Number (patterns): Oxpecker and Giraffe
Challenge level ⭐⭐
(designed for children with prior knowledge of the Year 3 and Year 4 programme of study)
Learning Objective
We are learning how to solve a natural world problem by using and applying our skills and knowledge of number and identifying patterns.
Useful prior knowledge:
- To recall multiplication and division facts for multiplication tables up to 12 × 12
Credit: BBC Two - The Trials of Life
Clip Description
The natural world is full of fascinating partnerships, whereby two very different species depend on each other for their survival.
In this fascinating clip, red-billed oxpeckers can be seen clinging to the body of a giraffe with their sharp claws. These small birds spend most of their life on the world’s tallest mammal. This is because a giraffe’s body provides an oxpecker tasty morsels of food in the form of ticks. The giraffe benefits from this relationship because ticks are blood-sucking parasites that carry diseases, so it is important to have them removed. Why might an oxpecker pluck hair from a giraffe’s mane? Watch the clip to find out.
Quick Whiteboard Challenge
One morning, an oxpecker ate some ticks that were hidden within the coat of a giraffe:
- The number was greater than 10 but less than 30.
- If you divide the number by 5, there is a remainder of 4.
- If you divide the number by 4, there is a remainder of 1.
How many ticks did the oxpecker eat?