This activity allows students to explore how numbers are composed, by having them look at different ways of grouping them.

There are many different strategies and methods students can use to come up with a solution. Students can use actual pennies, draw diagrams, and use charts to keep track of their findings. As students explore they will notice many different patterns in the numbers they are exploring.

Task Instructions

Consider a collection of pennies with the following constraints:

When the pennies are put in groups of 2 there is one penny left over. When they are put in groups of three, five and six there is also one penny left over. But when they are put in groups of seven there are no pennies left over. How many pennies could there be?