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This idea was taken from Developing Number Sense by Rusty Bresser and Caren Holtzman.
Needed Materials: One 6-sided die for each pair of students, a piece of paper and writing utensil for each student.
Directions:
1. Students play in pairs; each game consists of 10 rolls, so I had them number their papers from 1 to 10.
2. The die is rolled (take turns) and each student decides separately whether to multiply the die face by 1, 10, or 100. The number sentence each student chose is recorded on his sheet of paper.
3. Players continue to roll, multiply, and record the number sentences until all 10 spaces have been filled. (Each player will have rolled 5 times.)
4. Each player finds the sum of his products. The winner is the one whose sum is closer to 1000 (over or under).
The mathematical goals are for the student to think about numbers, their magnitude, and their relationship to 1000. These are part of developing good number sense. Discussing strategy enhances mathematical reasoning and can also introduce the element of probability.
Comment on the overall effectiveness of this activity. Then use the form below to reflect on the activity from the perspective of both the teacher and the student. Give the lesson points based on how well it went--each question is worth up to 4 points.
The students really liked this
game! I even had parents comment a week
later on how much their children enjoyed playing “Get to 1000!”. The classroom teacher and I agreed that this
activity is very good for developing and assessing place value concepts as well
as mental addition. We tried this
activity during the last 2 weeks of school, so there wasn’t much time to
develop the game. Simply by walking
around the classroom, however, I was quickly able to ascertain the students
whose grasp of place value allowed them to add the hundreds, then tens, then
ones mentally rather than using a paper and pencil list of 10 right-aligned
numbers. The classroom teacher and I
talked about the importance of following up game play with discussions of
strategy. Bresser and Holtzman give
good sample classroom discussions in their book. They also give ideas for having the students write about their
strategies and how they did the addition mentally. The rules/conditions can easily be altered to make the game fit
student readiness and to encourage a better understanding of strategy.
The regular classroom teacher
and I modeled a game using the chalkboard as our “pieces of paper”. We each took a side of the room as our team,
keeping track of our current sum and discussing strategy as the game
progressed. The regular classroom
teacher won that introductory game, so I congratulated her to model good
sportsmanship and awarded her with a blind reach into the “goody bag”. The students then played on their own in
pairs. The regular teacher and I
circulated in the room noting individual progress, prompting mental addition by
place value when needed, and monitoring the goody bag.
It was interesting to note that
many of our third graders did not grasp any concept of strategy--they blindly
picked numbers to multiply by and then added the results only after they were
finished rolling. The idea of mentally
keeping track of the sum didn’t catch on well with some of the younger
students. Most of the fourth graders played more slowly with results much
closer to 1000. Bresser mentions that
at the third grade level he would use 100 as the target number and have
students use 1 through 6 as multipliers.
I think that would make the mental addition more challenging (and with
less emphasis on place value), but it would emphasize the decomposition of
numbers I was striving for in No Need to Borrow. We believe periodic use of this game with
follow up class discussions would provide an engaging way to improve
place-value and addition sense.
_4_ Was the purpose of the activity clear to me?
_2_ Was the purpose of the activity clear to my students?
_2_ Did the activity support a range of learning styles?
_4_ Were the students engaged during this activity?
_12_ Total points (out of 16)
The purpose (objective) of the activity was…
I communicated to the students why we were doing the activity by…
…telling them at the beginning what we were doing and what I hoped they would be able to do. The plan was to debrief at the end of the activity, but the students were so involved that we ran out of time and didn’t get to go over what we had accomplished before having to pack up for the end of the day.
The part of the lesson that was student-centered was…
…the actual playing of the game. Students made their own decisions and learned as they played. The development of number sense came as they discovered strategies for winning. To reach its full potential, this game needs to be used several times with student-led discussions of strategy to refine play.