Plug Snakes

Years K - 4

Summary

One player is yellow and one is blue. The activity is easier for children to visualise if it is played in a red board. As the photos show, if you play in the yellow/blue board one player's colour blends with the background of the board.

Children take turns to roll a dice to tell them how many segments of their wibbly wobbly snake they can add. The investigation begins when the snake is finished.

  • How many blue segments does it have?
  • Can you check this another way?
  • How about yellow segments?
Suitable for threading.

Materials

  • One calculator per pair
  • One Poly Plug per pair
  • One dice per pair (dot dice are best)

Acknowledgement

This activity has developed from an idea originally contributed by Bev Sharp, Penguin Primary School.

Procedure

Plug Snakes begins as a game. For young children it involves considerable one to one correspondence, counting and visualisation. However the deeper value of the game is what can be learned from its result. Therefore it is best to establish the game as co-operative, rather than competitive, with an introduction like:
I want you to take turns rolling the dice to make a snake. Our lesson is really about the snake you make together, so don't worry about winning or losing. This is how you make a snake ...

The Game

1. Players remove the plugs from the red board and place them in the plastic bag.

2. Player A rolls the dice and begins the snake with yellow plugs.

 

Content

  • 1:1 correspondence
  • addition facts beyond 10
  • addition facts to 10
  • conservation of number
  • counting
  • group (or skip) counting
  • mathematical conversation
  • multiplication
  • operations - whole number
  • recording - calculator
  • recording - written
  • subtraction
  • visual and kinaesthetic representation of number
  • writing numerals
The snake is the trail of plugs that will be formed as the game proceeds. The trail is continuous and does not jump to the start of the next row when it comes to the end of the current row. So, if Player A rolled 6, the plugs would be placed like this:

Plug Snakes 1

3. Player B rolls and continues the snake with blue plugs. So if Player B rolled 3 the snake would now look like this:

Plug Snakes 2

4. Play alternates like this until the snake fills the board. The snake must finish exactly in the last space. So, when a player is near the end they keep rolling until they can move. Rolls that would take the snake past the last space don't count. A finished snake might look like this:

Plug Snakes 3

Working With The Snake

Your colleagues have used the snake with a variety of ages and abilities. The ideas below summarise their work. One of the important features of the activity is that it can be threaded. That is, Plug Snakes can be part of the curriculum day after day and, because of the richness of the ideas below, can be fresh every time. This provides children with both stability and challenge, from which they can grow new learning.

Perhaps begin your exploration with this brief story from the Prep classes at Caledonian Primary School. You will be stimulated by the teachers' joy in their children's achievements and surprised by the confidence and knowledge in number displayed by these five year olds. Imagine the possibilities with older children, then look below for the variation that is a good starting point for your children.

When you find another way to use the snake, please send it to Doug. Williams, Network Manager, so it can be shared.

1. Ask groups to retell the sequence of dice throws which made the snake. (Ignore the rolls which take the snake past the last place.)

Now record the sequence:

  • on a calculator using cumulative addition. So the snake above would result in these button presses:
    [6] [+] [3] [+] [4] [+] [1] [+] [1] [+] [6] [+] [2] [+] [1] [+] [1] [=]
    • What will the total be?
    • How many blue parts? (How many parts did you roll?)
    • How many yellow parts? (How many parts did you roll?)
    • Can you check your answers another way?
  • on scrap paper or Poly Plug Paper using spots of yellow and blue marker pen or coloured pencil.
  • in your journal as a 'sum', ie:
    6 + 3 + 4 + 1 + 1 + 6 + 2 + 1 + 1 = 25
2. Make an on-going display of snake sums which snakes around the room.

3. Write a snake sum on the board and ask the children to recreate the way it was made with the dice and plugs.

4. Choose a snake sum and rewrite it so the same numbers are together. For example, using the snake above:

6 + 6 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 25
Can anyone think of a shorter way of writing this snake sum?
This is an opportunity to introduce 'times'.
Note: Be careful checking with a calculator. Most simple four function calculators do NOT understand the order of operations.


What equation(s) will she write under her drawing?

Using the snake above pressing: 2 x 6 + 4 + 3 + 2 + 4 x 1
in order on a calculator that does use order of operations will give the correct answer. It will also give the correct answer on other four function calculators,
BUT, if the recording had been: 4 + 3 + 2 + 2 x 6 + 4 x 1
which we know is equivalent, only special calculators with an Algebraic Operating System would give the correct answer of 25.

Note that using Poly Plug means that the snake total must always be 25, no matter what the string of digits is. This is not something the children need to be told. However, when they do discover that logic, they have another way to check their work. 5. Play the game to make a Plug Snake. Record the snake sum.

Now record all the sums you can find on your snake board.

6. Play the game to make a Plug Snake. Record the snake sum. Rotate the board a quarter turn. What sums can you write now? Rotate another quarter turn. What sums can you write now? ...

7. Play the game to make a Plug Snake. Now keep the same number of yellow and blue plugs, but move them so all the yellows are together and all the blues are together.

What sums can we write now? On a calculator? In our books?

8. Change the game to a different total (eg: 15, 50, 100) by masking single boards or combining boards and playing in teams.

9. Adaptation for K & 1

Kathy & Dolores
Highville Mustard Seed Charter School, Connecticut
  • Use a Poly Plug Frame and colour in yellow/blue patterns as if you had made a snake by rolling dice. Ask students to make the Plug Snake to match it. Add a little detail to indicate the head and an arrow to show the direction the snake is constructed. Children copy the drawings by matching the positions of the plugs.
    Teachers who know how to use a drawing package could recreate a Poly Plug board in the package, change colours in circles at will and use a colour printer to print many different 'snake' cards. The idea also has application to Electronic White Boards.
  • Students play the game, then make and record their snake by colouring in a Poly Plug Frame themselves. Teachers laminate these or put them in plastic envelopes to make a class set.
    Instead of colouring to record, students might use yellow and blue circular stickers.


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