Maths Project: Design a Fidget Toy | PawSteps by Pets on the Green

What is a fidget toy?

Research

Learn first: A fidget toy is a small object you can hold and move with your hands — spin it, click it, squeeze it or roll it. Keeping your hands busy can help some people focus, feel calm, and manage worry or restlessness. They are especially helpful for people who find it hard to sit still or concentrate. Good examples include the fidget spinner, pop-it, fidget cube, stress ball, tangle and kinetic sand.

1. In your own words, what is a fidget toy?

2. List some examples of existing fidget toys you know.

3. What makes a good fidget toy? (Think: quiet? tough? satisfying? small enough to carry?)

4. What are fidget toys designed for?

Ideas to compare your answers with

What makes a good one: quiet, hard-wearing, satisfying to touch, safe, small and portable, and gives good sensory feedback. Designed for: helping focus, calming nerves, giving the hands something to do, and providing sensory input for self-regulation.

Survey: who uses fidget toys?

Tally · bar chart · mode · range · fractions · %

Ask your friends, family, class, club or group: which type of fidget toy do you prefer? Fill in how many chose each type (your tally count). Everything below updates automatically.

Fidget type	Count (tally total)	Fraction	Percentage
TOTAL	0	1 whole	100%

Bar chart of results

Most popular (mode)

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Range of the counts

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People surveyed

Maths help

Mode = the answer chosen most often. Range = biggest count − smallest count. Fraction = that type's count ÷ total. Percentage = fraction × 100. They should all add up to the whole (100%).

Price up five fidget toys

Money · mean · value for money

Look up five real fidget toys online. Record the cost and weight of each. We'll work out the mean (average) price and which one gives the most grams per pound — that's the best value for weight!

Fidget toy	Cost (£)	Weight (g)	Grams per £

Mean (average) price

£0.00

Best value (most g per £)

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Maths help

Mean price = add all the prices, then divide by how many toys. Grams per pound = weight ÷ cost. A higher number means you get more grams of toy for every £1 — better value for weight.

Measure three real fidget toys

Measurement (mm) · size envelope

Measure three fidget toys in millimetres (mm): length, width and depth. From these we'll work out your size envelope — the biggest box your own design must fit inside.

Fidget toy	Length (mm)	Width (mm)	Depth (mm)

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Your design must fit inside

— × — × — mm

(Take the biggest length, biggest width and biggest depth of the three toys.)

Why a size envelope?

Real designers work within limits. Your envelope is the maximum length, width and depth — so your fidget toy design must be no bigger than these measurements to be a sensible, pocket-sized size.

✅ Task 1 complete — you're ready to design!

Next up (Task 2): sketch your fidget-toy design so it fits inside your size envelope, then work out how much it would cost to make.

🐾 PawSteps Maths Project · For cmux: interactive worksheet — all tables live-calculate (tally→bar chart, mode/range/%, mean price, grams-per-£, size envelope). Values are session-only; add save-to-Progress and a printable answer version.