Do you ever look at a friend at school and say “Wow, love that shirt – I would wear that”? – or maybe, “Wow, I would NEVER wear that…” Either way, if your friend is about the same size as you, you could switch shirts for a day just to confuse people. In fact, you could switch shirts and pants, too. Turns out that if you did this, you could make many more outfits than you think.
Wee ones: How many pieces of clothing are you wearing right now? Count them!
Little kids: If you, your cousin and 3 friends all decide to switch sweatshirts, how many of you are doing the switcheroo? Bonus: How many more friends would have to join in to make a dozen people total?
Big kids: If you and your friends together have 5 shirts and 4 pairs of pants, how many different shirt-pant pairs can you make? Bonus: If 3 people each have a shirt, a sweatshirt, a pair of pants and a cool hat, how many different combinations can you all make from those?
Answers:
Wee ones: Different for everyone…don’t forget to count your underwear!
Little kids: 5 people. Bonus: 7 more friends.
Big kids: 20 shirt-pant pairs. Each shirt can go with one of the 4 pants, and then you make pairs like that 5 times total. Bonus: 81 outfits! Each shirt goes with one of 3 sweatshirts, and we do that 3 times…then each of those 9 pairs can go with one of 3 pants…and each of those 27 outfits can go with one of 3 hats.
