The sun has slipped behind the gum trees, and the Hollow is turning golden, then dusky, then starry. That means it is Pip’s favourite time. She uncurls in the hollow log, gives a slow blink, and picks up her Star Jar. “Ooh,” she whispers. “Let’s see what the night is hiding tonight.” Come along on Pip’s adventure — there are patterns to spot, gumnuts to sort, and shapes hiding everywhere. Bring a pencil. Pip will count the stars while you think.
Stop 1 — The Counting Stars
Pip looks up. “When I can’t sleep, I count the stars,” she says. “And look — tonight they came out in a pattern!” Each little cluster has more stars than the one before.
Q1. How many stars would be in the 5th cluster?
Q2. Keep Pip’s star pattern going. Write the next three numbers:
1, 2, 3, 4, , ,
Q3. Pip finds another patch of sky counting a different way: 2, 4, 6, 8, … What is the rule, and what are the next two numbers?
Rule: the numbers go up by each time.
Next two numbers: ,
Stop 2 — Skip-Counting Along the Creek
Pip pads down to the creek. The stepping stones go all the way across, and she likes to hop them in jumps. “If I hop in twos, I get there faster,” she says. Skip-counting is counting in equal hops instead of one at a time.
Q4. Pip hops across in 5s. Fill in her hops:
5, 10, , , 25, ,
Q5. Now she hops in 3s, because the stones are close together. Fill in the gaps:
3, 6, , 12, , 18,
Q6. There are 4 stones, and Pip leaves 2 paw-prints on each stone. How many paw-prints altogether? Show how skip-counting helps.
Stop 3 — Sorting Pip’s Treasures
Pip empties her little pouch onto the flat rock. Out tumble her night-time treasures: shiny gumnuts, smooth pebbles, and curled gumleaves. “I love sorting,” she says. “It helps me see what I’ve got.” When we sort, we put things into groups that are the same in some way.
Here is what spilled out of Pip’s pouch:
3 shiny gumnuts · 5 curled gumleaves · 2 smooth pebbles · 4 shiny gumnuts · 1 smooth pebble
Q7. Help Pip sort her treasures. Count how many of each kind, then fill in the table.
| Kind of treasure | How many |
|---|---|
| Gumnuts | |
| Gumleaves | |
| Pebbles |
Q8. Which treasure does Pip have the most of?
Q9. How many treasures does Pip have altogether?
Stop 4 — Shapes in the Dark
Pip peeks through a gap in the leaves. “I wonder what shapes are hiding out here,” she says. The full moon is a circle. The old signpost by the log is a rectangle. A fallen gumleaf, pointy at both ends, makes her think of a triangle.
Q10. Match each thing Pip sees to its shape.
| Thing Pip sees | Its shape |
|---|---|
| The full moon | |
| The signpost | |
| A slice of star-fruit (3 sides) | |
| The window of the burrow (4 equal sides) |
Q11. Pip draws a shape in the dirt with her paw. It has 4 sides and 4 corners, and all its sides are the same length. What shape is it?
Q12. Draw a triangle and a rectangle for Pip in the box below. Under each one, write how many sides it has.
Stop 5 — The Star Jar Pattern
It is nearly time for Pip to curl up. She lines up her treasures along a log to make one last pattern before bed: a gumnut, two leaves, a gumnut, two leaves… “A pattern is a part that repeats,” she says happily. The part that repeats is called the core.
Q13. What is the repeating part (the core) of Pip’s pattern?
Q14. If Pip keeps her pattern going, what comes next after the last leaf?
Q15. Now make your own repeating pattern for Pip to find in the morning. Use shapes, letters, or little drawings — just make sure a part repeats at least three times. Then draw a circle around the core.