Lesson Plan Template

MAED 3224
Subject: 3rd Grade Math Central Focus: Number Sense and Operations

Common Core Objective: Date taught:

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.A.3 Use multiplication
and division within 100 to solve word problems in
situations involving equal groups, arrays, and
measurement quantities, e.g., by using drawings
and equations with a symbol for the unknown
number to represent the problem.
Daily Lesson Objective:
Performance- Students will be able to use variables for unknown numbers in a problem and solve
word problems using what they know about the relationship between multiplication and division.

Conditions- Students are working independently to solve problems. A large group discussion will
occur after students have an answer.

Criteria- 8 out of 10 points on exit ticket

Prerequisite knowledge and skills needed: 3 .OA.A.1

3.OA.A.2

Activity Description of Activities and Setting Time
1. Engage Lets review a multiplication word problem to get 5 minutes
our brains firing.
Display word problem on SmartBoard. There are 10
pencils in each pack. Jane bought 9 packs. How
many pencils did she buy altogether?
Now I know that 10 is the number in each pack and
9 is the number of groups. I will use the letter T to
represent my total. I can then write my equation as
10 x 9 = T. To solve the word problem, I need to find
T. Who can tell me what the answer to T equals?
Student answers T = 90 pencils
Awesome! It is important to know what a word
problem tells you and understand what you are
solving for. In todays lesson we are going to look at
an idea called variables. A variable, in math, is a
letter that represents a number we dont know yet.
Lets take a look.
2. Explore I will pass a handout with a puzzle printed on it. The 10 minutes
(including solutions of major tasks) paper titled, Variables, has the following puzzle,
 Value of stars is the same. Value of smiley is the
same.
Star x 8 = 16
Smiley x star = 10
Diamond x smiley = 5
Use what you know about multiplication, division,
and patterns to figure out what number each symbol
represents. Remember the value of each symbol
remains the same in each equation. You may work
alone or with your table group but each student
must write out what number each variable
represents and give a two sentence explanation of
how you received your answer.
3. Explain My expectation is that students should understand 10 minutes
the star = 2, the smiley = 5 and the diamond = 1. The
students are expected to show how they got their
answers to the problem by writing a two sentence
explanation. For example, an explanation might be, I
think the star is 2 because 8 x 2 =16. The smiley is 5
because 5 x star (2) = 10 and the diamond is 1
because 1 x smiley (5) = 5.

I will ask questions such as, Why do you think the
star is 2? Smiley is 5? And diamond is 1? If the star
were equal to 5, would the equations still be correct?
Why or why not?

Teacher explains, The equations we just solved
made up a puzzle with unknown variables. We can
look at all math word problems just like they are
puzzles. Lets take a look at a word problem with an
unknown variable.

Teacher displays following problem up on
SmartBoard, Jack arranged his soccer trophies in 3
equal rows. If he has 12 trophies, how many trophies
are in each row.

I would like you to write out an equation giving the
unknown variable a letter, write your answer, and
draw a picture to explain your equation.

Provide 2 minutes to solve equation then conduct
large discussion asking students to explain the
equation they wrote, what variable they chose and
why, and display what they drew under the doc
camera.
 4. Elaborate/Extend For struggling students I will give them a two
sentence equation for the exploratory puzzle.

For students needing a challenge, I will ask students
to come up with a word problem with an unknown
variable and provide an answer and explanation.
5. Evaluate For the exit ticket I will pass out a handout with the 5 minutes
(assessment methods) following word problem, How many sides do 8
triangles have altogether? Write out an equation
using a variable and solve the problem. Draw a
picture to explain your answer.

4 points for correct use of variable in equation, 2
points for correct answer, 3 points for drawing. 8
out of 10 points on exit ticket.
Materials/Technology: Pencil, 2 handouts per student, SmartBoard, doc camera
*Plan based off pre-written plan from website:
https://betterlesson.com/lesson/resource/2553182/example-student-work?from=resource
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