Another Quick and Easy Warm Up

As a visiting consultant one of the the things I always had in my pocket was a ten sided die (0-9), because invariably a teacher or class would want me to 'play' a maths game.  This one is so easy to set up but has the element of chance(probability) and place value.

Have the students to draw four boxes on a piece of paper.

Explain to them that you are going to roll the die 4 times and after each roll call out the number.  Their task is to (make the Largest 4 digit number, Smallest 4 digit number, Number closest to 5000 etc) The students are to decide which box to write the number in.  Once written it can not be moved.


Alternatives:

• Have 4 boxes with a discard box and roll the die 5 times, students are allowed to discard at any time one of the numbers

• Introduce a decimal point between one of the boxes, this will show you the teacher, that many students just do not understand very well our place value system

• For younger children just have two or three boxes

• For younger children have them record their numbers on cards and then use their cards as a lesson for 'Ordering" the numbers and statistics like Range, Mode.  (I had students display the cards in order on the classroom carpet with them sitting around so that they could all be involved)  Children love 'owning' their number