### Counting Counters

Take a counter and surround it by a ring of other counters that MUST touch two others. How many are needed?

### Cuisenaire Rods

These squares have been made from Cuisenaire rods. Can you describe the pattern? What would the next square look like?

### Doplication

We can arrange dots in a similar way to the 5 on a dice and they usually sit quite well into a rectangular shape. How many altogether in this 3 by 5? What happens for other sizes?

# Sitting Round the Party Tables

##### Stage: 1 and 2 Challenge Level:

So, you are at the party and sitting round the table with seven friends.

At the top left hand corner is the friend who is giving the party. S/he has a bag of sweets and starts giving them out in a clockwise direction: one for her/himself, two for the next person and three for the next and so on.
There are other similar parties going on at the same time. They have bigger square tables with more children sitting round on each side.

Explore and compare all the tables:  $2$ on each side, $3$ on each side, $4$ on each side and $5$ on each side.

You could look at:
the total number of sweets that children sitting opposite each other have;
the total number of sweets needed for each size of table;
the total number of sweets belonging to children who are diagonally opposite.

Then, what about  five- and six-sided tables?