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Ullesthorpe Church of England Primary School

Noah's Animals

Noah's Animals Challenge

 

Noah saw 12 legs walk by into the ark.

How many creatures could he have seen?

How many different answers can you find?

Can you explain how you found out these answers?

 

 

Notes for Adults

 

Introducing humour into maths does add to the enjoyment - and the children will find this activity 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.

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.

 

Question's to get children started:

  • What creatures could there be?
  • How many legs do they each have?
  • What's the greatest number of creatures he could have seen?
  • What's the smallest number of creatures he could have seen?

 

You could:

  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
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