I do this every year, within the first few days of school.

I’d hate to steal Sara Van Der Werf’s thunder here, so check out their blog post all about it, but it is one of the most successful activities I have ever done, truly.

It gets kids talking, huddled together, collaborating, having fun, and thinking of math in such a unique and different way.

It’s a blast, there are a variety of forms, students love it, and it does a wonderful job of setting up SCENIC Math from the start. I use it on Day 2, and you can check out that full lesson plan here.

Here are the step by step, copied word-for-word from Sara’s post:

Implementing the task:

1. Group students any way you like (my groups week one are alphabetical). Groups of 4 work best for this task.  Groups of 3 and 5 work too.

2. This task takes a minimum of 25 minutes and can last up to a 55 minute class period depending on how you implement the task.  I spend longer with middle school students and it seems to go more quickly with HS students.  I’ve done this task on the 3rd day of school the last several years.

3. You will need one highlighter per student and 3 copies per group of the first page of this task. 1-100_group_work_activity  (Note:  This document is a set of directions I attached to my districts curriculum guides that has some of the information written below 1-100 Task Directions or Teachers

4. Tell your students that in this class they will be expected to talk about math out loud everyday.  Many days they will be talking and working with either a partner or their group. Today we are going to practice what it is like to work in groups.

5. Give directions for the task.  I show the task on my Smart Board for 1 minute and turn it off.  I then say their group will have 3 minutes to find as many numbers from 1-100 in order.  Group members will take turns going in a circle highlighting each number as they find it.  Student 1 will highlight 1, student 2 highlights 2, student 3 highlights 3….when we get back to student 1, they highlight the next number.  They can help each other find numbers, but each student has to highlight their number in turn.

6. Ask students to clear their tables of everything.  Hand out one highlighter per student.  Hand out one copy of the numbers 1-100 to each group UPSIDE DOWN.

7. Put a 3 minute timer up front.  (note to teachers, groups generally find 20-40 numbers the first time they do this activity).  Say go.  While students are working, GET OUT YOUR PHONE and start taking pictures of the groups as they work.  I take pics of every group in round 1 and 2 of this activity.

8. At 3 minutes, say ‘hands up’.  Ask groups how many numbers they found.  Tell them we will be doing this activity again.  Have students talk with their group about a strategy to do better the next time. Give groups 2-5 minutes to talk.  Have a few groups share out what went well in round 1.

9. This is where you have some choice.  You need to do this 3 minute activity at least twice, but can do it 3 or 4 times.  I do the 3 min round twice with HS students and 3 times with MS students.

10. If you only do this twice, then ask students to also talk about any patterns they noticed in the numbers.  Tell them there is a pattern to the numbers. (On day 2 I gave them the definition of math-the study of patterns and we talked about how recognizing patterns can make us more efficient)  Ask students to share out what they noticed.  I do this on the smart board.  I’ve always had at least one group in every class that noticed that the first number was in the top left quadrant and the 2nd number was in the upper right quadrant  as shown below (and I show this to everyone on the smart board after a group names it).  If you are doing the 3 min round 3 times, wait to talk about patterns until between rounds 2 and 3.

11. In round 2 (and 3) tell students that their goal is to get more than round 1.  (Note, I love how Megan implemented this part and recorded their results in round 1 and 2 and calculated the % increase. I’ve not done it that way yet, but I will).  Set the timer for 3 minutes.  Say go and TAKE PHOTOS again.

12. At 3 minutes day ‘hands up’.  Collect the results.  I’ve always had EVERY single group’s result go up.

13. Next show students the photos you took while they are working in groups.  When I do this, almost every student says ‘I did not even know you took our photo’.   I then ask why do you think this was? They say they were so focused on the task that they did not

    notice what was going on around them.  I say, this is what I want group work to look like EVERY time we do group work in my class.

14. I have every student get out their notebook and do a individual quick write on the question “What does great group work in math look like?”  Students share their ideas with their groups and groups share out ideas with the class as I record their ideas.

15. The next day I come to class with a consolidated list of what group work looks like in Ms. Van’s classroom.  I tell them this is the rubric we will use all year.  Here is a copy of what my 2015-2016 students came up with.