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  • Early Years Foundation Stage

Sort Them Out (1)

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level Yellow star
Primary curriculum
  • Problem
  • Getting Started
  • Student Solutions
  • Teachers' Resources

 

This problem provided a good opportunity to work with each other as a team. The cards gave you some practice with addition and subtraction, as well as challenging you to consider different ways of arranging them.

 

Courtenay and Emily from Ickford Combined School explained their method of sorting the cards:

We sorted the answers out in the two times table and the four times table and the ones that are in both times table and another group which is not in either the two and four times table.
 

Remember that all numbers in the four times table will feature in the two times table.

Caroline from Estes Hills Elementary, North Carolina, USA (Hello to the USA!) submitted her answer:

At first I sorted ten by itself and the teens together and the twentys together. Then I noticed that I could sort them by number order from $10$ to $24$.
 

Matthew from Stambridge looked at odd and even numbers:

First we separated the cards into additions and subtractions.
Next we looked at the answers.
In the addition pile we saw that:
E+E=E
O+O=E
E+O=O
O+E=O
In the subtraction pile we saw that:
E-O=O
O-E=O
O-O=E
E-E=E
So, you get an even answer from:
E-E
E+E
O+O
O-O
And so you get an odd answer from:
E-O
E+O
O-E
O+E
 

Can you think of other ways of arranging the cards?

Now have a go at Sort Them Out (2).

 

 

 

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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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