Mathematics

Advanced

50 mins

Teacher/Student led

Learning Goals

Learning Outcomes

Lesson Files

+80 XP

What you need:
IWB/Projector/Large Screen

Growing and Shrinking Patterns

Explore patterns that stay the same, grow or shrink by examining the constant step between terms, predicting the next numbers, and discovering how different rules create different speeds of growth.

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1 Getting Started
2 Watch and Notice
3 Build the Next Steps in Your Copy
4 Try It Together
5 Class Challenge
6 What Did We Notice?
7 What's Next
Pupil practice

1 - Getting Started ~4 mins

Illustration for Getting Started Here is a block staircase. The first step has 1 block. The next step has 3 blocks. The step after that has 5 blocks.

Have a go

How many blocks do you think the next step will need? Have a guess before we work it out together.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+5 XP

2 - Watch and Notice ~8 mins

A term is a number we land on in a pattern; the step is the jump from one term to the next. Four patterns are on the number lines. Watch the gaps between the markers each time and decide what the step is doing.

👇 Mark your steps as done as you complete them.

+10 XP

3 - Build the Next Steps in Your Copy ~3 mins

COPYBOOK MOMENT

In your maths copy, draw the next two steps of the block staircase from the start of the lesson. It went 1, 3, 5, 7 blocks. Beside each new step, write how many blocks it adds on from the step before.

+10 XP

4 - Try It Together ~8 mins

Now let's test what we found. One pupil comes to the board and marks where the next term lands, then says where the one after would go. Everyone else watches and says the step rule aloud: is the step staying the same, growing or shrinking?

Mark the next term

+15 XP

5 - Class Challenge ~8 mins

Today we work through these predictions together. For each pattern, place the marker where the next term belongs, then check it.

Tip

The later ones ask you to look further ahead, so use the rule rather than counting one tiny step at a time. The last one doubles each time, so the rule is double the last number.

Predict the next term

+15 XP

Pupil practice

Module 10 · Algebra: Patterns, Rules and Number Sentences Algebra

Lesson 117 · Growing and Shrinking Patterns

Download Activity Book page (PDF)

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