Story:
You are an archer/dart thrower at the Olympics...time to compete - good luck! Oh, by the way, the electronic scoring system is broken so you will need to add your and your teammate's score up mentally using great strategies. The umpire is looking for awesome mental strategies to award extra points.
BUT the umpire is also penalising any inefficient strategies like counting by ones or adding the numbers up in any random order.
Note: Darts is not actually an Olympic sport; archery is. But it's your imagination, so if you want to play darts, go for it! There is a great deal of research that darts is brilliant to develop mental maths skills! Buy a dartboard for home and start playing with mum/dad/grandpa/grandma!
Tools:
Transparent counters (two colours if possible).
Target templates - differentiated versions available (scroll through all pages).
Main event
With transparent counters, play counter archery/darts by tossing a few on the board each (for example, 5 counters each).
Next, add your score alongside your teammate (or against your teammate if you use different coloured transparent counters and toss 10 each).
Focus on using efficient addition strategies, including:
10 facts (code: 10f)
doubles and near doubles (d and nd)
building to 10 (bt10)
Note: Shorthand codes reduce literacy barriers and maximise student recording, with the same metacognitive benefit of writing out the full phrase to name the strategy in a fraction of the time.
Aiming not to use (wherever possible):
- counting all or counting on by ones
Pro tip: Create friendly pairs. For example, 8 and 2 are besties, because they join to make a 10 fact. 8 and 7 are pretty good mates, because they join to make a double + 1, or a double - 1.
Support: Focus mostly on 10 facts. Brainstorm 10 facts in advance and write on a post-it note as a cue throughout the game.
Extension 1: Aim to use multiplication or near multiplication. For example, for example to add 5, 5, 6, 7, try 4 x 5 (4 fives + 3 to add the extra one from the 6 and extra 2 from the 7). Or average to 4 sixes take away 1 (4 x 6 - 1), because the 5 and 7 average to a 6, then take away 1 for the 5 that was not worth 6.
Extension 2: Calculate the mean, median, mode and range of your score.
Extension 3: Use the extension templates (scroll to the bottom pages of the target templates). These include larger place values and even a decimal option, which still uses the same efficient strategies as the earlier boards, but within a decimal context (whole facts as 0.4 + 0.6, instead of 10 facts).
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