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beachball sequences

This is a reflection on a sequences lesson for students working at levels 4 to 6.  The aim of the lesson was for students to actively explore arithmetic sequences.

On the right is a video that shows year 7 students trying the activities.  As you can see from the video, students were numbered 1-28 in a circle and threw a ball round according to different common differences and starting points.

This was inspired by the task 'Being a number' from the ATM publication Big Ideas by Chris Martin.  
Following this activity, we progressed from modelling sequences with people, to drawing them on circles (see slideshow of examples by level 4 and 5 students below).  From describing sequences as 'one less than the 5 times table', we finally progressed onto the level 6 objective of finding the nth term for a sequence.
This is the most successful way I have taught this topic; the students (mainly level 4 and 5) clearly understood the significance of the starting number and common difference and could easily give the nth term of the sequences within 2 lessons - a level 6 topic!  And they asked to do it again next lesson! 

Next lesson with my year 7 students we looked at patterns in n-dot circles - see below.  There are printable ones here.  We briefly explored why some of them are star shaped and others aren't.  I might extend this by exploring  Schlafli symbols.
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