Lesson Plan - Shopping for Rods

Cuisinaire Rods - Grades 3-4 Shopping for Rods Activity

Anticipatory Set: Review homework and complete Do Now

Expectations: ~compute mentally~ work with money concepts~ use ratio and proportion~ discover relationships among Cuisenaire Rods

Procedure: Revisit the procedure for determining the value of the pattern blocks based on their fractional parts of the whole hexagon to set the stage for this activity.Tell students to imagine that the Cuisenaire Rods are for sale and that the white rod costs $1.00. Invite volunteers to explain why the red rod should cost $2.00. Once it is established that the red should cost twice as much as the white because it is twice as long, have children figure out the cost of a rod of each of the other colors. Show children that the cost of some rods can be determined in more than one way. Point out that the cost of the brown rod, $8.00, can be found by counting by ones, by twos, or by fours.
How many Cuisenaire Rods could you “buy” with $10.00?
• Work with a group. Pretend that your group has $10.00. You must spend it all to “buy” Cuisenaire Rods.
• To find the price of a particular rod, one of you spins a spinner.
• Use the results of the spin to find the prices of other rods. For example, if you spin “1 white rod costs $2.00,” a light green rod will cost $6.00 because it is 3 times longer than the white rod.
• Use the prices of the rods for your spin to answer these questions: What is the least number of rods you could buy for $10.00? What is the greatest number of rods you could buy for $10.00? What number of rods between the least and greatest numbers could you buy for $10.00?
• Take turns spinning until each member of the group has had a turn with a different starting price. For each turn, find the price of the rods and answer the questions above.
• Record your answers and any patterns you notice.

Writing and DrawingAsk children to pretend that they work for the company that makes Cuisenaire Rods. Have them design an advertisement that includes a price list for the rods based on the fact that one yellow rod costs $0.75.

Extending the Activity Have children create a picture or a design with Cuisenaire Rods and then spin the spinner to figure out the “cost” of their picture/design.