David Knapp

Lesson Plan Enrichment 4th grade

Daily Lesson Plan for: J & A
Lesson # 3

Date:

Standards(s):
4.OA.C. Generate and analyze patterns.
4.OA.A Use the four operations with whole numbers to solve problems.
4.OA.B Gain familiarity with factors and multiples. <Locker Problem>
SMP #1 Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them.
SMP #2 Reason abstractly and quantitatively.
*** Math ideas
Problem solving; Recognizing Patterns; Specializing (solution for a specific term);
Generalizing solution (finding an algebraic equation)
Goal(s)/Objective(s):
Develop students mathematical thinking skills in recognizing patterns, specializing and then
generalizing math ideas.

Materials

Activities

Review:
Student
individual
math journals

Quick review of concepts we discovered in last

weeks Cube Problem check for understanding
ask students to make sure their math journal write
up(s) include key elements

Teacher Instruction:
Part 1
Return to the locker problem from last week
in this problem students will work

Teacher
Notes:

independently and together to discover

possible solutions to the problem
The ORIGINAL Locker Problem
Imagine you are at a school that has student
lockers. There are 100 lockers (all shut and
unlocked) and 100 students.
** We
originally used
a 100 (10 * 10)
grid inside a
plastic cover
and dry erase
markers to
make it possible
for students to
mark/unmark
models of the
lockers

Another
adjustment we
are making
this week is a
switch to using
25 two color
counters (red
on one side
and yellow on
the other) that
can simply be
turned over to
represent
open/closed.

** After the students struggled a bit last week

with this problem, we are going to make the
adjustment of reducing the number of lockers
& students from 100 to 25.
So the new problem begins with 25 students and
25 lockers but then follows the original stages:
1. Suppose the first student goes along the
row and opens every locker.
2. The second student then goes along and
shuts every other locker beginning with
number 2.
3. The third student changes the state of
every third locker beginning with number
3.
* (If the locker is open, the student shuts
it, and if the locker is closed the student
opens it.)
4. The fourth student changes the state of
every fourth locker beginning with
number 4.
Imagine that this continues until ALL
hundred twenty-five students have
followed the pattern with ALL
hundred twenty-five lockers.
5. At the end, which lockers will be open
and which will be closed? Why?

Model
Adaptation/
Strategy of:
Using Smaller
numbers in
problem

*Be sure to
explain/discuss
this strategy as
a way students
could attempt
to solve
difficult
problems in the
future

Prompts
What happened to all the lockers after person # 1
touches them?
Who changes the states of the lockers?
What determines who touches the locker?
Student
individual
math journals

When does the locker stop changing state?

How many people -and what determined the
number of people - touch each locker?
How can we go about solving this problem?

** Record your thoughts in your journals.

Part 2
Chip Game or Chocolate Bar Problem.

Brief description of chip game:

Seven circular
chips

There are seven chips; each person gets a turn

and may remove one or two chips.
The winner is the person who is able to take
the last chip in their turn.
After playing the game a few times to trial
varied strategies, students will be asked to
propose a rule (strategy) to use in order to always
win.

Use Linking
Cubes, then
chips

Chocolate Bar Problem

Note: Cubes
are easy to
break apart,
but Chips are
easy to move
into varied
shapes
Paper model
of the
chocolate bar
(including
pieces)

There are two players who take

turns
Every turn a player picks up a
section of the candy bar and
breaks it along one of the lines
Every break must go all the way
across the section
This continues until all the pieces
are separate
Whoever makes the last break is
the winner

Prompts
How could we discover a strategy where we
can know/predict if we will win or lose?
What aspects should we look at/consider to
find a strategy?

Student
individual
math journals

Would the strategy be the same for smaller bars

and larger bars?
** Record your thoughts in your journals.

Assessment/Evaluation:
The assessment will be students explaining their
thinking at the end of each problem.
Student
individual
math journals

Concluding activities: students will write (math

journals) and verbalize (to peer and teacher/tutor)
their thinking related to today's problem(s).

After working 2 problems, we have

the option of introducing next weeks
problem (either the Chip Game or the
chocolate bar problem), playing a
round of Mathological Liar and/or
drawing completions to given
patterns.

Lesson Closure:

Student
individual
math journals

* We will discuss the math ideas/concepts

entered in the student journals and then provide
some time for students to individualize/decorate
their journals.
**Students hand in their journals and discuss
what we will be doing together next time.