Find the Pattern

These two activities are based on the games Tadpoles and Frogs.

a)	TADPOLES

Introductory activities:

Arrange a group of 4 children on 5 chairs with the middle chair vacant.

Use coloured bands to differentiate between the two groups.

The aim of the game is to interchange the team on one side with the team on the other, using "slides" or "jumps over the opposing team".

In the tadpoles game you may move in either direction, forwards or backwards.

e.g.

A	B		C	D
A		B	C	D
A	C	B		D
A	C	B	D	
A	C		D	B
	C	A	D	B
C		A	D	B
C	D	A		B
C	D		A	B

One or two children could direct the moves, or the teacher could ask for contributions from the remaining class members.

Variations

(1)	Go on to larger numbers of children on each side, still with the facility of moving backwards and forwards.
(2)	Try unequal groups of children, two on one side, three on the other.

b)	FROGS

In this version moves can only be made in a forwards direction (like in the example above).

Work out the strategies for:

(1)	Equal groups
(2)	Unequal groups

After the introductory activities with the children, counters or multilink could be used to continue the investigations.