Lesson Plan Template ED 3501

Lesson
Title/Focus

Rolling Dice Probability

Date

November 19th, 2014

Subject/Gra
de Level

Grade 5 Math

Time
Duratio
n

45 mins

Unit

Statistics and Probability

Teacher

Amanda Shoults

OUTCOMES FROM ALBERTA PROGRAM OF STUDIES

General
Learning
Outcomes:
Specific
Learning
Outcomes:

GLO Use experimental or theoretical problems to represent and solve problems

involving uncertainty.
SLO 3 Describe the likelihood of a single outcome occurring, using words
such as:
Impossible
Possible
Certain
SLO 4 Compare the likelihood of two possible outcomes occurring using
words such as
Less likely
Equally likely
More likely

LEARNING OBJECTIVES
Students will:
1. Experiment with rolling two die.
2. Compare the likelihood of different outcomes when rolling two die.
3. Explain why some numbers come up more than others when rolling two die.

ASSESSMENTS
Observations:
Key Questions:

Products/Performan
ces:

Students will participate in the whole class review by answering questions

Students will work collaboratively to complete the dice rolling experiment.
Which sum of dice is most likely? Why.
Which some of dice is least likely? Why.
Did our experimental results match the theoretical data?

LEARNING RESOURCES CONSULTED

Alberta Program of Studies Math

MATERIALS AND EQUIPMENT

Dice
Worksheets
SMART board

PROCEDURE
Prior to lesson
Attention Grabber
Assessment of
Prior Knowledge
Expectations for
Learning and
Behaviour
Advance
Organizer/Agenda

Photocopy worksheets. Find dice. Set up SMART board.

Introduction
Grade 5s, for math today were going to be doing an
experiment with dice.
Who can tell me what the singular word for dice is? What do
we call it when we only have one dice? It is instead called a
die.

Time

Students will work in partners to complete their experiment,

and be engaged in the class discussion.
1) Students will roll their dice and record their
observations.
2) Record the students data on the smart board all
together
3) Discussion why did we get the results that we did

Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe

Transition to Body

Learning Activity
#1

Teacher Notes:
Assessments/
Differentiation

Learning Activity
#2

Lesson Plan Template ED 3501

ASK: If I were to roll a 1 on one die, what would the second die
have to land on in order for the dice to add up to 6? 5.
ASK: If I were to roll a 2 on one die, what would the second die
30 sec
have to be in order for the dice to add up to 5? 3.
SAY: We are going to do this as part of our experiment.
Body
Time
EXPLAIN: Students will
1) In pairs, I want you to roll the two die, calculate the
sum of the two die, and record your results. One
person is going to record, and one person is going to
roll. You will do this as many times as you can in the
next 10 minutes.
2) Half way through the 10 minutes we are going to switch
roles.
3) I want you to find a partner. When you have done this I
want one of you to come grab a worksheet from me,
and one of you to grab two dice. You need one
worksheet, and two dice per pair.
10 mins
4) You will have ten minutes to roll the dice as many times
as possible.
5) Does everyone understand what theyre supposed to be
doing for the next 10 minutes?
6) Ready, go.
REMEMBER to pause a few minutes in, and get them to switch
roles. Whoever was the recorder, is not the dice roller.
Whoever was the dice roller is now the recorder.
Put a timer on the board, the time bomb one.
SAY: Now, we are going to record our data as a class and see
what happened.
Float around the room making sure that students are engaged
and on task. If a certain group is not, approach them with
teacher low status and ask What are you supposed to be doing
right now?
Place the instructions for the activity on the board for students
who need a visual reminder.
Have the students switch roles halfway through the activity so
that one person does not get bored and become disengaged.
Put the chart up on the board. Draw a popsicle stick, that
5 mins
person will come keep a tally for the whole class.
Start with 1: ASK how many ones did your group get? Did any
group get any ones? No?
What about 2s: ASK each pair how many times their dice
added up to 2.
Continue this for numbers 2-12.
Half way through, ask another student to come record the data
on the board.
ASK: Is there anything you notice about our data? Which
numbers showed up the least? Which numbers showed up the
most?
ASK: does anybody know why? They will most likely say no,
but if one says yes, ask them to explain to the class why the 7s
showed up the most.
SAY: To figure this out, lets go back to the beginning. Raise
your hand if you could tell me what probability means? Turns to
the person beside you and tell them what probability is.
All right, what did you decide probability is? Draw a popsicle
stick.
Probability is the likelihood of an event occurring, correct?
(Thumbs up?)

Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe

Teacher Notes:
Assessments/
Differentiation

Learning Activity
#3

Teacher Notes:
Assessments/
Differentiation

Lesson Plan Template ED 3501

So we need to figure out why rolling a sum of 7 has such a high
probability. Lets take a look at possible dice combinations and
see what we can figure out.
Engage the students in the lesson by randomly selecting
students to come up and record the class data on the board.
Switch recorders about every 3 or 4 numbers so that it seems a
little bit fairer. Use the popsicle stick method. Having students
recorders also stops me from turning my back on the students.
Have the students explain probability to each other. Bring the
class back together by counting down if necessary.
Put the diamond up on the board with the blank lines on it. Fill
in numbers 2-12 on the left side.
Use popsicle sticks to ask the students to fill in the blanks.
ASK: What two numbers from 1-6 add up to 1? None.
ASK: What two numbers from 1-6 add up to 2? One and one.
Write 1+1 in the blank at the top of the diamond.
REMEMBER: that the dice only have numbers 1-6 on them.
Continue this until all of the blanks have been filled, and then
ask, NOW WHAT DO YOU NOTICE?
SAY: As you can see, the number 7 has the greatest number of
possible combinations. With a higher number of chances of
10 mins
creating that number, the probability of rolling that number
increases.
ASK: does that make sense?
Using this principle, WHY did you not roll very many 2s?
Because there is only one way of creating a two, meaning it has
a lower probability of happening.
In other words (flip the slide), the more combinations you have
to create a certain total, the higher the probability is that you
will roll that total. Therefore, if you have a low number of
combinations that can be used to make that total, it is going to
be less probable. Show me with your fingers
Ensure that all of the students are engaged. If it starts to be
that only a certain few are answering, begin using the popsicle
sticks to ask them what numbers create the different sums.
Watch for confused looks. ASK: does anyone have any
questions about this?

Feedback From
Students:
Feedback To
Students
Transition To Next
Lesson

Closure
In other words (flip the slide), the more combinations you have
to create a certain total, the higher the probability is that you
will roll that total. Therefore, if you have a low number of
combinations that can be used to make that total, it is going to
be less probable. Show me with your fingers. On a scale from
1-5 how much does this concept make sense?
. Show me with your fingers. On a scale from 1-5 how much
does this concept make sense?
Great job today. I want you to put your worksheets in your
math binders, and bring all of the dice back up to the front.
If the students did not finish or understand, we will continue
this next class.

Sponge
Activity/Activities

Allow the students to continue rolling the dice to see if the same thing
happens.

Consolidation of
Learning:

Time

Reflections from the

lesson
Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe

Lesson Plan Template ED 3501

Adapted from a template created by Dr. K. Roscoe