Counting Sticks

In our math class, I try to incorporate a variety of games where students can use their skills and critical thinking abilities.  In combining this with including FNIM (First Nation, Inuit, Metis) content, my math coach found the following game:

Ahkitaskoomnahmahtowinah - Counting Sticks

This activity lends nicely to the concepts of even/odd numbers, addends to compose a sum, and the overall concept that odd plus even is odd.

For information on the game and how it's played please click on the link above (title of activity).

In my classroom I have a variety of learning needs (which I'm sure is like most classrooms all over the world).  One of the reasons I really liked this activity is that it allows for a change of the amount of sticks you use.  In the original game it suggests 25.  In grade 3 we work on missing addends in sums to 20 so I used 17.  However, I could easily differentiate this for a developing group and we used a sum of 11.  By being able to differentiate, I was able to include all students through a pod setting with success and feelings of accomplishment and understanding on their part.

When we did this activity in each pod, we worked as a whole group.  In the original game it states that students play in two parties but I found that for my purpose it worked better when the students could talk with one another and work together.  Before beginning the game, I also had students tell what an odd/even number is and how they know.  We then made an anchor chart with odd numbers to 20 so they had a visual reference during the activity.

During the activity, when we made various bundles and guessed the missing addends we noted the different combinations on chart paper.   We did this a few times before I asked students what they noticed (what patterns they saw).  Having the visual in front of them was much easier for them to draw conclusions and make a rule (rule: an odd plus an even makes an odd sum).  For those students who needed further prompting, we added (e) and (o) beside numbers to help them find the rule.

It was exciting to see students draw conclusions and note patterns in the addends to compose an odd sum.  With the combinations on chart paper, it also allowed me to add visuals to help in prompting those students who required more (ex. I would add an 'e' over the even numbers and an 'o' over the odd numbers to help in the identification process).

The students quite enjoyed this activity and I found that it lends to many extension activities to further prove the rule, such as:
     1) Do the same activity with an even sum and see if the rule holds true
     2) Do the same activity with a different odd sum to see if the rule holds true for all odd sums

I love activities that have students think critically and draw conclusions but then allow for further studies to prove and reason.  I look forward to trying many more activities along these lines that also bring FNIM content into our classroom.