Digit Dog and Calculating Cat are decorating their Christmas tree.
They have three decorations to put on the tree. How many different ways can they do it?
What do you notice? What has Digit Dog done? Where has he put his decorations?
What is Calculating Cat thinking? What would her tree look like? How would hers be different from Digit Dog’s? How would it be the same?
Calculating Cat is wondering how many different ways they could put the decorations on the tree.
What do you think? Is it more than 2? Would it be as many as 10? Explain your thinking.
How shall we find out?
How are you going to record you work?
How will you know when you have found all the ways?
Look for children who:
- can describe what they are doing.
- can convince you that they have found all the different ways.
- can explain using objects or drawings.
- are starting to work systematically.
What if………
………there were more than 3 decorations?
…….there were 4 decorations? Will there now be more ways to put them on the tree? How many more ways? Just a few? A lot more?
Digit Dog Challenges 