The Quadruple Kangaroo

Kit the kangaroo was training for the Great Meadow Hop. Her coach set a puzzle: "To work out four times a number, don't count it four times over — just double, then double again." Kit tried it with 3 carrots: double 3 is 6, and double 6 is 12. Four times 3 carrots, in two easy hops!

Use Kit's two-hop trick to find four times 5: double it, then double again. What did you land on? Try it for four times 7, saying each double out loud — and tell whoever's with you why doubling twice gives you four times as much.

Now invent your own doubling-twice story. Pick something to multiply by four — a kangaroo's carrots, a dragon's coins — and tell how two doubles get there.