J 2

Seven mice are in a cage that has two sections, a big section and a small section. The mice can move between the two sections but can be in only one section or the other. List all the ways the seven mice can be arranged in the sections of the cage.

Describe the methods or strategies you used to generate all the possible combinations of mice in the two cages.

Explain how might first-grade students might use physical representations or models to assist in solving the problem from Question 1?

Which properties of addition (as described in Section 3-2) does solving this problem make use of? Explain.

What other context (or situation) could be used to present the same type of problem to first-grade students?