X-ray eyes

This activity appears on the website of Dr Helen J Williams, see this link for the full article in which it appears. In it she also acknowledges the BEAM (Be A Mathematician) team and the ILEA pack "Count me in" for the idea.

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Boss Person and X-ray eyes

 

You need: a shallow box or tray, 10 buttons or similar, 6 cards numbered 0,1,2,3,4,5, (the children can make these) and a partner.

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To play:

Decide who starts as the Boss. The other person (the one with X-ray eyes) goes away until they are called back.

 

The Boss chooses two cards, places them in the box and counts the correct amount of buttons into the tray for each card. Now check how many buttons there are altogether and push the buttons into one pile. Hide one of the cards.

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Call back your partner. Tell them with their X-ray eyes, by looking in the box, they have to work out which number is written on the hidden card.

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Swap roles and play again choosing two different cards each time.

 

The activity can be further developed beyond this initial "game" into an even more fruitful educational experience - see Helen's article for a fuller explanation.

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