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We used objects and pictures to draw our candles. In our teams we found that the answer was 66 candles. We then looked at ways of adding up the numbers.
Issac spotted a pattern

1 + 2 + 3 + 4 + 5 + 6 + 7 + 8 + 9 + 10 + 11 =

“Adding the first and last number makes 12. Adding 2 and 10 makes 12.” He carried on this pattern and then added the last 6 to make 66.
Zainab, Toby and Subhaan spotted that each year you need to add that many extra candles.
As a class we looked at putting our findings in a table. We then spotted that the solution would be the previous answer plus the age on his birthday. For example on his 11th birthday it would be 55 + 11.
We then made a prediction about his 15th birthday and completed the table to find out if our prediction was correct.