M & M Counting

Summary

Students will use M&M's to determine how many members are coming to their family reunion and if there will be enough seats for everyone.

Materials

Materials

• a small cup of 40 M&M's per pair
• math journal
• sticky notes

Background for Teachers

Background

• understanding of the problem solving process
• knowledge of several mental math strategies
• understanding of composing and decomposing numbers
• understanding of place value and number sense

Student Prior Knowledge

Prior Knowledge:

• understanding of mental math strategies
• decomposing and composing numbers
• understanding of place value
• understanding of addition and subtraction strategies

Intended Learning Outcomes

• Students will make sense of problems and persevere in solving them MP1
• Students will model with mathematics MP4
• Students will reason abstractly and quantitatively MP3
• Students will attend to precision MP6

Instructional Procedures

Students will use M&M's to solidify mental math strategies by determining how many people are attending a family reunion and deciding if there are enough seats.

Strategies for Diverse Learners

• Provide struggling students with a graphic organizer

Extensions

• students can create their own task with multiple steps for others to solve