Domino TrailsTask 15 ... Years K - 6SummaryA domino trail is provided on the white card. It is a 'C' shape of dominoes end to end which finish at a circle. A number is written in the circle.
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IcebergA task is the tip of a learning iceberg. There is always more to a task than is recorded on the card. |
This task is very open-ended and experience suggests that most students love creating their own target and trying to make the dominoes add to it. Heaps of arithmetic practice in a problem-solving situation: Had a great session with Domino Trails out at Amanbidgi. One teacher school, 15 Indigenous students from prep to grade six. We played dominoes, looked at the patterns of the dots, selected dominoes with a given value and then in pairs made up two, three, four and five domino trails. Kids were really good and two groups of girls made five sets of three domino trails that equal 12 from the one packet. Children worked for over an hour, wrote nothing down on paper but did lots and lots of sums. We even looked at the difference between some dot patterns.Clearly Eric and the kids have asked the mathematician's question What happens if ... we change the length of the trail? Implied too is the question What happens if ... we change the target number. The card also suggests another level of reasoning. For a given length of trail, what is the maximum possible target and what it the minimum possible target. Maximum and minimum values are a favourite study of mathematicians. But when we find those answers for a given length of trail, there is still at least one more question. Is it possible to make trails which total to each and every possible total between the highest and lowest? For a 3 domino trail it might even be possible to answer the question: In how many ways can each of these totals be made? Of course, all the questions above could be asked separately for domino trails and matching domino trails. |
Whole Class InvestigationTasks are an invitation for two students to work like a mathematician. Tasks can also be modified to become whole class investigations which model how a mathematician works. |
The whole class lesson for this task is detailed in Maths300 Lesson 95, Domino Trails. Clearly it is best if you have enough sets of dominoes for one between two. However, the lesson does supply a printable set of dominoes and if these are printed onto card and laminated they work well; they are however a little more difficult for small fingers to pick up. In addition, the lesson offers a wonderful set of extra task cards suitable for a range of ages. Most importantly though their presence suggests that students could contribute their own puzzle cards to a class set of domino problems.
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Is it in Maths With Attitude?Maths With Attitude is a set of hands-on learning kits available from Years 3-10 which structure the use of tasks and whole class investigations into a week by week planner. |
The Domino Trails task is an integral part of:
The Domino Trails lesson is an integral part of:
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