Place
students in groups of up to four students, and provide each group with
three number cubes, at least 64 counters, and a copy of the Collect the Counters Activity Sheet. Have each student pick a row, write his or her name
next to it, and cover each number in that row with a counter. Then have
the players take turns rolling the three number cubes, finding the sum
of the numbers, and removing the counter from the sum. Allow the
students to play a sample game as you circulate to be sure they
understand how to play.
Collect the Counters Activity Sheet
In this game, there are 16 possible sums that can result when
three number cubes are tossed, namely 3‑18. Obviously, some of these
sums are most likely than others. As students roll and attain various
sums, they remove the counters from the game board. For instance, if a
student had rolled four times and obtained sums of 7, 11, 13, and 17,
their game board would look like this:
You can adjust the rules for winning depending on how much time
you would like students to spend playing this game. In the longest
version, play until one student has removed all of the counters. (Note
that the probability of rolling a 3 or an 18 is only 1/216, so it may
take a while for these rolls to appear.) In shorter versions, play
until a student removes 3, 4, or 5 counters in a row. (Asking students
to identify the counters in a row that were removed by the winner can
lead to a good discussion about probability and why some sums are more
likely than others.)
Introduce the students to the Hungry Frog,
which provides an opportunity for students to practice facts and
develop fluency in recalling them. (When you click on "Click Here to
Change Options," students may select from among the four binary
operations—addition, subtraction, multiplication, division—and the game
may include the use of negative numbers.)
Remind students to click on the frog whose lily pad has the accurate
sum for the math fact that appears on the bug. Clicking on the frog
makes it "hungry" and enables it to eat the bug with the correct fact.
When a player clicks on a bug that has the accurate fact that matches
the sum on the frog, he eats that bug and earns points for the player.
The object of the game is to catch the correct bug before the bonus
ball vanishes to win bonus points. [If students play in pairs or small
groups, it may be necessary to specify a number of facts that
constitute a turn for each player. This provides a more equitable
distribution of play.] Have students document the beginning and ending
bonus points and subtract the difference to determine the total number
of points they collect in each turn.
To conclude the lesson, assign the students to play either the computer game or the number cube game.
