Celebrating our mathematical thinking

Sums of Odds and Evens

Thinking of numbers
scares me.
Adding the first 100
seems an arduous task

Man, my gears are rusty
been out of school a while.
It took forever
to understand the question

There has to be
a simpler way!
I’m getting
more confused!

My brain says “ah, ha!``
2 and 8
they make 10
4 and 6
make 10 too
My brain prefers it this way!

1 and 199
3 and 197
5 and 195
7 and 193
My brain prefers it this way!

 

Or make columns:
1 to 9
11 to 19
21 to 29
The sums go in increments of 50
My brain prefers it this way!

Three of us used tables
but found different patterns
It’s weird
there are so many

I wish that I could see
another cool way
Numbers are interesting
and will surprise you

The pattern is more evident
with odd numbers
Maybe I'll give odd numbers
more of a chance!