Subject/Course: Mathematics – Grade 3 Lesson Topic: Counting Lesson Duration: 60 min

Curriculum Expectations:
Overall:
2) demonstrate an understanding of magnitude by counting forward and backwards by various numbers and
from various starting points;

Specific:
2.1) count forward by 1’s, 2’s, 5’s, 10’s, and 100’s to 1000 from various starting points, and by 25’s to 1000
starting from multiples of 25, using a variety of tools and strategies
2.2) count backwards by 2’s, 5’s, and 10’s from 100 using multiples of 2, 5, and 10 as starting points, and
count backwards by 100’s from 1000 and any number less than 1000, using a variety of tools and strategies.

Type of Lesson: the majority of this lesson is based on shared learning, as students are working in
groups, and later partners, and they are working collaboratively with their peers and learning along
with one another. While students are playing the game “Trading to 500/1000” they must engage in
decision making with their partner/group members. Furthermore, part of this lesson could be
considered guided learning, as the students are responding to discussion questions asked by the teacher
to further their thinking on the topic.

Instructional Plan:
1) Getting Started:
• The class will be divided into 2 equal teams (Team A and Team B)
• One student from each team will be selected to roll 2 dice to establish the teams starting
number, with each number rolled representing a digit. Each team must chose which number will
be in the tens column and which will be in the ones.
• Another student from each team will be selected to use base ten blocks to represent their teams
starting number on the given place-value mat.
• The object of the game is to get to 500 first without surpassing it.
• Team A will start by rolling a dice and choosing whether they are going to count by 1's, 10's or
100's. The number rolled represents the number of counts the team may make each round.
• As the team counts from its starting point, base ten blocks are added to the place-value mat.
Throughout the game, appropriate trades are made (eg. 10 ones for a rod, 10 rods for a hundreds
flat, etc)
• During each turn the team records the skip counts it makes on the sheet provided (Trading up to
500)
• The teams continue to take turns and as the game proceeds a team may need to skip a turn if the
number of counts given by the die is too high.
• After the game is completed the teacher will discuss the follow questions with the class:
“What strategies helped you play the game?”
“When is it best to count by 1's? By 10's? by 100's?”
“How did the base ten blocks help you when you played the game?”
“What patterns did you see when you counted by 10's? By 100's?”

2) Working on it:
• Students will be given a partner and put into groups of 4. With their partner students will play
'Trading up to a 1000'. The game is played the same was as 'Trading up to 500' except to win
 this game the pairs are racing to win the thousands cube from the set of base ten blocks.
• As students are playing the teacher will walk around the classroom, listening to students,
observing their strategies and asking some of the following questions:
“Why did you decide to count by 10's that time?”
“What would have happened if you had counted by 100's?”
“What strategies are you using in this game?”
“Why did you need to make a trade on the place-value mat?”

3) Reflection and Connecting:

• Once students have completed playing 'Trading up to a 1000', the teacher will discuss the
following questions with the class:
“What was challenging about this game?”
“What strategies did you use in this game?”
“What did you learn about counting by 10's? 100's?”
“What did you learn by using the base ten blocks?”
“What did the number lines shoe you about skip counting?”
• Students will then write a brief reflection in their math journals about what they learned from
the game. The following sentence starters will be provided to help students begin:
“Using base ten blocks helped me today because...”
“During the game I...”
“Helpful hints I would give someone playing this game for the first time would be...”
“Patterns I noticed when I was counting by 10's and 100's where...”

Accommodations for students having difficulty:

• Use 0 as the starting point.
• Allow them to use a calculator during these games

Extensions for students needing a greater challenge:

• Have students also use 25 as the skip-counting number, along with 1, 10 and 100.
• Change the game, so students begin at 100, 500 or 1000 and must count backwards by 2's, 5's ,
10's or 1000's. The first team to get to 0 wins.

Assessment and Evaluation:

• Journal – read over students journal to see if they gained an understanding about the game and
how to count by 1's, 10's and 100's.
• Checklist – as students are playing the game the teacher will walk around the room and
complete the following checklist

Able to describe
Can skip count by Can skip count by Able to trade base
patters when
Name 10's from any 100's from any ten materials
counting by 10's
starting point? starting point? correctly?
and 100's?
Student 1
Student 2
• Exit Cards – at the end of class the students will be given exit cards and asked the following
question;
“ Starting with the number 63, skip-count 5 times by 1's, 10's and 100's. Show your work”