5 Steps to 50

We played a maths game today that really made us think!  It involved us thinking about place value, 1 more/less, 10 more/less and the difference between numbers.

We are going to start on 32. 

Start on 32.

We could add 10 more to land on 42.

Now add 1 to land on 43.

Find 1 more to land on 44.

Add another to end up on 45.

One step left...1 more to 47.  The difference is 3.

Can you think of another way to get to 50 from 32?  You can only move in 5 steps.

What we found out after lots of attempts:

"If you are close to the target you should move in 1s and not 10s because you don't need to."

"My number was much more than 50...I went back 10 and then again and then I went forwards in 1s three times."

"We had to go forward in 10s a lot because the number was really small!"

"I reached the target!  I had to go back one, back one again, back one, forwards one and then back one!"

"The difference was only 2 because we ended up on 52."