There are many different versions of consecutive number investigations and we are sharing a few of them. Our favorite version to go with the number visuals activity is one that uses a hundred chart. If you are a middle or high school teacher don’t assume that the hundred chart is for younger students since this activity extends to algebraic representations and the hundreds chart helps students see and understand expressions. Often students are shown consecutive number problems and many don’t connect the expression n, n+1 and n+2 to actual numbers. This is especially challenging when students are shown the expressions m, m+2 and m+4 and told that this represents three consecutive odd numbers. Using a hundred chart really helps students understand the abstract representations.
