St Ives

Starter of The Day Transum Mathematics Topics

Bethany Watkinson, Queen Elizabeths Highschool
I thought this was a very hard starter but it would get children's minds into gear in the morning !
Roger Waters, Heath Technology College, Runcorn
I found this really useful in high school, because it made the children think as well as using basic computational skills. I was told about this web site by my daughter, who is doing her primary teacher training!
Ks3 Student, Tabor Science College
This was a really good problem to do in the morning as it made you think!!!
MAK, NZ
An old 'chestnut!....But maybe the activity could be extended and used with older students to talk about powers of 7?
Y5 Set 1, Martham Primary Sc Hool
Whole class was tricked!! But we got there in the end by acting out the situation.
Y7 Set 1, Welshpool High School
A lovely starter, class got 1 straight away, however there was some debate over whether or not the answer was 0 as the second from last line mentions all the characters apart from the person travelling to St Ives - so weren't sure if we should include him or not :-).
Adrian,
This one puzzle can have 2 different answers. It doesn't say that the man and his wives is traveling away from St Ive or towards.
Lauren, Gloucester
My children in class didn't understand this starter at first but after I had shown them the actual answer there was only one person who got it correct.
Transum,
The answer to the riddle in this Starter is obtained with a little artistic licence and is not the frequently calculated figure of 2801. The correct answer appears (for teachers who have a Transum subscription) below. A similar question (though not a riddle) appeared in the Rhind papyrus dating back to 1650 BC. This version of the question is about 7 houses, each with 7 cats, each with 7 mice, each with 7 spelt, each with 7 hekat (what the hekat is a spelt and is that how hekat is spelt?). The answer to that is 19607. The question in the Rhind papyrus is included in Fibonacci's Liber Abaci first published in 1202.
Hannah, Rhs
Class says 1 No one knows if the man is going to IVES let alone the wives.
Ms. KP, Hamilton International Middle School, Seattle, WA
My class got the final answer as 2,800. We counted wives 7, sacks 49, cats 343, kittens 2,401. Then we added all of these together to get 2,800.

[Transum: Well done Ms KP and your class at Hamilton but despite your accurate arithmetic that is not the classic answer to this riddle.]
Anna Cheyne, Borrowfield
My Primary Five class, mostly aged 10, came up with 2802 as we included the man and the original person heading to St Ives. We love doing the Starter of the Day and I am very proud of how my class are improving in their confidence and ability! Thank you Transum, from Mrs C & P5.
Mrs B, CCSY6
We think we know the real answer but we did have a very good maths discussion! The answer we suspect is really more about Geography!

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.
Click here to enter your comments.

If you don't have the time to provide feedback we'd really appreciate it if you could give this page a score! We are constantly improving and adding to these starters so it would be really helpful to know which ones are most useful. Simply click on a button below:

Excellent, I would like to see more like this
Good, achieved the results I required
Satisfactory
Didn't really capture the interest of the students
Not for me! I wouldn't use this type of activity.

This starter has scored a mean of 3.4 out of 5 based on 470 votes.

Previous Day | This starter is for 4 February | Next Day

Answer

"As I was going to St Ives" is a traditional nursery rhyme which is generally thought to be a riddle. The earliest known published version of it dates to around 1730. The answer to the riddle is usually said to be one: the person reciting the rhyme is the only one who is explicitly stated as going to St Ives, and everyone else met by them assumed to be travelling the opposite direction. [Wikipedia]

Your access to the majority of the Transum resources continues to be free but you can help support the continued growth of the website by doing your Amazon shopping using the links on this page. Below is an Amazon search box and some items chosen and recommended by Transum Mathematics to get you started.

Texas Instruments Nspire Calculator

This handheld device and companion software are designed to generate opportunities for classroom exploration and to promote greater understanding of core concepts in the mathematics and science classroom. TI-Nspire technology has been developed through sound classroom research which shows that "linked multiple representation are crucial in development of conceptual understanding and it is feasible only through use of a technology such as TI-Nspire, which provides simultaneous, dynamically linked representations of graphs, equations, data, and verbal explanations, such that a change in one representation is immediately reflected in the others.

For the young people in your life it is a great investment. Bought as a gift for a special occasion but useful for many years to come as the young person turns into an A-level candidate then works their way through university. more...

Apple iPad Pro

The analytics show that more and more people are accessing Transum Mathematics via an iPad as it is so portable and responsive. The iPad has so many other uses in addition to solving Transum's puzzles and challenges and it would make an excellent gift for anyone.

The redesigned Retina display is as stunning to look at as it is to touch. It all comes with iOS, the world's most advanced mobile operating system. iPad Pro. Everything you want modern computing to be. more...

Before giving an iPad as a Christmas gift you could add a link to iPad Maths to the home screen.

Click the images above to see all the details of these items and to buy them online.


	Teacher, do your students have access to computers? Do they have iPads or Laptops in Lessons? Whether your students each have a TabletPC, a Surface or a Mac, this activity lends itself to eLearning (Engaged Learning).

Here a concise URL for a version of this page without the comments.

Transum.org/go/?Start=February4

Here is the URL which will take them to a mathematical crossword puzzle.

Transum.org/go/?to=Crossword

Do you know the ultimate mathematical riddle and most probably the first? Click the link below to see it.

Transum.org/go/?to=Diophantus