Street Sequences
Each of these challenges can lead to pattern investigations and the
activity also lends itself to pupils inventing their own new
challenges that involve the house numbers.
Whenever patterns arise some of the older pupils can be asked "Why
are these sequences like they are?", whilst younger pupils can be
asked simply "What do you notice about the answers we've
got?".
An extension may be suitable for some pupils that comes from
comparing the results from the sequences that we get when the
houses are grouped.
In general, the following mathematical process is a good one to go
through with pupils in many different activities:
1. Get one set of answers that form a sequence (in this case the
totals for semis);
2. Change the rules slightly and get a new set of answers (for
example for houses grouped in 3's);
3. Change that rule again and continue (houses grouped in 4's, 5's,
6's etc.);
4. Compare the sequences that have been generated by looking at
similarities and differences;
5. See what you notice and whether you can find out WHY some of
these similarities and differences occur.