Author: Digit Dog

The mice decided to have a pattern parade.

What do you notice?

Which mouse will come next?

While the mice were having their parade the snake tried to catch them.

What colour mouse has snake captured?

How do you know?

Explain your thinking.

What about this time? What do you think?

Try making some patterns of your own.

Digit Dog and Calculating Cat are playing a game of Mouse Splat. To play the game, first decide on the total number of mice. Put a digit card in the empty box.

Player One close your eyes.

Player Two hide some of the mice under the splat.

Player One open your eyes and work out how many mice are hidden.

Explain how you worked it out. Convince your partner that you are right.

Encourage learners to explain how they worked out the number of mice hiding. They might:

• Use a Numicon shape and toy mice or pegs (or visualise them like Calculating Cat);
• Use a 10 frame and objects;
• Use a number track;
• Draw a picture;
• Just know the number bond.

Record some number sentences to show how many different ways the mice can hide.

Where did the mice go?

Make up some more problems like this using different numbers.

Counting in 2s

How many mice could it be?

Could it be 1 mouse? Why not? Is it more than one mouse? How do you know?

Could it be 50 mice? Why not?

Encourage estimation by suggesting numbers that are obviously wrong and asking learners to explain why.

Count up in 2s to 10 – use the Numicon shapes or Cuisennaire rods as you count. Link with grouping, so “how many 2s are in 10?”

Place the 2 shapes on the number line as you count in 2s.

How many 2s equal 10?

Five 2s equal 10.

Five groups of 2 eyes equal 10 eyes altogether.

How many 2s in 10? There are 5 2s in 10.

Put the 2 rods in the number track.

Or use the 10 shape or 10 rod because you know there are 10 eyes altogether.

What about this?

Make up your own problems with different numbers of eyes.

What do you notice about the numbers of eyes?

What if……….

……..you could see ears wiggling?

…….or whiskers twitching?

More thinking about the mice

This time we are trying to find out how many mice the snake started with.

How many mice were in the snake’s bucket to begin with?

How can we work it out?  The important thing is to make sense of the problem. Encourage children to explain what they did and why it makes sense in this context. Whatever they use, do and say should be clear enough for someone else to understand their thinking.

Learners might want to:

• use some toy mice to help make sense of the problem
• act it out with their friends
• explain the problem in their own words
• use counters to represent mice
• draw pictures of the mice
• use a part-whole model
• visualise the mice
• use a ten frame and mice or counters
• use Numicon shapes or Cuisennaire rods
• use number bonds

 

What about this problem?

What’s different? What’s the same?

Can you use the same strategy to solve it?

What are you thinking?

 

 

 

The mice are hiding

This type of word problem requires more thinking than the problems where the end result is unknown e.g. “There are 4 mice outside and 6 mice inside the jar. How many mice are there altogether?” or “There were 10 mice in the jar, 4 mice escaped, how many are left in the jar?”

Ask learners to:

• Explain how to find out how many mice are under the leaves.
• Describe the strategy they have used:
  • act it out – with children or toy mice
  • use counters to represent mice
  • draw pictures
  • use a ten frame
  • use Numicon
  • use number bonds
• Convince everyone that their answer is correct.

What number sentence can you write about the problem?

Make up some of your own problems like this one.

What if……….

………more than 10 mice escaped?

………fewer than 10 escaped?

…….the story wasn’t about mice?