OVERVIEW OF THE LESSON

MA Curriculum Frameworks incorporating the Common Core Standards:

3.NBT.2: “Fluently add and subtract within 1,000 using strategies and algorithms based on place
value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction”
Instructional Objective: (By the end of the lesson, (1) what concept, skill, or strategy will the student(s) know
and (2) how will they show that knowledge?)

By the end of the lesson, the students will be able to correctly interpret the addends within
addition problems in terms of the respective values of their individual digits, and they will be
able to apply this interpretation in their attempts to complete addition problems featuring 3-digit
addends whose sum is less than 1,000.

Assessment:

Students will be able to demonstrate understanding of the value of the individual digits within
addition problems with 3-digit addends by creating a concrete representation of such a problem
using base-10 blocks.

Academic Language Objective: (By the end of the lesson, (1) what language, language concepts, or
linguistic skills will the student(s) know, and (2) how will they show that knowledge?)

By the end of the lesson, students will be able to correctly interpret what it means if they are told
that a digit is in the “ones place”, “tens place”, and “hundreds place”.
Assessment: (What specific, tangible evidence will show that each student has met the two types of objectives?)

● Students will be presented with a word problem which requires the performance of an
addition problem with 3-digit addends in order to solve. They will demonstrate their
understanding of addends and the place value of their respective digits by using base-10
blocks and mats to concretely represent the problem.

Content: (What are the specific details of the lesson’s content knowledge?)

Opening:
● I will be standing at the front of the room, holding a giant jar of mini marshmallows.
○ I will use this pictorial representation of marshmallows to demonstrate the
meaning of each digit’s place value within an addend within the context of a
real-life scenario.
■ “Hello everyone! I need your advice. My sister and I are making rice
krispy treats, and I want to make sure we have enough mini
marshmallows. I have 236 mini marshmallows, and my sister has 142 mini
marshmallows. The recipe calls for at least 400 mini marshmallows. Will
we have enough mini marshmallows to make the rice krispy treats?”
During Lesson:
● Each student will have already been given a set of base 10 blocks and accompanying mat.
I will manipulate my own set of base 10 blocks and accompanying mat beneath the
 projector in order to demonstrate how to represent this problem with this specific
concrete manipulative. I will first set out 2 flats, 3 rods, and 6 units in order to represent
the marshmallows which I already have in the word problem, and I will instruct students
to do the same.
● At this point in the lesson, I will pause to clarify how the 6 units represent the “6” in the
ones place of 236, the 3 rods represent the 3 in the tens place, which equates to 30, and
the 2 flats represent the 2 in the hundreds place, which equate to 200. This explanation
paired with a concrete representation will help reinforce students’ understanding of how a
digit’s value is determined by its position within a number.
● Next, I will give students a moment to ponder how many units they would expect to add
to the ones column on their place value mat, considering that we already have a concrete
representation of my 236 mini marshmallows, my sister has 142 mini marshmallows, and
we are trying to determine how many mini marshmallows we have in total. Ultimately, I
will help guide the discussion so that students arrive at the conclusion that they should
add 2 units to the ones column on the mat.
● Next I will ask students, using their understanding of how they determined that 2 units
should be added to the ones column, to determine how many rods should be added to the
tens column. Again, I will facilitate the discussion to ensure that students arrive at the
conclusion that 4 rods should be added to the tens column.
● I will then ask students, based on their thought processes behind the previous 2 steps, to
determine how many flats should be added to the hundreds column. I will, again,
facilitate the discussion to ensure that students ultimately determine that 1 flat should be
added to the hundreds column. **Both the students and myself will be continuing to
update our concrete representations throughout these steps**
● Once our concrete representations are complete, I will ask students to use their
understanding of place value to help me determine how many mini marshmallows my
sister and I have in total.
○ “How many units are there in the ones column? That’s right, there are 8! What
does that represent a value of? Yes, 8 units represents a value of 8. In the tens
column, there are 7 rods. What does this represent a value of? Remember, 1 rod
represents a group of 10 units, so a group of 7 rods represents 7 groups of 10
units. That’s right, 7 rods represents a value of 70. Because the digit 7 in the tens
place of a number can be represented by 7 rods, we can know that the digit 7 in
the tens place of a number represents a value of 70! How many flats are there in
the hundreds column? That’s right, there are 3 flats! What does that represent a
value of? Remember, 1 flat represents a group of 100 units, so a group of 3 flats
represents 3 groups of 100 units. Yes! 3 flats represent 300 units. Because the
digit 3 in the hundreds place of a number can be represented by 3 flats, we can
know that the digit 3 in the hundreds place of a number represents a value of 300!
Therefore, we know that our base 10 representation of the total number of mini
marshmallows can be represented by the equation of 300+70+8. How many mini
marshmallows do my sister and I have, then? *give students a minute to think*.
That’s right, we have 378 marshmallows! Is that enough for the recipe? No, that’s
right! I guess we’ll have to go buy some more!
Closing:
 ● “Ok, thank you guys so much for helping me figure out that I need to take another trip to
the store by using your base-10 models. I actually just got a call from my mom before I
got to school today, and she had a very similar problem to me. She’s making my favorite
chocolate chip cookies, and the recipe calls for 250 chocolate chips. My mom only has
137 chocolate chips, but luckily our neighbor had 162 that she was willing to give my
mom. Will that be enough chocolate chips for my mom to make her cookies? Why don’t
you guys pair up with the student sitting next to you and try and figure it out? I want
everyone to create their own concrete representation of this situation using your base-10
models!”
● I will then give students about 10 minutes to determine the answer to this word problem
using their base-10 blocks. I will facilitate their progress as I walk around the room,
checking for conceptual understanding and offering clarifications where they seem
needed.
● If time allows, I will ask for volunteers to explain their process of creating concrete
representations of this situation using base-10 blocks to the class.
● I will end with a closing, summarizing statement:
○ “You guys did a great job of creating concrete representations of addition
problems using base-10 blocks today! Through this activity, we were able to
explore how the placement of a digit determines its value! We will continue to
explore this concept throughout the week, and during our next class I will
introduce a new math concept, called regrouping”.

FINAL DETAILS OF THE LESSON

Classroom Management: If teaching a small group or whole class, how will you use
classroom routines, reinforce appropriate behavior, and/or handle behavioral issues? Give one
example.

I will be teaching this lesson to a small group. From what I have observed, the members of this
group are very engaged, however they sometimes get off-topic in their comments. The
members of this class are very receptive to silent signals, however, so I will be using those in
my lessons. Furthermore, I will remind students to keep their pencils by their papers (and not
in their hands) when they are not using them to write on their worksheets.
Technology: How did you incorporate technology into the lesson?

I will be using a projector to ensure that every student is able to see how I manipulate my base
10 blocks in order to create a concrete representation of the word problems.

Materials: What are the materials that you will need to organize, prepare, and/or try-out
before teaching the lesson?
- Projector
- Base-10 block sets for every member of the class, as well as for myself

- Place value mats for every member of the class, as well as for myself

- A jar of mini marshmallows (as a pictorial aid)

- Printed prompts for each student of the second word problem
Follow-up: How will you and/or your Supervising Practitioner reinforce the learning at a later
time so that the students continue to work toward the lesson’s overarching goal (i.e., the MA
Curriculum Framework incorporating the Common Core State Standards)?
- Understanding place value is a very foundational mathematical skill which these
students will build upon in future math lessons. When my supervising practitioner
introduces the concept of adding 3-digit numbers which necessitate regrouping, she
will undoubtedly remind students of their prior understanding of place value which
they gained from this lesson.