CCSS.Math.Content.6.RP.A.1 Understand ratio concepts and use ratio reasoning to solve problems.
📲 Technology Required
Computer with projector, for in-class use. Computer or tablet with Internet access for home use.
⏰ Time
90 minutes
📃 Summary
Students watch a video from Math Snacks in which Isabella uses the ratio of words she speaks to her date to determine if it was a good or bad day. The video has a companion teacher guide with questions to stimulate students’ thinking about ratios and test their understanding. Students play a game where they brew potions with given ratios to defeat an opponent. Students then complete a learner’s guide assessing and reinforcing their knowledge of ratios.
This three- and-a-half-minute humorous video uses the ratio of words in a conversation to show a couple of bad dates and one good one.
Have a class discussion
Use the discussion questions in the Teacher Guide from Math Snacks to check students’ understanding. Note that this will require you to restart and show the video again, stopping at specific points.
If you have not yet introduced equivalent ratios to your class, you may want to skip some of these questions and come back later.
Play the Game Ratio Rumble
The Ratio Rumble game can be played online here at the Math Snacks website or downloaded free for iPads. The first game level begins with 1:1 ratios and gets more complex in higher levels.
Students complete the learner guide
It’s called a learner guide, not a worksheet, so that makes it cool! Seriously, the Bad Date Learner Guide, available here from Math Snacks, has two pages of review and assessment items that test understanding. Students are asked to draw a picture of a ratio, complete “what-if” scenarios and give some examples of other situations in which 1:1 ratios would or would not be desirable.
NGSS 4-LS1-1: Construct an argument that plants and animals have internal and external structures that function to support survival, growth, behavior, and reproduction.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.MD.B.4 Generate measurement data by measuring lengths using rulers marked with halves and fourths of an inch. Show the data by making a line plot,
⏰ Time
3-4 hours over 4-5 sessions. The data collection will need to be completed at least two weeks after the seeds are planted.
📲 Technology Required
No technology is required. Students may use Jamboard for line plots and Google docs for word journals, but both of these activities can also be done on paper.
📃 Summary
Teachers read an age appropriate book about plants and record new vocabulary in their personal dictionary. The teacher or student selects an agriculture activity from the booklet More Scrambled States of Agriculture. Garden in a glove is one recommended activity. Students collect and record data on the number of days until germination, showing the results in one more more line plots.
Both the lesson plan for Garden in a Glove and More Scrambled States of Agriculture booklet have several recommendations for age appropriate books on plants in general or specific plants, like wheat. Teachers may wish to read the book aloud to the class, have students take turns reading aloud, either in groups or as a whole class, or assign to students to read on their own. I recommend 2-3 sessions of 15 minutes of read aloud or 20 minutes of independent reading.
Update Word Journals
Students should update their word journals, what some teachers refer to as a “personal dictionary”, with any new words from the book. If this is your students’ first experience using a word journal, you may wish to give them this Google doc to read or read it together as a class, “Creating your personal dictionary.“
Food prep gloves – 1 for each student – that you can probably get from your school cafeteria,
A bag of cotton balls
5 different packs of seeds
A marker
Soak the cotton balls in water, put 3-5 seeds in each one and put five cotton balls, each with different seeds, in the five fingers of the glove. Don’t forget to write on each finger what is in it. Create a chart of the germination time for each type of seed. Read the lesson plan for more detail.
Ask students to generate hypotheses about how long it will take for the seeds to germinate, whether all the seeds will take the same amount of time (assuming you did Garden in a Glove).
Record your measurements
Students create either :
Create 5 line plot showing the number of seeds that germinated for each number of days, one plot for each type of seed, OR
Create one line plot with a different color used for each type of seed.
Ask the students whether their hypotheses were supported.
OPTIONAL: WATCH THIS VIDEO ON CREATING A LINE PLOT
If your students are not familiar with line plots, you may want to have them watch this seven-minute video which explains line plots step by step.
Now that students have watched the video and collected the data, their final task is to create two line plots of their results. Feel free to copy and paste the text below into your Google classroom or other assignment.
LINE PLOT ASSIGNMENT
OPTIONAL: IF STUDENTS ARE LEARNING ONLINE, THEY CAN USE JAMBOARD TO CREATE A LINE PLOT, AS SHOWN IN THE VIDEO BELOW.
Assessment
Three forms of assessment are included in this assignment.
In the personal dictionary or word journal, students are required to include a minimum of five words with definitions for 50 points. Each word, spelled correctly is 2 points and a correct definition is another 8 points. I deduct a point for grammar or spelling errors in the definition, but only one.
For the agriculture activity, this is simply pass/ fail marked as completed or not.
The line plots are scored based on accuracy. I give 10 points for each plot/ type of seed for a total of 50 points possible and another 10 points each for stating a hypothesis and answering whether or not it has been supported.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.D.8 Solve two-step word problems using the four operations. Represent these problems using equations with a letter standing for the unknown quantity. Assess the reasonableness of answers using mental computation and estimation strategies including rounding.
⏰ LESSON TIME:
30-45 minutes
📃 SUMMARY
In this lesson, the students will develop an understanding of the meanings of the four operations of whole numbers through activities and problems involving real life scenarios from Indigenous history. Students use properties of operations to calculate products of whole numbers, using increasingly sophisticated strategies based on these properties to solve using the four operations problems involving single-digit factors. It includes educational videos, games and video presentations that can be used for reviews and daily practice.
📲 TECHNOLOGY REQUIRED
Computer or mobile device
📚 LESSON
First, watch a video for 100 second
Learn how to solve problems by breaking them down into easier problems (time 1:40)
Second, play a game
Choices screen: Instruct students to select NUMBERS
Let the students log in to Making Camp Premium to access the game. (Game links can be found under the GAMES tab.) The choices screen is shown above. Students are instructed to select NUMBERS from the screen above.
Students are tasked to play for 20 minutes. Students will demonstrate mastery in solving word problems like the one shown below and to be able to earn points within the game. For some students who aren’t able to master the standard will be given individualized instruction to master the concept.
Example of word problem following a video
Reinforce and assess what they have learned with a presentation
This Google slides presentation, Travois and Multiplication, gives a little background on how the travois was used by Indigenous people of North American. Within the context of building and using a travois, students learn to analyze a word problem and use appropriate operations in getting the correct answer.
Final video – See travois in action
Watch this short (46 second) video on how Lakotas used the travois
ASSESSMENT
To monitor the progress of the students, there is data analysis that can be viewed on the Making Camp Premium data report. There are also four problems included in the Google slides presentation that students can complete in-class or as a work-from-home activity
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.NBT.6 Find whole-number quotients and remainders with up to four-digit dividends and one-digit divisors, using strategies based on place value, the properties of operations, and/or the relationship between multiplication and division. Illustrate and explain the calculation by using equations, rectangular arrays, and/or area models.
⏰ LESSON TIME
30-45 minutes
📃 SUMMARY
This lesson plan will explore how students interpret remainders in the context of a problem. They will learn how to divide and have a number leftover. Students will be using the concept of division and remainders. An instructional video will be presented as well as a PowerPoint presentation and an educational game that can be used to reinforce the concept of remainders with assessment data.
📲 TECHNOLOGY REQUIRED
Device with web-browser (Chromebook, laptop or desktop computer); or iOS (iPhone/iPad) with access to Google apps.
📚 Lesson
Watch Video
In division, remainders occur when a number can’t be evenly divided. This video will help the students understand the concept of remainders.
Also available in spanish:
Break Down Long Division in a Presentation
This Google slides presentation: Division with remainders reviews the parts of a division problem; quotient, division and divisor, then works a sample problem step by step. The presentation ends with a practical question in a word problem- when you have a remainder, what do you do with the amount that remains?
Play a Game – Making Camp Dakota
Making Camp Dakota follows a family at a pow-wow as the children learn about Dakota culture through stories from their elders and apply their long division skills along the way.
Differentiated Instruction
GAME: Making Camp Premium
Have students play Making Camp Premium using these icons. Students who struggle with this standard will receive individual instruction within the game to teach and reinforce this concept.
ASSESSMENT: Making Camp Premium Reports
You can view your students’ progress on mastering these standards by viewing your Making Camp Dakota and Making Camp Premium teacher reports. You can access the teacher reports here.
STATE STANDARDS:
Minnesota Math Standard 5.1.1.2 Consider the context in which a problem is situated to select the most useful form of the quotient for the solution and use the context to interpret the quotient appropriately.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.7.NS.A.2.D Convert a rational number to a decimal using long division; know that the decimal form of a rational number terminates in 0s or eventually repeats.
⏰ Time
30-40 minutes
📲 Technology Required
A projector or smart board is required to show the Google slides presentation in class. It can also be shown using any web meeting software for remote learning. The random candy generator can be used by students in anything with a browser, including computers, tablets or phones. This activity is optional. It’s actually more fun with fun-size bags of candy like Skittles or M & M’s.
📃 Summary
Students watch a video or hear a presentation explaining using long division to convert fractions to decimals. A second method of using place value is discussed when the denominator is tenths, hundredths or thousandths. Students then play a game that teaches converting fractions to decimals and end with an activity finding the decimal representing each color in a bag of candy. A simulator is included if no bags of candy are available!
📚 Lesson
EITHER watch the video below
This is a 7-minute video that gives the steps in converting fractions to decimals, with multiple examples, using both long division and place value.
OR Use this Google Slides Presentation
The Google slides presentation covers the same material as the video with the same examples. The steps in the long division problems are animated in the presentation. If you prefer a PowerPoint presentation you can find that here. Both can be viewed from these links or you can copy into your own Google drive or download to modify for your class.
The presentation and video both include two sample problems to work as a class.
NOTE: The presentation includes an activity converting fractions to decimals using candy or a random sample application.
Play a Game
On mobile devices
Play the Empiric Empire game for 10 minutes. This game teaches fractions and decimals in the context of concepts from epidemiology such as prevalence, incidence and mortality rate. This game is available for iPad, iPhone or Android.
On Chromebook
Don’t have any of those devices? Play the Minnesota Turtles game for five minutes. After the game (it’s short), assign these problems:
The game says that 5/9 = 56% – prove it using long division. Is this a repeating or terminating decimal? HINT: Remember that 56% = .56
The game says that 4/9 = 44% – prove it using long division. Is this a repeating or terminating decimal?
This lesson includes three types of assessment. There are the problems completed together in class, included within the presentation or video. There are the problems completed within the Empiric Empire game which you can see in the teacher reports. Alternatively, there are the two problems assigned after the Minnesota Turtles game. There is also an assessment at the end of the slides using different colors of candy to convert fractions to decimals and chart the results.
Individualization
Assign this problem to more advanced students:
Think back to what we learned in the previous lesson about fractions, decimals and percentages being three different ways of looking at the same number. You answered the two questions below. What is a different way to prove that 4/9 = 44%/
The game says that 5/9 = 56% – prove it using long division. Is this a repeating or terminating decimal? HINT: Remember that 56% = .56
The game says that 4/9 = 44% – prove it using long division. Is this a repeating or terminating decimal?
Dine’ Culture Standards (3.PO2) I will develop an understanding of Dine’ way of life through Iina’. I will implement and recognize the Dine’ lifestyle. I will present the stories related to Land and Water Beings.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.7.EE.B.3 Solve multi-step real-life and mathematical problems posed with positive and negative rational numbers in any form (whole numbers, fractions, and decimals)
⏰ Time
45 minutes
📲 Technology Required
Device with web-browser – Chromebook, laptop or desktop computer, phone or tablet
📃 Summary
Why would a Navajo sheep farmer need rational numbers? Our sheep farmer wants to build a new sheep corral. He would need to know positive and negative numbers, fractions, and decimals. This middle school lesson on rational numbers is integrated with some Navajo sheep history and is for grades 7 to 8. The examples are detailed and include word problems of rational numbers as applied to finding sheep farming profits. Operation rules are covered along with application of ratio and perimeter skills.
📚 Lesson
1. Bell ringer: Navajo Sheepherding Life
Have students watch this short spotlight video of Navajo sheepherding life in Arizona.
2. Write answers to prompts
Write a short response to it to keep in their notes for discussion during the history parts of the lesson.
What do you notice about the northern Arizona terrain?
What do traditional Navajos think of land ownership?
How does the grandmother, Helen, care for her animals?
3. Math Lesson on Rational Numbers
This presentation, Raising sheep and rational numbers, introduces the concept of rational numbers as anything that can be explained as a ratio. Negative numbers are illustrated both as loans a sheep farmer would take out and depth of holes in the ground that the farmer needs to consider in selecting the size of posts. Students are given rules of integer addition and subtraction to use as an aid in solving problems.
4. Play Game
Play Making Camp Navajo – Sheep Herding and Rational numbers.
Select the game with this icon
Differentiated Instruction
For students who may need a review of the basics, this video on What are Rational provides a good and entertaining refresher.
Related Lessons
Adding and subtracting decimals — Students watch two videos explaining decimal and fraction equivalence. They are then presented with a brief reminder of natural, integer and rational numbers. A slide presentation discusses adding and subtracting decimals. The lesson ends with teacher and student-generated practice problems.
Assessment
There are five problems within the presentation to be worked as a class. Teachers can present the question and have students write the answers and then present the answers. Alternatively, for students working at home, each slide with questions is followed by worked answers.
Teachers can also see which standards students have attempted and how many problems they have answered correctly in the Making Camp teacher reports.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.6.SP.B.5.C Giving quantitative measures of center (median and/or mean) and variability (interquartile range and/or mean absolute deviation), as well as describing any overall pattern and any striking deviations from the overall pattern with reference to the context in which the data were gathered.
CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RH.6-8.7 Integrate visual information (e.g., in charts, graphs, photographs, videos, or maps) with other information in print and digital texts.
⏰ Time
120 – 180 minutes (You may wish to use 2-3 class periods)
📲 Technology Required
The games used here require a Chromebook, Windows or Mac computers or iPads.
📃 Summary
Students play three games that teach fractions and statistics. Students learn enhanced features of Google slides. They then create a Google slides presentation stating which is their favorite game and why.
📚 Lesson
0. Optional: Google Slides Basics
If students are not familiar with Google Slides, begin with the Google Slides Basics lessons. If students know how to create slides document, select a theme, add text, images, transitions and animations, you can skip this step.
1. Introduce the assignment
Explain to students that they will be playing three different educational games and making a recommendation for future classes. If there is only time to play one of these games, which should the teacher choose. A copy of the assignment is here with both Chromebook and iPad games included. Save to your Google classroom or other system and delete whichever device is not available to your students. If your students have access to both devices, no editing is required. Since their presentation will be made with Google Slides and they want it to be as convincing as possible, they should include images and video to support their points.
2. Play AzTech: The Story Begins
This game teaches fractions and basic statistics, integrated with social studies terms and Latin American history.
Allow 10-15 minutes to watch videos and continue their presentations.
6. Play AzTech: Meet the Maya
Allow students the option of playing AzTech: Meet the Maya or continuing one of the two previous games. Meet the Maya continues the game series that teaches fractions and basic statistics, integrated with social studies terms and Latin American history.
Allow 10-15 minutes to play and continue their presentations.
7. Finish !
It’s decision time. Students will select one game to finish for their presentation. Students who finish ahead of the class may play the other games.
Allow 30 minutes to finish the game they have chosen and continue their presentations.
8. Optional (extra credit) Present or publish
Depending on your class and your own objectives, you may want to end this lesson with students either publishing their presentations to the web or presenting in class and trying to convince their classmates that the game they have chosen is the one students should be using to learn next year.
Allow 30 minutes to finish the game they have chosen and continue their presentations.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.A.4 – Determine the unknown whole number in a multiplication or division equation relating three whole numbers.
NCSS theme – The study of people, places, and environments enables us to understand the relationship between human populations and the physical world.
Minnesota State Standard – History Sub-strand 4, Standard 15 “North America was populated by indigenous nations that had developed a wide range of social structures, political systems, and economic activities, and whose expansive trade networks extended across the continent.”
⏰ Time
20 minutes
📲 Technology required
Internet connection on a PC or Chromebook laptop, tablet, or phone.
📃 Summary
Students watch a video on the importance of the Red River cart in expanding trade. The teacher presents (or students may read) a presentation discussing Red River carts followed by two related word problems. The lesson concludes with students playing Making Camp Premium, reinforcing multiplication facts and the Ojibwe history lesson learned.
📚 Lesson
Watch Red River Cart history video
Presentation on Red River Carts and multiplication
Use this Google slides presentation in-class or assigned online to review a little on the Red River cart and then solve two math problems involving carts and horses. In the first activity, the students drag the correct number of wheels to show 5 groups of 3 and then 3 groups of 5, both correct answers to the question. In the second problem, students drag 4 groups of 6 horses to solve the word problem.
Play a game
Students play Making Camp Premium (instructions on which activities are included in the slides presentation).
Assessment
Making Camp Premium offers Data and Reports for teachers to access to view students playing time and the number of items answered correctly addressing each standard taught in the game.
This cross-curricular lesson includes activities and instruction in agricultural science and math. Students begin by watching a video and learning about pig farms. After making their own pig barn, they watch two short videos about solving math problems. This information is then applied to solve problems during a presentation on math around the pig farm. Students end playing one of the Making Camp games to reinforce skills and knowledge.
📲 Technology Required
If teaching in person, the teacher will need a computer and projector or smart board to show the videos, or students can be given the links to watch on their own devices. Students will need a PC, Mac or Chromebook or tablet. Making Camp Premium, Making Camp Lakota and Making Dakota are all playable on any web browser on those devices.
📚 Lesson
This lesson starts with resources from National Ag in the Classroom
Virtual tour of pig farms
Virtual Field Trip to Ohio Pig Farms
Make a Pig Barn
This activity requires a few supplies but it is probably things you have lying around and your students will probably enjoy it.
Business-size envelopes, 4 per group
Paper towel, 1 per group
Scissors
Scotch tape
OPTIONAL
Markers
Toilet paper rolls, 2 per group
Drinking straws, 2 per group (cut into 8 equal pieces)
8.5″ x 11″ white paper, 1 per group (cut in half)
Extra paper for making fencing, pipes, feed troughs, etc. (optional)
Instructions
Use the following instructions to model for the students how to create the barn:
Barn: Cut an oval hole in one envelope, making a large side window for the barn. This window provides the proper ventilation for the pigs.
Cut the paper towel in half and tape it onto the top of the window for the curtain.
Cut another envelope in half for the ends of the barn.
Tape the ends of the barn to the “sides of the barn” envelopes, one of which has the hole for the window and paper towel curtain, so that you have four sides, or a rectangle.
Use the final envelope to create a roof by creasing it in half lengthwise and attaching it with tape to the top of the rectangle.
Food Storage: Tape four straws, or legs, to each toilet paper roll so that the structures will stand on the legs.
Use a half piece of paper, and make a cone shape by twisting and taping the ends. Tape the cone shape on the end of the toilet paper roll without the straw legs.
Use the other half piece of paper to make another smaller cone shape and tape it between the straw legs on the other end of the toilet paper roll.
If you’d like, you or your students can watch the instructions here. You can also assign this video for students learning at home to watch so they know how to make the barn. The plus is that just about every house will have every single one of these items except possibly the straws.
Optional additional science and language arts content
This link to the National Ag in the Classroom lesson has more information on pigs and pig farming, including some of the vocabulary used in the math lesson as well as a discussion of the ways farmers care for animals. I highly recommend checking it out.
Watch a video on operations key words
Trust me, this does come back to pig farming!
Students watch this video on operations keywords. This two-minute video has been watched over 14,000 times, which gives some indication of how useful students and teacher find the concept of looking at the words in a problem to decide which operation to use.
Watch a video on problem-solving – Start at the end
This 3 1/2 minute video explains that the end of the word problem is where you usually will find the question you are expected to solve. It includes one easy and one harder example, as well as a couple of useful tips.
Start at the End
Give a presentation
This 34-slide deck on problem-solving reinforces the information in the two math videos and gives students three problems of increasing difficulty where they have to start at the end, all centered around Laura’s pig farm.
Play a game
Now that students have been introduced to problem-solving with multiplication and division word problems, it’s time to play a game and reinforce those skills. Which game depends on what you feel your students need most. There is overlap among the games as each includes some review.
Making Camp Premium – focuses primarily on multiplication of one- and two-digit numbers. Also includes division with one-digit divisors. The content is taught in the context of Ojibwe history and culture.
Making Camp Lakota – focuses primarily on division with one-digit divisors. Also includes multiplication of one- and two-digit numbers. The content is taught in the context of Lakota history and culture.
Making Camp Dakota – focuses primarily on division of three-digit numbers with one- and two-digit divisors. Also includes multiplication of one- and two-digit numbers and division with one-digit divisors. The content is taught in the context of Lakota history and culture.
Assessment
Assessments are built into the presentation, as teachers can have students submit their answers in writing or in a Google chat prior to giving the answers during the presentation. Teachers can also see which standards students have attempted and how many problems they have answered correctly in the Making Camp teacher reports.
As the title suggests, this lesson introduces students to two other problme-solving strategies. They watch a video on visualization, then solve a problem that asks them to visualize. After watching a video on building a model, students build and/or draw their own model of a multiplication problem or property.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.NF.A.2 Understand a fraction as a number on the number line; represent fractions on a number line diagram.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.NF.A.2.A Represent a fraction 1/b on a number line diagram by defining the interval from 0 to 1 as the whole and partitioning it into b equal parts. Recognize that each part has size 1/b and that the endpoint of the part based at 0 locates the number 1/b on the number line.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.NF.A.2.B Represent a fraction a/b on a number line diagram by marking off a lengths 1/b from 0. Recognize that the resulting interval has size a/b and that its endpoint locates the number a/b on the number line.
CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.4.NF.B.3.D Solve word problems involving addition and subtraction of fractions referring to the same whole and having like denominators, e.g., by using visual fraction models and equations to represent the problem.
⏰ LESSON TIME
45 minutes
📃 SUMMARY
This lesson plan will build upon the already introduced concepts and key terms of fractions in our “Introducing Fractions” lesson plan. Students will learn that a fraction N/N =1 and be able to solve problems with fractions equal to 1 in various contexts, including number lines, time and pizza.
📲TECHNOLOGY REQUIRED
Students will need a PC, Mac or iPad. Fish Lake is playable on PC and Mac through an online download and installation as well as on iPad through an App Store download. Students will also need access to the games.
📚 LESSON
Start the lesson by having your students watch the “Fractions Equivalent to 1” video. In this video, students are introduced to the concept of when fractions equal 1 and shown different examples. (This video is 3 minutes and 32 seconds.)
Fractions Equivalent to 1
Students will take the information from the video and use it to complete the “A Fraction Can Equal 1” activity in this Google slides deck. In this activity, students practice grasping the concept of a fraction, N/N, equaling 1 through different real-world situations. (20 minutes)
To end the lesson, students can play Fish Lake to further practice fractions. (20 minutes)
Download and install Fish Lake on Mac or Windows
ASSESSMENT
Assessment is built into the conclusion of the activity where students break apart the number line into N parts, label the number line, and state what fraction equals 1. The last activity problem will show if students have understood the concept of N/N = 1. Fish Lake data reports are also available for teachers to access after students have finished playing.
STATE STANDARDS
Minnesota State Standards
3.1.3.1 – Read and write fractions with words and symbols. Recognize that fractions can be used to represent parts of a whole, parts of a set, points on a number line, or distances on a number line.
3.1.3.2 – Understand that the size of a fractional part is relative to the size of the whole.
