Rose’s Team Badges

Rose was helping Coach Jo set up a team trail in the park. Three teams were coming. Coach Jo gave her eighteen badge cards. “Each team needs the same number,” she said. Rose spread the cards on a picnic table.

Noah put three empty trays along the table, one for each team. Rose dealt one badge into each tray, then went round again. She kept giving one to every team before starting the next round. Noah watched to check that none were skipped.

When the last badge was dealt, each tray held six. Rose counted them again. Six for the first team, six for the second and six for the third. No badges remained on the table. “Eighteen shared between three is six,” she said.

Noah tried another check. He collected the cards and made groups of six. One group, two groups, three groups. “If each team gets six, there are enough for three teams,” he said. Rose noticed the difference: she had counted the badges for each team, while Noah had counted the teams.

Coach Jo asked them to put the badges back in the trays. Noah accidentally put an extra one into the middle tray. Rose stopped him before he moved on. One tray had seven and another had five. They did not look equal.

Rose moved a badge from the tray with seven to the tray with five. Now each team had six again. Noah checked all three trays. “That was worth stopping for,” he said. “Otherwise one team would have been short.”

The teams arrived and chose their trail names. Rose handed a tray to each team leader. Coach Jo explained the first clue. Noah put the empty badge box under the table so nobody would trip over it on the way past.

Later, the teams came back laughing about a muddy corner on the trail. Every student wore a badge. Rose counted the three empty trays as she packed up. Sharing fairly had helped everyone take part from the start.