Topics: Starter | Arithmetic | Investigations | Puzzles

• Mairi Salters, Burwell VC Primary School
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• I copy the pages onto a flipchart on the electronic whiteboard. That way the class can take their time at it, as we use it as a half-hour settling in activity rather than a starter to the numeracy lesson proper. I use it with a Year 4 clsas, so a lot of the starters are too advanced for them. However, they have got on well with the ones we have used. Would be delighted to see similar written specically for KS2!
• J.Hesmer, Filsham Valley
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• I found this an awful starter, it was incredebly difficult for my YEAR 7 group!
• L Martin, Canterbury
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• I tried it with my Year 7s. They did it in 20 seconds flat. We extended it to algebra, to prove it.
• L. Northern, Hayle School
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• We had a long discussion, we found out that:
  1. The middle number has to be odd
  2. If all the numbers are odd or all the numbers are even, it will always work
  3. When you chose a middle number, you have to have the smallest and largest above it, and the middle numbers either side.
  We thought it was a good problem.
  Hayle School Year 7 maths class.
• Susan, Australia
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• This lead beautifully into an activity about surface area - using the net.
• Nick, Holy Trinity, Weymouth
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• We found 24 combinations after doing some methodical thinking
  Mrs Penn, Mr Corben and Year 5.
• Snowdon, Mrs Peters
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• Our Year 4,5 and 6 class really enjoyed this activity to start the day. Everybody was able to attempt the task and lots of children were successful!!
• Alison, Australia
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• I did this with my year 5/6 class and they loved it. It allowed all of the students to find at least one combination, while it extended the other to find more.
• Louise, Bolton
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• This starter was great. I did it with my YEAR 2 children and they found lots of ways to make different totals, using their reasoning skills to say why they could change the positions of the numbers. They loved it!
• Transum,
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• Thanks so much for all the comments. Don't forget to click on the link towards the bottom of this page to find the student version of this activity which has a number of different levels extending this puzzle for the those who enjoy a challenge.
• Mr Mirza, Peterhead Academy
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• An engaging starter to provoke mathematical reasoning and critical thinking.
  Although my students are weak mathematically, they were all able to have a degree of success and began to discuss possible theories.

How did you use this starter? Can you suggest how teachers could present or develop this resource? Do you have any comments? It is always useful to receive feedback and helps make this free resource even more useful for Maths teachers anywhere in the world.
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