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Five Steps to 50

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level Yellow star
Primary curriculum
  • Problem
  • Getting Started
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Five Steps to 50 printable sheet

This challenge is about counting on and back in steps of 1, 10 and 100.

Roll a dice twice to establish your starting number - the first roll will give you the tens digit and the second roll will give you the units digit.
You can then make five jumps to get as close to 50 as possible.
You can jump forwards or backwards in jumps of 1 or 10 or 100.

Compare your strategy with a friend.
Did you jump forwards or backwards?
Can you land on 50 exactly?
How far from 50 were you?
Could you do it another way?
Could you get even closer?
Which numbers can get you to 50?
Which can't?

Roll the dice again and have another go!

For example:
I roll a dice and get a 2 then a 3, so my starting number is 23.
I make the following jumps to get as close to 50 as possible:
Starting number is 23
Jump one is +10 to get me to 33
Jump two is +10 to get me to 43
Jump three is +10 to get me to 53
Jump four is -1 to get me to 52
Jump five is -1 to get me to 51
 

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The NRICH Project aims to enrich the mathematical experiences of all learners. To support this aim, members of the NRICH team work in a wide range of capacities, including providing professional development for teachers wishing to embed rich mathematical tasks into everyday classroom practice.

NRICH is part of the family of activities in the Millennium Mathematics Project.

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