Content Area: Math

 

Index: 4.3B Grade 4 CPI 1

 

Standard: 4.3 - Patterns and Algebra

 

Strand: B - Functions and Relationships

 

Cumulative Progress Indicator: 1 -  The student will use concrete and pictorial models to explore the basic concept of a function

·        Input/output tables, T-charts

·        Combining two function machines

·        Reversing a function machine

 

Grade: 4

 

Sample Activities:

 

·        Students use buttons with two or four holes and describe how the total number of holes is related to the number of buttons.

 

·        Students use multilink cubes or base ten blocks to build rectangular solids. They count how many cubes tall their structure is, how many cubes long it is, and how many cubeswide it is. Then they count the total number of cubes in their structure. They record all of this information in a table and look for patterns.

 

·        Students take turns putting numbers into Max the Magic Math Machine, reading what comes out, and finding the rule that tells what Max is doing to each number. A student acts as Max each time. Appropriate rules to use in grades 3 and 4 involve multiplication and division.

 

·        On a coordinate grid, students plot coordinate pairs consisting of a number and the product of the number times 3. They join them with a line, making a line graph. They relate this to a table, and write the rule as an expression involving a variable, such as 3x .

 

·        Students repeatedly add (or subtract) multiples of 10 to (from) a 3-digit starting number. They describe the pattern orally and write it symbolically as, for example, 357, 337, 317, 297, ... .

 

·        Students work in groups to solve problems that involve organizing information in a table and looking for a pattern. For example, If you have 12 wheels, how many bicycles can you make? How many tricycles? How many bicycles and tricycles together? Using objects or pictures, children make models and organize the information in a table. They discuss whether they have looked at all of the possibilities systematically and describe in words the patterns they have found. They write about the patterns in their journals and, with some assistance, develop some symbolic notation (e.g., 2 wheels for each bike and 3 wheels for each trike to get 12 wheels all together might become 2xB + 3xT = 12).

 

·        Students describe the pattern illustrated by the numbers in a table by using words (e.g., twice as much as) and then represent it with symbols in an open sentence ( _____= 2 x ______ ).

 

·        Additional Framework Activities

 

Sample Assessment Questions:

 

·        Multiple Choice

 

Kidspiration Activity:

 

·        Use symbols and links to create a pictorial model of a function.