Color Tiles Lesson Plan 2 - Be a Logician!

Lesson Plan – J. Pisano
Be a Logician! Color Tiles Grades 3-4

Anticipatory Set: How could you guess the order of objects if you couldn't see them?

Learning Expectations:
*formulate hypotheses in order to satisfy conditions
*develop deductive reasoning skills

Activities:
* Be a logician! Use color tiles to play a game in which students apply logical thinking in order to guess the sequence of colors of hidden tiles. Make a row of three Color Tiles in this order, from left to right, and keep it hidden. Tell children that you have hidden a row of three tiles, each of a different color. Challenge children to guess the colors of the tiles and their order—first, second, and third. Explain that after each guess you will write a clue on the chalkboard. For each color guessed correctly, you will draw a circle. For each position guessed correctly, you will draw a dot inside the circle. Call for one volunteer’s guess, record it on the flipchart. Draw the appropriate clues, “What do we know from this?" Keep on calling for guesses and recording clues until the correct color and order of the tiles have been guessed.
* Play Be a Logician! Here are the rules.
1. This is a game for 4 or more players. The object is to guess the colors of 3 Color Tiles and their order, from left to right.
2. Players decide who will be the 2 Leaders and who will be the 2 Logicians.
3. The Leaders build a row of 3 Color Tiles, each tile a different color. They keep the tiles hidden from the Logicians. (rotate groups to use the laptops to play the game) NLVM – Color Tiles
4. The Logicians make guesses by naming 3 colors of tiles in order.
5. After each guess, the Leaders give a clue about how close the guess was. The clue must have 2 parts:
~ It must tell how many colors in the guess are correct.
~ It must tell how many color tiles in the guess are in the correct position.
For example, suppose the secret row of tiles was blue-green-yellow and the Logicians guessed red-green-blue. The Leaders would give this clue: “Two of the colors are correct, and 1 tile is in the correct position.”
6. The Logicians record each guess and clue.
7. The game ends when Logicians guess the correct colors and order.

• Play several games of Be a Logician! Make sure that everyone in the group has a chance to be a Leader and a Logician.
• Be ready to talk about good guesses and bad guesses.

Discussion questions - What was the hardest part of playing this game? What was the easiest? Which clue(s) helped you to decide which three colors were used? Which clue(s) helped you to decide the positions for the three colors?

Extending the Activity
1. Ask children to list all possible solutions (permutations of four colors) in a game of Be a Logician! in which the four colors of tiles are used in four positions.
2. Have children play Be a Logician! again, this time with three Color Tiles, two of one color and one of another color.

Assessments: teacher observations, game play and follow up discussion

Materials: communicators, color tiles, laptops\
Tech Infusion: Promethean board – flipchart, laptops – Virtual Manipulatives website – Color Tiles gr. 3-5

Accomodations/Modifications:
* teacher designed groups
* differentiated assignments/activities (centers to reach all levels)
* extended time-classwork/assessments(when needed)
* restructured homework assignments for both above level and below level students
* use of manipulatives/graphic organizers
* extension activities/alternative assignments
* encouraging independence/student initiative
* includes a rich variety of resources, media ideas, methods and tasks
* proximity to teacher
* personalized monitoring tools (checklists, goal sheets, thumbs up/down level understanding monitors)

Homework: short-constructed response review
Standards: MA.4.4.5 A.1, MA.4.4.5 A.2.b, MA.4.4.5 A.5, MA.4.4.5 B.1.b, MA.4.4.5 B.2, MA.4.4.5 B.3, MA.4.4.5 D.2, MA.4.4.5 D.3, MA.4.4.5 D.4, MA.4.4.5 F.1