Lesson Plan: Exploring Probability
Grade: Four
Length of Lesson: One class period

Materials:

• Four standard decks of cards
• Four standard die
• Divide children into small equal sized groups
• Paper and pencil

Objectives

• TLW know and understand the meaning/ definition of the words probability, outcome, event, and experiment.
• TLW be able to demonstrate knowledge of probability using either dice or cards.

Procedure

Attention Getter

• The teacher will ask the students if they have ever been playing a game (board or card), and wished they would roll/ draw a certain number so they would be able to win.

Activity

• The teacher will split the children into the groups, which s/he already determined. Once the children are in their groups, the teacher will have them discuss quietly different card/ board games that they like to play. The teacher will then hand out either a deck of cards or a die to each group.
• Children need to have one person in their group be the recorder. They should each take turns either rolling a die or drawing a card from the deck. Each time the recorder needs to record what number was rolled or drawn. The teacher will have the groups switch about ½ way through the period cards or die so they can experiment with the other item.

Closure

• With about fifteen minutes, left in the class period have the student clean up their cards/die and join in a group with the teacher at the front. Then the students can report what they found. The teacher and students can discuss terminology and ways of writing what the odds are of getting certain numbers. This should set up the teacher for the next day’s lesson on how to write probability of events.

Definitions

• Experiment:  a situation involving chance or probability that leads to results called outcomes
• Outcome: the result of a single trial of an experiment
• Event: one or more outcomes of an experiment
• Probability: the measure of how likely an event is

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