Introduction

Good thinkers are resilient. They don’t give up easily, and are motivated to work hard and keep going when faced with challenges. They recognize that we all fail sometimes, and when this happens, they bounce back and try alternative approaches.

TWO DIFFERENT CHALLENGES – Take your pick!

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Design a Beaded Necklace

Have you ever thought about the mathematics of beading? This challenge will encourage your children to think about symmetry and all of the ways you can create different necklaces with the same beads.

  • You have eight beads, four of one color and four of another.

  • Your designs need to be symmetrical.

  • Here’s an example:

    —–OOOOOOOO—–

How many necklaces can you make?

?  Can you find them all?  Make a list or draw a picture to help you keep track.
?  How do you know there aren’t any others?

What if……………?

??  What if you had 9 beads, five of one color and four of another?

??  What if they had 10 beads, five of each?

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This activity is an opportunity to stick with a trial and improvement approach, combined with some systematic working.

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Play to 37

This is a game for two players.

You have four bags.   Each bag is filled with the numbers marked on your bags.

Goal:  To be the player to add the final number to the ‘running’ total to make 37. 

How to play: 

1. Decide who is going first.
2, Player 1 chooses one of the numbers from the bags above (1,3, 5 or 7).
3. Player 2 then chooses a number from one of the bags and adds this onto player 1’s number to make a ‘running’ total.
4. Player 1 then has another turn and adds that number onto the ‘running’ total.
5. Play continues like this with each player choosing a number and adding it onto the ‘running’ total.

Things to think about: 

How many numbers did you use altogether in the game?

Play again.  How many numbers did you use this time?

Fran says “I need to go first in order to win.”

Do you agree with Fran? Why or why not?

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This game is an opportunity for children to become more fluent in addition.  In order to try to win, learners will need to think ahead and this element of strategy demands higher-order thinking.