Fran the frog loves to catch flies and is a good fly catcher. On Sunday she ate 3 yummy flies. On Monday she ate 6 yummy flies. On Tuesday she ate 9 yummy flies, and on Wednesday she ate 12 yummy flies! When will Fran be able to catch 21 flies in 1 day? 1 of 11
Suggested Grade Span K 2 Task Fran the frog loves to catch flies and is a good fly catcher. On Sunday she ate 3 yummy flies. On Monday she ate 6 yummy flies. On Tuesday she ate 9 yummy flies, and on Wednesday she ate 12 yummy flies! When will Fran be able to catch 21 flies in 1 day? Alternative Versions of Task More Accessible Version Fran the frog and her friends love to catch flies and are good fly catchers. On Sunday they ate 1 yummy fly. On Monday they ate 3 yummy flies. On Tuesday they ate 5 yummy flies, and on Wednesday they ate 7 yummy flies! When will Fran and her friends be able to catch 15 flies in 1 day? More Challenging Version Fran the frog and her friends love to catch flies and are good fly catchers. On Sunday they ate 3 yummy flies. On Monday they ate 6 yummy flies. On Tuesday they ate 12 yummy flies, and on Wednesday they ate 24 yummy flies! How many yummy flies will Fran and her friends have eaten in all by the end of the day on Saturday? Context This task was given to students while they were working on patterns. It was also given as a problem-solving task. Students need to find the pattern and come up with a strategy to solve the task. The task also reinforces counting skills and serves as an introduction to multiplication. What the Task Accomplishes This task asks students to develop a problem-solving strategy that works, as well as to identify and follow through with a pattern. Students need to read through the problem and pick out the information needed to identify the pattern. This task is excellent for building, reinforcing or assessing students in creating and using a table for organizing information. The pattern is counting by threes, which helps lay the groundwork for learning multiplication concepts. 2 of 11
What the Student Will Do Some students will try to gather information but may not be able to organize it effectively. Most students will begin by listing the days of the week and then plug in the information that they have taken from the task. Then they will attempt to figure out and finish the pattern until they reach 21. Other students may finish the pattern first and then match the numbers to the days. Time Required for Task 30- to 45-minute class period. Interdisciplinary Links This task is an excellent way to reinforce calendar activities since it requires students to know and use the days of the week in sequence. It could also be used in conjunction with a science unit on animals or food chains. You could delve deeper into why frogs eat flies and what animals in turn eat frogs. Students also may enjoy drawing a picture of the task and adding habitat details that they have learned in science. Teaching Tips This is the type of problem in which students would benefit from seeing a model before attempting to solve it on their own. I would recommend doing a similar problem with the class as a whole to demonstrate good problem-solving. If students are familiar with this type of problem, it could be used as an assessment for recognizing patterns and organizing data. Once the students have learned the skills, they can solve "Dan the Dog" as practice and then use this task as an assessment. To make this problem more challenging, the pattern could be made more difficult or the student could be asked to continue the pattern through another week. To simplify, the students could be given a chart with the days of the week already on it, or the pattern could be simplified by making it counting by twos or ones. Suggested Materials Paper Pencils Crayons Manipulatives to represent flies Possible Solutions The frog ate 21 flies on Saturday. 3 of 11
More Accessible Version Solution Sunday: Monday: Tuesday: Wednesday: Thursday: Friday: Saturday: Sunday: 1 fly 3 flies 5 flies 7 flies 9 flies 11 flies 13 flies 15 flies More Challenging Version Solution Task-Specific Assessment Notes Day # Eaten Total Sunday 3 3 Monday 6 9 Tuesday 12 21 Wednesday 24 45 Thursday 48 93 Friday 96 189 Saturday 192 381 Novice The Novice will have no workable strategy to solve the problem. The Novice will not organize the data effectively. The pattern will not be recognized, and no correct solution will be achieved. Apprentice The Apprentice will attempt to organize the data, but it will appear unclear. S/he will use a strategy to find important information in the task. The Apprentice may correctly identify the pattern and the days of the week, but the arithmetic may be incorrect, leaving the student with an incorrect solution. Practitioner The Practitioner will have a workable and clear strategy that leads to a correct solution. The pattern will be correctly identified, and the student will have work to support the solution. The Practitioner will use accurate and appropriate math language and accurate mathematical representations. 4 of 11
Expert The Expert will solve the problem effectively and will go beyond the task requirements by continuing the pattern or by making other mathematically relevant observations. The solution will be correct and accurate, and appropriate math language will be used throughout to explain the student s approach and reasoning. 5 of 11
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