Turning Man
Use the interactivity to find out how many quarter turns the man must rotate through to look like each of the pictures.
Age
5 to 7
Challenge level
Problem
Use this interactivity to find out how many times you could press the "turn" button to make the man look the same as in each of the pictures.
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Is there more than one answer each time?
If you don't want to use the interactivity, you could print off and cut out a man from this sheet.
Getting Started
Have a go at pressing the "turn" button. Can you see what is happening each time?
You could print off and cut out a man from this sheet if you don't want to use the interactivity.
Student Solutions
Etta from Rosendale Primary School wrote to tell us that you must click once for the first picture, twice for the second picture (the one on the right-hand side), three times for the third man and four times for the last picture at the bottom.
Alice from Perse Girls' Senior School went on to explain:
... you can continue turning it so if the first position took $1$ turn then you turn him another $4$ turns so he's in the same position.Rafi from Ohlone Elementary School in U.S. said:
When his head is turning right, you turn it once, and then start counting by fours. If it's pointing upwards, just count by fours. If it's pointing downwards, count two, then count by fours. If it's pointing left, count three, and then count by fours. It is easy because, every time, you count how many get to that direction, and then start counting by fours.
Eleanor sent the following:
I found out that the pattern is adding 4.
1,5,9,13,17,21,25,29,33,37,41,45,49...
3,7,11,15,19,23,27,31,35,39,43...
2,6,10,14,18,22,26,30,34,38...
4,8,12,16,20,24,28,32,36,40...
This is because he was turning a quarter each time and there are 4 quarters in a whole. There is infinity answers.
Thank you for your well explained responses.
Teachers' Resources
Turning Man
Use this interactivity to find out how many times you could press the "turn" button to make the man look the same as in each of the pictures.
Image
Image
Image
Image
Is there more than one answer each time?
If you don't want to use the interactivity, you could print off and cut out a man from this sheet.
Why do this problem?
This problem is intended to help children who are confident about turning themselves a quarter or half turn, but find it difficult to relate this to quarter or half turns in a picture or diagram. The Turning Man is a "halfway house" between these two.Possible approach
Young children need plenty of opportunities to turn themselves before they are able to apply the ideas to other things. By way of introduction, you could work with them in a large space, perhaps outside or in the school hall, asking them to turn by different amounts physically. They can find it difficult to visualise turning and this problem, with the
interactivity, offers a bridge.
If you do not use the interactivity, you could print off this sheet of men and give each child, or pair, one man. You could have your own man pinned to the board and demonstrate how he can be rotated, in quarter turns. You will probably need to ask the children to turn their man
in the same way before going on to pose questions orally with the whole class. Children could then work in pairs on the challenges by moving their man on the table.
Key questions
Which way round does the man turn?
Where will he be after one, two, three ... turns?