Four strikes and you're out

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Suggested content:

Apply efficient mental and written strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems

Apply known strategies such as levelling, addition for subtraction, using constant difference, and bridging (Reasons about relations)
Use place value to add or subtract 3 or more numbers with different numbers of digits
Identify efficient and inefficient multidigit subtraction strategies.

Use estimation and place value understanding to determine the reasonableness of solutions

Use place value understanding to check for errors in calculations
Use estimation to check the reasonableness of solutions to addition and subtraction calculations

Equipment

Indoor or outdoor playing area
Whiteboard and marker

Activity set-up

A problem is hidden from students, for example, 35 + 10 = 45.
Display the ‘problem frame’ and the numbers 0-9 on the board:

___ + ___ = ____

0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9

How to play

This number guessing game works well as a whole class versing the teacher and then played as a two-player game.

Students start by guessing a number 0-9.
As a class, students perform the chosen exercise that number of times. Eg. a student guessed the number 6 so all students perform 6 star jumps.
If the number is within the problem, it will be written in the corresponding space on the problem frame.
If the number is not in the problem, it will be a ‘strike’.
To win, students need to determine all the numbers before they get four strikes.
As students progress, they may notice clues in the problem.

Variations

Vary the exercises.
Play with decimal numbers.
Use different operations, eg. multiplication, subtraction, division.

Reference: From Marilyn Burns – Four strikes and you’re out. The game originally appeared in Tank, B., & Zolli, L. (2010). Teaching arithmetic: Lessons for addition and subtraction. Gate city books, North Carolina.

Additive relations