Mystery Number

Choreography: Place 5 spots equal distances apart along a straight line in front of the viewing audience. Place three blocks of the same size between the capers and the viewing audience.

Orchestration: Assemble your circle. When the viewing audience is seated, instruct the Capers to stand on the spots without patches. Explain to the children that there is a problem we must solve together. Please watch. Starting with 1, show the Caper the patch and ask the child to attach it to their cape. Continue in this sequence until all patches are on the children. Attach the number 3 patch to the back of person wearing the ? If the Capers look, ask them not to tell the number.

Teacher now reads out the problem and pointing to the question mark, the teacher states, "What is the mystery number? Let's solve the problem together. Ask for a volunteer from the audience to count 1 block and give it to the person wearing

# 1. Ask another volunteer to count out 2 blocks and give them to the child wearing the # 2 patch.

Without moving from their spots, instruct 1 to pass the block to + and 2 passes to = continuing to pass until all 3 blocks are held by the person wearing the question mark. Ask the person holding the three blocks to count them out. How many altogether? Repeat the Question. What is the Mystery Number? Give the ? Caper time to answer. Let's see if this person (name) solved the problem. Ask ? to turn around with the 3 facing the audience. Everybody Applaud. The ? caper now turns back to face the viewing audience.

2 + 1 = ?

It now becomes the "="s Capers job to switch the patches: remove the ? patch, and replace it with the 3 from the Capers back. child’s back. The answer to the question is #3. Ask the 5th person to count out the blocks to make sure the number they counted is the same as the number on their cape.

Repeat the activity with another group of children. Switch the 1 and 2 placement.

Variations on Theme: Change the numbers