Yes No Game Years K - 6

Summary Originally designed to be used with the youngest children, the elements of this game can be used at every level. The challenge changes depending on the question to which the children have to answer yes or no. Of course their answer, as for a mathematician, is only the starting point. They have to be able to justify their answer and check it another way. Suitable for threading. Materials Two Poly Plug sets per pair One calculator per pair Sets of number cards Other classroom materials as required Acknowledgement This activity was created by Melanie Meincke and Nickey Harland, St. Mary's War Memorial School, West Wyalong, in response to the challenge to develop a unit of work in fractions. The challenge was issued following Days 3 & 4 of a six day professional development program presented by Mathematics Centre for the Catholic Diocese of Canberra Goulburn. .

Procedure Yes No Game was created to help children experience, and develop language associated with, finding halves of collections. Working like a mathematician is encouraged by: requiring a guess first, a commitment that then needs to be checked. the implied question How do you know? which encourages checking with materials. the potential to ask the mathematician's question Can I check it another way?. the opportunity to record in the children's mathematician's journal. Melanie made lots of number cards and some Yes/No cards. Children chose a card, and guessed whether a collection of that number of Poly Plugs could be made into halves - Yes or No? (Knives are not permitted in this exercise! That's saved for Cookie Count.) Having guessed, they arranged their plugs to check whether the collection could be divided into two equal parts. Small numbers were easy, but what happens if we have a really big number of plugs, for example, 29?

Content 1:1 correspondence counting decimal representation of a fraction fractions as an array fractions as a partition of a whole mathematical conversation numeral recognition odd & even numbers operations - whole number recording - calculator recording - written visual representation of fractions

The structure of this game makes it applicable to other levels - or to extension at this level - simply by changing the challenge. For example:

• Choose a number card.
  Can this number of plugs be divided exactly into ...thirds ...quarters ...fifths ...? Yes or No?
  How do you know?
  Can you check it another way?

Other examples of yes/no challenges are:

• Will this number be more than 50 if you add ...10 ...17 ...35?
• Can this number be arranged as an array in more than two ways?
• If this number is divided by ...2 ...3 ...4 ...5 will there be a decimal in the answer?

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