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Same Length Trains

Age 5 to 7
Challenge Level

Same Length Trains printable sheet

Matt and Katie were using Cuisenaire rods. They placed rods end to end to make 'trains'.
Here are their two trains:

What is the same about the two trains?
What is different?

You might have noticed:

the trains are the same length as each other
the top train uses rods that are all different (light green, black, pink and dark green)
the bottom train uses rods that are all the same (white)
there are four rods in the top train
there are 20 rods in the bottom train
the white rods are the shortest
the white rods are all the same length
each colour rod is a different length

Can you make some more trains the same length as Matt's and Katie's trains, each using rods of just one colour?
How many different trains can you make?

If you haven't got any Cuisenaire rods, you may like to use the interactivity below to try out your ideas.

You may be interested in the other problems in our Cuisenaire Feature.