The Sequencing Game – Advanced variation

Focus: Students make and name three-digit numbers by spinning spinners and/or drawing cards. In this game, sequencing is directly built into the game design. Students must carefully consider the implications of place value when they arrange their three digits to make a number and, connected with this, they must be mindful of where they place their number on the board as numbers must follow an order from smallest to largest between the 0 and the 1000. Accordingly, students should be encouraged to initially place the smaller numbers towards the zero and the larger numbers towards the 1000 to give themselves the best chance of fitting in subsequent numbers.

How:Students are each given a Sequencing Game board, either laminated (using a white-board marker to write) or just as a printed sheet (using a pencil). The game is best played in pairs or at most in groups of three. Students take turns in spinning three spinners (or drawing three cards) which give the digits from which the students make a three digit number, name it, and write it in one of the squares on the game board. On subsequent turns, each student must try to make a number that can be placed on the board, considering that the numbers must be ordered according to size, between the 0 and the 100. If a student cannot place a number without disrupting the order of smaller to larger, they must miss a turn. The first student to fill all of the squares on their board is the winner.

Questions to ask students during this activity: “Which number will you make the 10s?“, “Should your number be more than half way or less than half way?”, “Which number is half way between zero and one thousand?”, “Should it be closer to the end or to the middle?”

Muddle in the Middle

Focus: Knowing ‘where a number lives’ in relation to other numbers is an important skill which facilitates estimation and helps provide a framework for understanding the relative magnitude of numbers. This activity allows students to apply their spatial skills to build up their sense of number in terms of magnitude and sequence. It also helps them to identify the patterns associated with the Base 10 / Place Value system. Use the blank number line to explore other intervals in this range, for example 700 to 800, or 390 to 400.

How: See Video Example

Questions to ask students during this activity: “Will your number be more than half way or less than half way?”, “Which number is half way on this number line?”, “Will it be closer to the end or to the middle?”, “Try counting. Does it come early in the count or later?”

Assessment – What my number looks like

An appropriate number (for the stage of the student) is written in the centre of the sheet – the student then must try to make the number in a number of different ways (as indicated on the sheet.)

Assessment – Beginning Sequencing Probe Task (from ARC linkage research project)

A more intensive dignostic exercise designed to be carried out on single students in order to determine their working understanding of the Sequencing idea.