Summary
Math activities help students learn about the concepts of more and less.
Materials
Invitation to Learn
In the Can
Cover that Number
War
Find It on the Number Line
Bear Squeeze
- Math journal
- Pencil
- Teddy bear counters
- Number line 1-100
More or Less
Make Sets
Race to the Top
Line Up Five
Additional Resources
Books
Number Lines: How Far to the Car?, by John Burstein; ISBN 0-8368-3815-7
100 Days of Cool, by Stuart J. Murphy; ISBN 978-0-06-000123-0
Background for Teachers
The following activities have been designed to be utilized as
center activities. The activities could be used as whole group or
small group activities, but the number of materials will need to be
adjusted. These center activities have also been designed to meet the
needs of the diverse learning populations found in today's classroom.
By differentiating the process of how the content is learned and
considering the various learning profiles of students using these center
activities, student knowledge and understanding will be increased.
Before beginning activities, you may want to pre-teach some of the
activities and exposure to vocabulary like greater than, less than, and
equal to, as well as an understanding that greater than and more than
are equivalent terms.
Intended Learning Outcomes
5. Understand and use basic concepts and skills.
Instructional Procedures
Invitation to Learn
Ask the students if they have ever played "Tic-Tac-Toe"? Show
students the Tic-Tac-Toe sheet and talk about how you get a "Tic-
Tac-Toe". Explain that today they are going be completing a "Tic-
Tac-Toe" as they do their math centers and use the Tic-Tac-Toe sheet to
help show which center is which.
Instructional Procedures
In the Can
- To play In the Can, the student selects two film canisters.
Inside the film canisters, there will be small sets of items with
five items or more inside. Buttons, counters, pennies, and
beans are just a few examples of what could be inside.
- The student opens one canister at a time and counts the
number of objects inside.
- On the In the Can sheet, the student draws the number of
objects inside the first canister and puts the objects back in.
- The student then opens the second canister and counts the
number of objects inside and records it on the handout.
- Then in the boxes below the cans, the student labels which
canister had the greater/lesser amount.
- Repeat one more time with two different canisters.
Cover that Number
- Each pair of students needs two Cover that Number game
boards and a set of Number Cards.
- The students take turns pulling a Number Card. They then
read the number and place it on the game board accordingly.
If they are unable to place the card, the card gets returned back
to the bottom of the pile and they lose their turn.
- The first student to cover the board first is the winner.
War
- To play War, each pair of students needs a set of Ten Frame
Cards.
- They then divide the cards evenly between both players.
- At the same time, they say "1, 2, 3, flip" and flip over their top
card. The player with the card that has more dots, wins the
cards.
- Students keep playing until all the cards are gone.
- When finished, they count their cards and the player with the
most cards wins.
- Students can play again, but this time the card with less would
win.
Find It on the Number Line
- To play Find It on the Number Line students need to work in
pairs. Then as pairs, students decide who is going to be the
reader and who will be the doer. The doer will be using the
Step-by-Step Number Line to find the answer.
- The reader grabs a set of Find It on the Number Line activity
cards.
- The reader reads one activity card at a time to the doer.
- The doer steps on a number on the Step-by-Step Number Line
that answers the activity card.
- Once the reader has gone through the activity cards once, then
the doer and the reader switch roles.
Bear Squeeze
- Working in partners, Student A writes down a mystery number
in their math journal.
- Student B makes a guess at what number their partner has
written in their math journal.
- Student A moves the teddy bear counter on the number line
to show if the number is more or less than what Student B
said. (e.g. If a student A's mystery number is 35 and student B
guesses, "is it more 23," then student A would move the bear to
23 and say, "no, it is greater than 23.")
- Student B keeps asking questions until they have found the
mystery number and Student A keeps track of how many
questions were asked by their partner by using tally marks in
their journal.
- Once Student B has found the mystery number, they switch
roles and play again.
More or Less
- To play More or Less, students need to be in pairs.
- As a pair, they lay out 16 dominoes in a 4 x 4 arrangement.
- Before each turn, one player must spin the spinner to decide
if the domino that is more/less will be the winner.
- Then each player takes a domino.
- Whichever player has the domino that is more/less depending
on what the spinner selected, wins the pair of dominoes.
- Repeat until all dominoes are gone.
- The player with the most dominoes wins or the more/less
spinner could be used to decide the winner.
Make Sets
- Student chooses one of the eight Make Sets Activity Cards.
- Then he/she makes a set of objects to show a set that has
more, less, or the same as the set of objects on the activity
card chosen.
- The student then use the Make Sets More/Less/Same labels to
designate which set is which.
- Repeat with 3 more of the activity cards.
Race to the Top
- Working in pairs, each player takes a game board, place
marker, and baggie of Number Cards.
- Each player takes a Number Card.
- Then the two players compare their numbers and whoever
has the larger number gets to move up one space on the Race
to the Top game board.
- Place Number Cards in a discard pile and grab two new cards.
- Continue playing until one player makes it to the flag at the top
of the mountain.
Line Up Five
- In partners, each pair needs two Line Up Five game boards
and a set of Number Cards A.
- The first player takes a Number Card and places it on their
game board sequentially according to the number they pulled.
- Then it is the second player's turn to do the same thing on their
game board.
- The numbers need to be in order and cannot be moved once
placed.
- As the game continues, if they are unable to place the card then
they return the card to the pile and lose their turn.
- The game ends when one player fills one line of five across.
Extensions
Curriculum Extensions/Adaptations/
Integration
- For the game In the Can, you could have them write the number
word for the canister they choose rather than the can number.
- To differentiate for higher ability students, number cards from
1-200 could be used in the activities Race to the Top and Line
Up Five.
- To make Line Up Five more difficult, you could use Number
Cards B & C and use the blank grid to do numbers from 37-72
and 73-100.
- There is a list of other activities that can be done with the ten
frame cards that can be found on the Granite School District
website, listed below.
- For struggling learners, these activities could be practiced in
teacher-led small group lessons before being exposed to them at
centers.
Family Connections
- Send home Line Up Five and Number Cards A with students to
do with family members at home.
- Send home Race to the Top game boards and Number Cards A, B,
& C and have them play with someone at home.
Assessment Plan
- Collect the In the Can handout to check for understanding of
vocabulary such as greater than, less than, and equal to.
- Monitor the Make Sets to see if students are able to make sets
that are more, less, and the same as the Activity Cards.
- Have students write their own activity card for the Step-by-Step
Number Line activity.
Bibliography
Research Basis
Rillero, P. & Allison, J. (1997). Creative childhood experiences in mathematics and science:
projects, activity series and centers for early childhood. ERIC Source (ED 411 145).
Retrieved December 27, 2007, from www.eric.ed.gov
This article discusses the use of activity centers in early childhood
classrooms. It defines activity centers as areas for children to
investigate in a self-directed manner, with greater autonomy, which
promotes learning. It also encourages the use of mathematical
manipulatives as a foundation for more abstract thinking in the activity
centers.
Ediger, M. (1999). Organizing for instruction in mathematics. Journal of Instructional
Psychology. 26(2)85-91.
Setting up a mathematics classroom that incorporates whole
group instruction, concrete to abstract activities, learning centers, and
differentiation can be a tremendous challenge. This article provides
ideas of how to help do this successfully; as well as, how to increase
student achievement through this type of organization.