Lonely kiwi

The Ministry is migrating nzmaths content to Tāhurangi.           
Relevant and up-to-date teaching resources are being moved to Tāhūrangi (tahurangi.education.govt.nz). 
When all identified resources have been successfully moved, this website will close. We expect this to be in June 2024. 
e-ako maths, e-ako Pāngarau, and e-ako PLD 360 will continue to be available. 

For more information visit https://tahurangi.education.govt.nz/updates-to-nzmaths

Purpose

In this unit we have a first look at uncertainty and chance. We begin to develop an intuitive sense of what chance and possibilities are about through games that involve following rules, making predictions and seeing what happens.

Achievement Objectives
S1-3: Investigate situations that involve elements of chance, acknowledging and anticipating possible outcomes.
Specific Learning Outcomes
  • Use everyday language to talk about chance.
  • List outcomes of simple events.
Description of Mathematics

Although students at this level won't be ready to fully grasp the idea of chance they will develop some valuable intuitive notions. Underlying the activities is the idea that some events can be influenced by information, whereas others rely largely on luck. This provides the basis for the two ways of determining probabilities: theoretically and experimentally. Later on, we explore certain situations such as rolling dice, using spinners, choosing cards to determine precise values of probability. This is the theoretical aspect. Ideally you would always like to do this as you are then sure exactly what the probability is. However, in other situations we have to rely on a series of experiments and deduce the likely probability of an event through the long-term frequency of its occurrence. This applies to the kind of events that insurance companies are interested in such as the likelihood of an accident or the length of life of a 30 year old male.

Opportunities for Adaptation and Differentiation

The learning opportunities in this unit can be differentiated by providing or removing support to students and by varying the task requirements. Ways to adjust the difficulty of the tasks include:

  • altering the numbers of each type of bird/animal
  • having two students play a demonstration game so that the whole class can see how the game works before playing independently
  • changing the number of sides with each colour on the dice for the Greedy Pūkeko game.

The contexts for this unit can be adapted to suit the interests and experiences of your students. For example:

  • create cards that reflect native birds or animals/insects in your local community
  • use different cards instead of the provided native bird cards. This could be any kind of collecting card, or cards that you make yourself with images to interest your students. Ensure that the numbers of each added type are the same as those in the original collection
  • choose a different context for the Greedy Pūkeko game. This could be an existing story about a hungry person or animal (for example Awarua, the taniwha of Porirua) or a made up story about a familiar local animal such as the school cat or the teacher's dog.  

Te reo Māori vocabulary terms such as ika (fish), ōrite (same), rerekē (different) and tūponotanga (chance) as well as colours in te reo Māori (such as whero, ma, kōwhai, etc) and counting from tahi ki tekau (one to 10) could be introduced in this unit and used throughout other mathematical learning.

Required Resource Materials
Activity

Session One: Tūi and Kereru

In this first session we make our own set of cards using pictures of Tūi and Kereru.

  1. Give each pair of students 20 cards. You might like to use the Tūi and Kereru from Copymaster 1, otherwise you will need to direct the students to draw Tūi on 10 of the cards and Kereru on the other 10, or provide them with cards relevant to your context or their interests.
  2. When the students have completed their pack of cards, demonstrate a game of 'Tūi and Kereru'.
  3. Rules
    Shuffle the cards.
    Put the cards face down in one pile.
    Players decide who will collect "same pairs" and who will collect "different" pairs.
    Take turns turning a card from the top of the pile.
    Compare the two cards. If they are the same, the player collecting "same pairs" takes them. If they are different, the other player takes them.
    The game continues until all cards are used.
    The winner is the player who collects the most cards.
  4. After the students have played a few games. lead a discussion highlighting their observations about the chances of winning.
    Was one of the players luckier than the other one? What made you think this?
    How many times did you win?
    How many times did your partner win?
    Was it better to be a "same" or a "different"? Why?
    (note: The probability of different pairs is slightly greater than that of same pairs.)

Session Two: Tūi, Kereru and Kea

I this session we add 6 Kea to our pack of Tūi and Kereru cards and play the game again.

  1. Give the pairs of students 6 blank cards to draw the Kea or use the Kea from Copymaster 1. Add the Kea to the pack of 20 Tūi and Kereru used in session one.
  2. Play the same pairs and different pairs game from yesterday.
  3. After the students have played a few games, lead a discussion highlighting their observations about the chances of winning.
    Was one of the players luckier than the other one? What made you think this?
    How many times did you win?
    How many times did your partner win?
    Was it better to be a "same" or a "different"? Why?
    Was it easier to win today? Why/Why not?

Session Three: The little lost kiwi

In this session we add one kiwi to our pack of Tūi, Kereru and Kea and play a new game.

  1. Give each pair of students one kiwi card to add to their set.
  2. Explain that today we are using the cards to play animal memory.
    Rules:
    Spread the cards out face down.
    Players take turns to turn over two cards.
    If the cards are the same the player keeps the pair of cards but does not have another turn.
    If the cards are different the cards are turned back face down.
    Continue taking turns until all the cards (except the kiwi) are collected.
  3. As the students play the game ask questions that focus on the likelihood of finding pairs.
    What card do you think you will turn up next? Why do you think that?
    Which cards do you think will be the last?
    Which are the hardest pairs to find? Why?
    Which are the easiest pairs to find?
    What can you tell me about the kiwi?
    Why do you think the game is called The little lost kiwi?
    Can you think of another name for our game?

Session Four: Greedy Pūkeko

Resources:
  • Wooden cubes with two of the faces red, two blue and two green (dot stickers work well)
  • Pictures of 3 Pūkeko from Copymaster 2
  • Pictures of fish cut outs from Copymaster 3 (30 per page)
  • Felt pens (colours to match the dots)

In this activity the students roll a dice to feed fish to our three Pūkeko. The students will investigate the chance of giving a fish to their Pūkeko.

  1. Give groups of 3 students the three Pūkeko pictures, a prepared dice and 30 fish.
  2. Each student chooses one of the three colours for their Pūkeko and colours it in (single colour only).
  3. The students play 'Greedy Pūkeko'
    Rules:
    The students take turns rolling the dice.
    The student whose colour shows gives their Pūkeko a fish.
    The game continues with players taking turns until all the fish are eaten.
  4. After allowing the students to play the game(s), discuss:
    Which coloured Pūkeko got the most fish?
    Was there a lucky colour in your group?
    Was it lucky in all the groups? Why/Why not?

Session Five: Feeding Greedy Pūkeko

Resources:
  • Dice 1: 5 blue faces representing the greedy Pūkeko, one red face for the second Pūkeko.
  • Dice 2: 3 blue faces, 3 red faces.
  • Copymaster 3 of Fish Cut Outs (30 per page)
  • Copymaster 4 of blue greedy Pūkeko and red greedy Pūkeko

In this game the students experiment with different dice.

  1. Tell the students all about Pūkeko and how they love to eat and steal food. Discuss the Pūkeko's need for food and how he will chase other birds and screech for food. The picture books Squark! by Donovan Bixley, or A Pukeko In a Ponga Tree by Kingi M. Ihaka could be used to engage learners in this context.
  2. Give pairs of students the two Pūkeko pictures, the prepared dice and 20 fish.
    Rules:
    The students take turns first selecting and then rolling one of the dice.
    They give a fish to the Pūkeko whose colour is shown.
    The game continues with players taking turns until all the fish are eaten.
  3. After allowing the students to play the game(s), discuss:
    Which Pūkeko got the most fish?
    Was there a lucky colour in your group? Why?
    Was it lucky in all the groups? Why/Why not?
    What difference did the dice you chose make?
  4. Now pose a problem for the students:
    In the game we want to stop Greedy Pūkeko from screeching for food. What should we do? (Check that the students understand that they need to feed Greedy Pūkeko to stop him screeching.)
  5. Send the students away to explore the problem as they play the game.
  6. After allowing the pairs time to explore the solution, come together as a whole class and share thinking about the problem.
Attachments
Add to plan

Log in or register to create plans from your planning space that include this resource.


Level One