5th Grade Task: Place Value Game: Addition and Subtraction

5th Grade Task: Place Value Game: Addition and Subtraction

Standards & Objectives

Essential and guiding questions: 
  • Does the placement of the decimal point make a difference in your strategies for these questions?
  • How did you make sure your sum was the largest in part (a)? The smallest in part (b)?
  • How did you make sure your difference was the largest in part (c)? The smallest in part (d)?
  • Which parts have more than one answer? Why? Will these parts ALWAYS have more than one answer, no matter what numbers are chosen? Why or why not?

Activity/Task Variations

Blooms taxonomy level: 
Applying
Differentiation suggestions: 

If students cannot get started. . .

  • Suppose you had only four cards and you were working with the grid to the left of the decimal point. How would you decide where to place your cards?
Extension suggestions: 

If students finish early. . .
Assessing questions:

  • (Give the students another set of eight number cards.) Do the strategies you have developed for these problems work with this set of number cards? Why or why not?
  • How would your strategy in part (d) change if you had eight DIFFERENT number cards?
  • What properties would your set of number cards need to have in order to get an answer of 0 in part (d)?