Determining the Missing Terms in a Sequence of Numbers

Learning Objectives:
A. Identifies the missing terms in a sequence of numbers.
B. Writes the missing terms in a sequence of numbers.
C. Understand different kinds of sequence.

ACTIVITY 1:
Choose the letter of the correct answer and write your answer in a separate
sheet of paper.
1. What number is missing in the pattern 12, 16, 20, _______ 28?
a. 24 b. 21 c. 26 d. 32
2. Johnny used the rule “double the number” to create the pattern below.3, 6,
12, 24… Which pair of number is part of the pattern?
a. 36, 72 b. 48, 96
c. 96, 144 d. 96, 192
3. A number pattern is shown below. 100, 95, 110, 105, 120… If this pattern
continues, what number will come next?
a. 100 b. 115 c. 120 d. 130
4. In the sequence 10, 7, 4, 1, what is the rule for the following pattern?
a. Add 4 b. Add 8
c. Multiply by 2 d. Subtract 3
5. In the series 5, 10, 15, 20, 25, 30 ____, what is the next number in this
pattern?
a. 30 b. 35 c. 45 d. 50

You see patterns in things or objects around you. The activities that you do
every day follow a pattern. The way you arrange your toys or things in a
cabinet follows a pattern. Patterns take many forms. Numbers are used to
form patterns. When you skip count, you are creating a pattern. In this lesson,
you are taught how to determine patterns given a number sequence involving
odd or even numbers, multiples of factors of a number, and others.

Example # 1:
• See the group of numbers given below: 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, ____
• When we observe this group, we realize that starting from zero we get the
next number by jumping two units.
• This is also an example of skip counting by 2 starting from zero. This also
resembles the multiplication table of two.

Example # 2
• Now we solve an example of a number that is not starting from zero and has
a few missing numbers in between.
• Let us consider the following sequence: 6, 9, 12, 15, _____, 21, 24, _____,
30, 33

This is similar to the above examples but in this case, instead of adding a
number to the previous number to get the next number, we subtract a certain
number to get the next term.
Consider the following group of numbers:
20, 15, 10, ____, 0
We notice that the numbers are subtracted by 5 to get the next term. Hence in
the above example, the missing term is 5.

What are the missing terms in 6, 8, 12, ____, 26, ____?

• Look closely at the difference of 6 and 8 (8 – 6 = 2); 8 and 12 (12 – 8 =4).
• The difference is a multiple of 2.
• The missing terms may be 18 and 36. Adding 6 to 12 becomes 18 and
adding 8 to 18 becomes 36.
• Hence, 18 and 36 are the missing terms.

ACTIVITY 2:
Find the terms in each of the following number sequence. Write your answers
in a separate sheet of paper.
1. 10, 12, 14, 16, ___, ____, 22
2. 15, 20, 25, 30, ___, ____, 45
3. 22, 25, 28, 31, ____, ____, 40
4. 27, 31, ___, 39, ____, 47, 51
5. 73, 67, 61, ___, 49, ____, 37

ACTIVITY 3:
Find the missing term/s. Write your answer in a separate sheet of paper.
1. 33, 35, ____, 39, ____, 43
2. 41, ____, 51, 56, ____, 66
3. 77, 74, ____, 68, ____ ,62
4. 2, 4, 6, ____, 10, ____, 14
5. 30, 25, ____, 15, ____, 5

To get the missing term in each sequence of numbers,

• Determine the order of numbers if it is ascending or descending
• Find the difference between the consecutive terms.
• Determine whether the difference between the terms were all odd, even,
multiples of a number, or factors of a number.
• To find the missing term, use the difference between terms.

ASSESSMENT:
Choose the letter of the correct answer and write your answer in a separate
sheet of paper.
1. In the series 3, 6, 9, _________, what number is next in the pattern?
a. 12 b. 14 c. 10 d. 11
2. In sequence 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, what is the rule to this pattern?
a. Add 2 b. Subtract 2
c. Multiply by 2 d. Divide by 2
3. What is the eighth term of the sequence 1, 4, 9, 15, 22……..?
a. 56 b. 49 c. 72 d. 80
4. What are the next two terms in the given sequence 5, 11, 18, 26, ___, ___?
a. 33, 40 b. 34, 42
c. 35, 45
d. Not enough information given to determine a pattern
5. Find the missing term in this sequence 115, 109, 103, ____, 91, 85
a. 69 b. 96 c. 97 d. 100