Fourth Grade Discovers the Orderliness of Numbers

We have had a wonderful start to the new year this past week by having our students explore their thinking skills and discover if they got rusty over the summer months. We formed teams of 3-4 students to explore and build their understanding of the orderliness of our number system and the properties of numbers. It seemed like a fascinating way to start the year and our students did not disappoint us with their high interest. We made a large hundreds chart and asked the students to color in all the numbers whose first digits were larger than their second digits. Our goal was to get many different responses having students verbalize what they were thinking and seeing. Immediately hands went flying in the air and students called out numbers when called on. The pace slowed a bit and then Hattie noticed a slight pattern and shared that 43 and 53 and 63 etc. fit the bill. We asked students often to describe the patterns they saw another way in order to have them remember their growing mathematical vocabularies. The board filled in over time and then Eli shared that he saw clearly that a diagonal step pattern was starting to emerge. We followed his theory and sure enough, a diagonal line could be drawn across the chart and every number below could be filled in, which filled in one half of the chart. The students were delighted and hooked.

Next, each team was given a packet with hundreds charts and six questions that they needed to discuss as a team and then decide what they would record on their charts. Discussions were rich and varied and the collaboration was amazing to watch.








Finally, we asked the teams to create their own questions that would challenge the other teams. A grand list was created and was ultimately used for a board game later in the week where all team members faced each other to outwit each other by choosing questions that allowed them to be the first player to play all their numbers and win the game.

This type of math exploration builds students vocabulary, their understanding, and familiarity with numbers and pattern as well as their confidence. In all, it was a truly inspired way to start our year of inquiry and learning in math.