Math moments
December 2025
Problem
Flip 7
You have seven two-sided counters on a table with the red side up. These counters all have to be turned over to the yellow side, but you can only turn over exactly three at a time. What is the smallest number of moves you can do this in?
What if you had 8 counters? 9 counters? 10 counters? What patterns do you notice? What if you had 124 counters?
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Game
Pattern Points
For this game you will need a deck of cards (ace = 1, jack = 11, queen = 12, king = 13). Each player is dealt five cards. Players rearrange the cards and create a pattern using as many cards as possible. For example Player 1 had the cards: 2, 13, 8, 14, 6. The player made the pattern 2, 6, 8, 14, or two cards added together is the sum of the next card. This pattern would score 4 and the player would discard their pattern and pick up 4 more cards for the next round. Player 2 had the cards: 1, 3, 7, 10, 4. The player made the pattern 1, 4, 7, 10, or adding 3 each time. A point
is awarded for each card used. This pattern would score 4 and the player would discard their pattern and pick up 4 more cards to play again. The winner is the player who has the highest score after 5 rounds.
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Number Talk
What parts of the pattern are changing? What parts are staying the same? Can you determine a pattern rule? How many red cubes would be in the 47th figure? What about the 100th figure?
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