Upleveling Missing Part Games

Transcript

Welcome fellow Recovering Traditionalists to: Upleveling Missing Part Games

Every day in math your students should be doing a Number Routine, Contextual/Word Problem, and a Game.  In the first episode in this series about upleveling Missing Part Activities, I talked about using Number Talks to do the Missing Number Tasks and then in the 2nd episode I shared a few more examples of the repackaging tasks to use as Word Problems. So in this final episode of the series on missing part activities I’d like to share a way to uplevel two Missing Part games.

Missing Part activities is when kids know a total amount and one of the parts and they have to figure out the missing (or unknown) part. There are two popular games that address missing parts specifically. ≠

The first game is Salute. Salute is a fast-paced math card game that helps students practice addition, multiplication, and their opposite operation (Subtraction/Division). Here’s how to play:

1. You need three players and a deck of cards
2. Two players kneel or stand facing each other, while the third player acts as the caller
3. The caller deals one card to each of the two players
4. On the count of “Salute!”, both players hold their cards on their foreheads (facing outward) so they can see their opponent’s card but not their own
5. The caller announces the sum (or product) of the two cards
6. Each player must determine the value of their own card based on seeing their opponent’s card and knowing the sum/product
7. The first player to correctly guess their own card wins that round
8. Players rotate roles and continue playing

Okay, so how do we uplevel this typical missing part game?  

To modify the games to be similar to the other upleveling we’ve been doing in the other episodes, you need to understand the general idea we’ve been using.  All the problems have had an expression that equals another expression but one part is missing from the expression.  With these games, as most games, there is only one expression so to uplevel it we are going to create a way to see another expression that we want to equal the original expression.

To play upleveled Salute, you need two sets of partners facing each other. Each set of partners represents an expression and instead of putting the cards on their heads, they will lay it out in front of them.  Here’s how they play:

1. One person will be the dealer and each round that will rotate.  The dealer deals out a card to each person face up, in front of them.  When the dealer gets to themselves, they deal the card face down.
2. The goal is to figure out what number they need the face down card to be in order to make the partners have the same amounts.  For example, the dealer deals a 3 and 9 to the partners opposing them and they deal a 6 to their own partner.  The dealer’s card is the unknown.  So they have 3 + 9 is the same as 6 + ____.  The first team to say what the unknown card needs to be wins that round.
3. Have the dealer flip over their card to see if they do actually have the needed card.  If so, you can award an extra point to the dealer’s team.
4. Play continues and you rotate who the dealer is each round.
5. When playing as multiplication, players would be trying to figure out what the unknown card should be to create the same product.  Using the same cards from the example above, one team is dealt a 3 and 9 and the dealer deals a 6 to their own partner.  So they would have to figure out 3 x 9 is the same as 6 x ____.  The unknown amount is 4.5 and can’t be done with a card.  So depending upon the grade level you can have the students still give the answer of 4.5 or they can win that round by being the first to say “it can’t be done with the cards we have.”  But let’s say the cards were a 2 and 9 and a 6, that would give them 2 x 9 is the same as 6 x ___ and that can be done with the cards they have.  The dealer would need their face down card to be a 3.
   
6. Sometimes (especially when playing it as multiplication), they won’t be able to get the unknown amount using the deck of cards they have.  So teach the students to say “it can’t be done with the cards we have,” or still encourage them to say the amount even though there are no cards in the deck with that amount. 

The 2nd game is Number Sandwiches. “Number Sandwiches,” is a math game developed by Constance Kamii and involves creating pairs of numbers that add up to a target number, such as 10, with one player showing only one side of the “sandwich” (a card with two numbers) while the other player tries to deduce the hidden number. You can do the same with a specific Product for multiplication.  You can have students make ‘sandwiches’ that have the same product, such as 24 or 12 or 8.  Once the sandwiches have been made here’s how to play:

• One player holds a sandwich with two numbers (two cards with the backs sandwiched together), tells their partner how much the sandwich is worth and only shows one number to their partner.  
• The partner has to figure out what the hidden number is (what’s on the back side of the sandwich), knowing that the two numbers on the card must add up to the target number (or how much the sandwich is worth).
• For example, if the visible number is 4, and the target number is 10, the partner knows the hidden number must be 6.

This one is a little easier to uplevel.  You just need two number sandwiches (that have the same sum or product).  You can pre-make the sandwiches so the kids have to figure out the target number while they are playing or you can have them make the sandwiches themselves.

• Each player grabs a sandwich.  But one player shows both parts of their sandwich.
• Players should now see a set that makes the target answer and one card from the other sandwich.
• The player whose sandwich is still intact has to figure out what the unknown part of their sandwich is.
• For example, if the sandwiches are made to give a product of 12.  One player lays out both sides of their sandwich to reveal a 6 and 2.  The player with their sandwich intact is showing a 3 up.  They have to say that the bottom card of their sandwich is a 4.

• Play continues with each turn changing who gets to reveal their full sandwich and who has to figure out the unknown part.

So, like always..keep doing games you have been playing but now you’ve got a couple ways to uplevel popular games and hopefully it will also give you inspiration for uplevel some of your other games.

Until next week, my fellow Recovering Traditionalists, keep letting your students explore math, keep questioning, and most importantly, keep Building Math Minds.