Stack the four real towers (3, 5, 2, 6) where the class can see them, or show the photo. Give five seconds of quiet think-time, then take three hands-up guesses before any counting. Do not confirm the answer yet — the levelling in the next step is where it lands.

Level the four real towers (3, 5, 2, 6) in front of the class — move one cube from the 6-tower and one from the 5-tower onto the 2-tower and up to the short ones until all four sit at 4. Say aloud as you go: the tallest gives to the shortest. Then write the same idea as numbers on the board: 3 + 5 + 2 + 6 = 16, then 16 shared between 4 is 4.

The point to draw out: levelling and adding-then-sharing give the same answer. Hold out for a pupil to notice both roads reach 4 rather than announcing it.

Reveal one set on the IWB at a time — do not show the whole list up front. To fit the time, give 4, 4, 4, 8 a full board build (a pupil comes up and levels the real towers); the other three sets are quicker verbal levelling with the class calling out the fair share.

Watch for two slips: moving a cube to make a tower too tall (they need to check every tower matches at the end) and quietly losing a cube. Check each answer by re-counting one tower. The set 4, 4, 4, 8 is worth pausing on — the mean (5) is not one of the tower heights, which surprises pupils. Rehearse this beforehand: 4 + 4 + 4 + 8 = 20, which levels exactly to four towers of 5, so a stray cube will not undermine the point.

Walk the annotated working line by line on the IWB — point at each highlighted piece and say what it does. The load-bearing move to stress is sharing by how many towers there are, not by one of the heights. This is the beat that makes the copybook and challenge work self-checking.