Pigeonhole

How many socks do you need to pull out of the drawer to get a pair?

This activity is inspired by Math from Three to Seven by Alexander Zvonkin

Task:

Supplies: A fabric bag (not see-through) and 3 yellow, 3 red, 3 blue, and 3 green cubes or beads. 

What to do: Tell a story. A man has two pairs of socks in his drawer but the light is out and he can't see anything (put 2 yellow and 2 red cubes in the bag). He is in a hurry and needs a pair of matching socks where he is going. Let the each kid pull out cubes one at a time until they have a matching pair and discuss
- how many sock(s) would definitely not give a match
- how many socks to pull out to maybe have a match
- how many socks to pull out to definitely have a match

Repeat the task with 3 pairs, then 4 pairs. 

What if the man was a three-legged man? 

A puzzle:

“A man climbed up to the fifth floor and then climbed the same number of floors up. What floor is he now on?”

(it is not the 10th floor)