136
/www/nrich/html/content/98/10/letme1/
1
2011-02-01T00:00:01
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<mdoxml version="1.0"><br></br>
<p style="text-align: center;"><mdo:image src="noah.jpg"></mdo:image></p>
<p>Noah watched the animals going into the ark.<br></br>
He was counting the legs of the animals and by noon he got to $12$.<br></br>
How many creatures did he see?<br></br>
See if you can find other answers.<br></br>
Try to tell someone how you found out these answers.</p>
<p> </p>
<a href="http://nrich.maths.org/7210&part=">Click here for a poster of this problem</a>.<br></br></mdoxml>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<mdoxml version="1.0"><span class="editorial">Deylan and Brodie from Saxmundham School and Charlie from Kinnaird Primary School sent in a few suggestions - well done.<br></br>
Julia, who is our very youngest solution-sender sent in this piece of work:<br></br>
<br></br>
<br></br>
</span><mdo:image src="noah3.jpg"></mdo:image><br></br>
<span class="editorial">Great!<br></br>
<br></br>
Finally from 'Numbercrunchers' who come from <span class="editorial">St Andrew's C.E.P. School, Hove, East Sussex, </span>we had a very thorough contribution as follows:</span><br></br>
<br></br>
$1$ spider and $1$ cat ($8+4$)<br></br>
$1$ spider and $2$ penguins ($8+2+2$)<br></br>
$1$ spider, $1$ penguin and $2$ snails ($8+2+1+1$)<br></br>
$1$ spider and $4$ snails ($8+1+1+1+1$)<br></br>
<br></br>
$2$ flies ($6+6$)<br></br>
$1$ fly, $1$ cat and $1$ penguin ($6+4+2$)<br></br>
$1$ fly, $1$ cat and $2$ snails ($6+4+1+1$)<br></br>
$1$ fly and $3$ penguins ($6+2+2+2$)<br></br>
$1$ fly, $2$ penguins and $2$ snails ($6+2+2+1+1$)<br></br>
$1$ fly, $1$ penguin and $4$ snails ($6+2+1+1+1+1$)<br></br>
$1$ fly and $6$ snails ($6+1+1+1+1+1+1$)<br></br>
<br></br>
$3$ cats ($4+4+4$)<br></br>
$2$ cats and $2$ penguins ($4+4+2+2$)<br></br>
$2$ cats, $1$ penguin and $2$ snails ($4+4+2+1+1$)<br></br>
$2$ cats and $4$ snails ($4+4+1+1+1+1$)<br></br>
$1$ cat and $4$ penguins ($4+2+2+2+2$)<br></br>
$1$ cat, $3$ penguins and $2$ snails ($4+2+2+2+1+1$)<br></br>
$1$ cat, $2$ penguins and $4$ snails ($4+2+2+1+1+1+1$)<br></br>
$1$ cat, $1$ penguin and $6$ snails ($4+2+1+1+1+1+1+1$)<br></br>
$1$ cat and $8$ snails (4+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1)<br></br>
<br></br>
$6$ penguins ($2+2+2+2+2+2$)<br></br>
$5$ penguins and $2$ snails ($2+2+2+2+2+1+1$)<br></br>
$12$ snails ($1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1$)<br></br>
$10$ snails and $1$ penguin ($1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+1+2$)<br></br>
<br></br>
<span class="editorial">David, from Histon Junior School, found two ways for the answer to be 2 creatures:</span><br></br>
<br></br>
<table style="width: 500px;border-spacing:1px;border:none;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>a spider and an elephant</td>
<td><mdo:image src="elephant-beetle.jpg"></mdo:image></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>two beetles</td>
<td><mdo:image src="two-beetles.jpg"></mdo:image></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br></br>
<br></br>
He also found two ways for the answer to be 4 creatures:<br></br>
<br></br>
<table style="width: 500px;border-spacing:1px;border:none;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td>two kangaroos, an elephant and a duck</td>
<td><mdo:image src="kang-ele-duck.jpg"></mdo:image></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td>three kangaroos and a turtle</td>
<td><mdo:image src="kang-turtle.jpg"></mdo:image></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<br></br>
<br></br>
<br></br>
David also thought that twelve flamingos hopping would give an answer of twelve creatures:<br></br>
<br></br>
<mdo:image src="hopping-flamingos.jpg"></mdo:image><br></br>
<br></br>
<br></br>
<span class="editorial">Well done all of you.</span><br></br></mdoxml>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<mdoxml version="1.0"><div class="embed">
<h2>Noah</h2>
<br></br>
<p style="text-align: center;"><mdo:image src="noah.jpg"></mdo:image></p>
<p>Noah watched the animals going into the ark.<br></br>
He was counting and by noon he got to $12$, but he was only counting the legs of the animals.<br></br>
How many creatures did he see?<br></br>
See if you can find other answers?<br></br>
Try to tell someone how you found these answers out?</p>
<p> </p>
<a href="http://nrich.maths.org/7210&part=">Click here for a poster of this problem</a>.</div>
<br></br>
<h3><span style="font-weight: bold;">Why do this problem?</span></h3>
<div>Introducing humour into maths does add to the enjoyment - and the children will find <a href="http://nrich.maths.org/public/viewer.php?obj_id=136&part=index">this activity</a> funny. It is a good opportunity for them to practise counting and to record findings in different ways. And there's the added bonus that everyone could have a different answer and be right. Learners will need to
find strategies to keep track of where they have got to in terms of numbers of legs and to regulate and readjust as they get close to twelve.<br></br>
Cross curricular links can be made by using the story of Noah and the ark as an introduction. Considering creatures with one 'leg' such as slugs and snails, no legs such as snakes and all the other possibilities is great fun and provokes interesting responses from the children. You may be surprised by their ingenuity.</div>
<br></br>
<h3>Possible approach</h3>
<div>You could either precede or follow this investigation by reading the book 'One is a Snail, Ten is a Crab - A Counting by Feet Book' by April Pulley Sayre and Jeff Sayre (published by Candlewick Press, 2003 ISBN 0-7636-1406-8), in which counting right up to a hundred is achieved through combinations of snails, people, dogs, insects, spiders and crabs.</div>
<br></br>
<div>But if you can't get hold of it, it's worth doing this as a whole class activity.</div>
<br></br>
<div>You could:</div>
<ul>
<li>Ask for suggestions and encourage the children to come to the board and draw their animals. Count the number of creatures each child draws and discuss who has drawn the least, the most, the same as ... etc.</li>
<li>Give the children playdough and 12 equal lengths of straw each so that they can make the creatures - and put them into groups of 12 legs for a display.</li>
<li>Let each child draw a picture, write the number sentence below it (eg $6 \: + \:4 \; + \; 2 \; = \; 12$) and make them all into a class zig-zag book - Our Story of Twelve.</li>
<li>Give each group of children a different number of legs to investigate and ask them to make their own group zig-zag book.</li>
</ul>
Alternatively, you may wish to show this <a href="/content/98/10/letme1/Noah%20136-poster.pdf">poster</a> of two possible animals that Noah might have seen. You could start by asking what is the same and what is different about the two animals and then encourage the children to think of other animals with different numbers of legs. Learners could draw their own animals, or cut them out from
<a href="/content/98/10/letme1/Noah.pdf">this sheet</a>. (Thank you to Mark Dawes for the files and to Emily for the drawings.)<br></br>
<br></br>
<h3>Key questions</h3>
<div>What creatures could there be?</div>
<div>How many legs do they each have?</div>
<div>What's the greatest number of creatures he could have seen?</div>
<div>What's the smallest number of creatures he could have seen?</div>
<br></br>
<h3>Possible extension</h3>
<div>You could ask questions such as: What if ... there were twelve creatures? How many legs could that be?</div>
<br></br>
What if there were more legs... 18, 24, 19 ... or fewer?<br></br>
<br></br>
<h3>Possible support</h3>
Giving children 12 straws for legs and modelling clay will support them to think about the ways they might use the 12 legs to make a range of different creatures that use up their legs.<br></br></mdoxml>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<mdoxml version="1.0">What creatures could there be? <br></br>
How many legs do they each have? <br></br>
What's the greatest number of creatures he could have seen? <br></br>
What's the smallest number of creatures he could have seen? <br></br></mdoxml>
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<mdoxml version="1.0"><br></br>
<p><span class="editorial">David, from Histon Junior School, found
two ways for the answer to be 2 creatures:</span></p>
<table>
<tbody>
<tr>
<td width="150"><em>a spider and an elephant</em></td>
<td><mdo:image alt="" src="elephant-beetle.jpg"></mdo:image></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><em>2 beetles</em></td>
<td><mdo:image alt="" src="two-beetles.jpg"></mdo:image></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="editorial">He also found two ways for the answer to be 4
creatures:</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="250"><em>2 kangaroos, an elephant and a duck</em></td>
<td><mdo:image alt="" src="kang-ele-duck.jpg"></mdo:image></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td width="250"><em>3 kangaroos and a turtle</em></td>
<td><mdo:image alt="" src="kang-turtle.jpg"></mdo:image></td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td><em class="editorial">David also thought that 12 flamingos
hopping would give an answer of 12 creatures.</em></td>
<td><mdo:image alt="" src="hopping-flamingos.jpg"></mdo:image></td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<p class="editorial">Can you find some other answers? Send in some
more!</p>
<br></br></mdoxml>
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Noah
Noah saw 12 legs walk by into the Ark. How many creatures did he see?
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