Students of different age groups may compete at the same time in the same room but will have different sets of questions.

There are no contests registered at this time, please check back later

How To Participate

The contests are FREE and can be attempted by any student in grades 3-8 in Canada. The only restrictions are that the contests must be administered by school staff at the school, or a library administered by a librarian. This is to ensure a fair competition. The contests are taken between 7:30am and 3:30pm for each respective timezone.

To enter a competition, you need to find out if your school plans to enter or whether a teacher at your school would be willing to supervise you during the contest.

School Teachers can register for multiple contests as a contact person for their school. There can be more than one contact person per school, but only one contact person per contest. Teachers can register here.

• Click for a list of schools which have registered.

Schools with students planning to participate in the competition should fill out the online registration form to order a specific number of passwords, enough for each student planning to enter the contest. Each password can be used only once for each contest that it was obtained for and only by one student. Also, a student can try each contest only once.

Students that are home-schooled may take part by contacting their local library, and asking them to register as the contact for the contest. They can participate at the library on the day of the contest. If there is no library, then you can contact your local school that is participating in each contest.

Join our Mailing List

Parents can register with us on this page to receive an email when we announce our next contest and any other information we send out. You can remove your registration here.

Practice Questions

All problems of previously held competitions are available online in our practice tests, allowing students to see what the online test will look like and what has to be typed in. The type of problems are similar to those of the Kangaroo problem database:

• http://www.mathkangaroo.org/2010page/Clark/clark/pdb/

Problem sets are available at this web page. Teachers, students and parents are recommended to use both for practice questions.

This kind of mathematics contest started in France, in 2001, and has been adopted by many countries, including Canada. A written contest similar to the Kangaroo contest is held in Toronto each year. For more information, see:

• http://www.math.toronto.edu/oz/turgor/kangaroo.php

Other Resources

• Math for Kids: a new and free international competition for children in mathematics.
• Web resources of the Centre of Education in Mathematics and Computing, University of Waterloo, for grades 4-12.
• ELMACON a mathematics contest for elementary school students in Vancouver/BC.
• Math Performance Center (Click on Resources). The Math Performance Centre seeks to promote and support the celebration of mathematics through the arts.
• Canadian Math Kangaroo Contest. An international contest for students in grades 3-12 in Canada. This website offers news and practice tests and questions.
• Kangourou sans Frontieres (Kangaroo of Mathematics). An independent association, whose purpose is to organize the annual KANGOUROU contest with the aim of promoting mathematics among young people around the world.
• USA Math Kangaroo Contest. An international contest for students in grades 2-12 in USA. This website offers news and practice tests and questions.
• Math Central. Teaching resources for mathematics teachers, a question and answer service for teachers and students,careers of mathematicians, a problem of the month and more.
• The Art of Problem Solving. This is a comprehensive site for the art of problem solving, although mainly for highschool students: but it has much more information included as well, for example, lists of mathematics contests world wide:
• Virtual Mathematical Marathon. An ongoing mathematics contest with new problems every week for grades 3 to 12.
• International High School Mathematics competition. University of Laval (in French)
• Purple Comet! Math Meet: An online yearly mathemematics contest for teams of intermediate and high school students.

Here is a list of other websites that offer resources such as tutorials, math quizzes and games:

• BBC Literacy Games
• BBC Numeracy Games
• Grade 3 Math Practice
• Grade 4 Math Practice
• Math Activities
• Mathamaze, a free multiplayer online game from Mitacs
• PBS Kids Games
• Sudoku For Kids

Prizes

The contestants with the most points over all six contests for each grade group (3/4, 5/6, 7/8) in the school year 2011/12 will be awarded prizes. Additional prizes will be funded purely from the income of the donation web page.

The prizes will be awarded by the following scheme: A student will accumulate points throughout the year. At the end of the year, the number of points achieved will be divided by the the total possible number of points. For example, suppose the student takes part in 6 contests and earns 480 points and the total number of points possible was 576, then the ratio is (480 / 576) = 0.8333.

Suppose this student has the highest total of all students. The first prize is $100 multiplied by this ratio. So $100 x 0.8333 = $83.33. The remaining prizes are awarded in this fashion until the purse is empty, with $500 total to start. Each school for which a student was awarded a prize also receives 30% in addition, for example, $30 for first prize multiplied by the same percentage. The following is the scheme that will be employed.

Making a Donation

You can make a donation for our contest on this page. You will have to enter your information intended for a tax exemption receipt. 100% of the donation will go towards prizes, and 30% of the funds will go towards the schools of the winning students. Please help us reward top scoring students with prizes.

Sharing the results

All contestants will be able to download a printable certificate of participation and a certificate of merit with the achieved rank within their school, within their school board, in the province and Canada wide.

Only students that win the contest and their school will be published. There will be no full public ranking of schools, school boards or provinces.

Disclaimer: The Caribou Team reserves the right to use its discretion when publishing results and awarding prizes to individuals and schools.