Week 8 - Zupelz Maths and logic

This term we have been working really hard on our Maths.  We start our math sessions with a warm-up.  This week we shared an investigation to solve a zupelz puzzle. 

We need to use lots of mathematical thinking to solve this.  We can recall combinations that add together to make numbers, understand and identify even and odd numbers then finally, use logic to explain why certain numbers fit in a particular place.  Below you will see our whiteboard discussion about even numbers.  To our maths group the word even means something fair or something that is shared evenly. Our definition of an even number was a number that could be split into two groups and the groups were the same size. You can see how we proved the numbers in the list were even.

Then we had four numbers to organise into the grid.  Each row and column needs to add up to the number on the outside.  We started by placing the number four in the even box.  We then used our knowledge of combinations to place the three and the two in the correct boxes in the grid.  This left us with one digit to place which was one and it only had one place to go.  

We used lots of thinking, discussing and reasoning to solve this with our buddy. Our next challenge is to solve larger grids using the same thinking. We would love some of your positive, thoughtful and helpful feedback about our mathematical thinking.