P3 Growing patterns and tables
Today’s problem — free all day, every step. Every day has one.
Farmer Aziz puts fence posts around square flower beds.
Farmer Aziz puts fence posts around square flower beds. Bed 1 uses 5 posts, Bed 2 uses 8 posts, and Bed 3 uses 11 posts. How many posts will Bed 6 need?
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Bed 6 needs 20 posts.
The pattern behind it: Growing patterns and tables
Find the rule, so Figure 250 is no harder than Figure 4.
In this one. When the same amount is added each time, the table is the method — keep adding the step, bed by bed, instead of trying to draw the sixth figure.
How to spot it
A row of figures or a table of numbers is shown for the first few terms only, and the question asks for a term far further along, such as 'Figure 6' or 'Figure 250'.
Common mistake
Children extend the sequence one term at a time by drawing or counting. Finding the fixed step or relationship lets them jump straight to the term asked for.
Try one like it
Standard continue a number sequence Continue this number pattern: 3000, 3500, 4000, __. What is the next number?The 33 problem patterns
All 33 patterns, one to a page — the 19 behind Primary 5 and 6 word problems, and the skills the younger years are built on. The bar model, how to spot it in the question, and the mistake children make. A booklet you can print. Free.
A PDF, and a note when new solutions go up.