Enrichment Activity (Division with Remainders)

Learning Outcome

This lesson shows children how to use division with remainders to predict which Rider on a DIY carousel will take the gold ring.

This lesson plan builds on the principles we discussed in our prior blog posts but you do not need to read them unless you want more context.

Materials Needed

• A “carousel” with four positions and riders.

A “Lazy Susan” is perfect for the carousel base, but you can make do with a large, round dinner plate. For purposes of this basic game, you just need four positions. You can use monopoly tokens or small bathtub toys for the riders.

Here are two examples, make sure you number the Riders 1 – 4:

• 30 Silver Rings and a Gold Ring

I generally place a stack of washers above a gold-painted one.  And in the picture on the far-right, you can see my DIY ring holder and dispenser but you don’t need it, you can just use a small box or stack the rings with the gold ring at the bottom.

If you don’t have washers, scrabble tiles work, which you can place atop or alongside a real ring (which doesn’t have to be real Gold!).  Playing cards placed face down can also substitute for Silver Rings.

Set Up

Choose any number of silver rings between 9 – 30.

You will also need 1 Gold Ring at the bottom of the silver rings because the gold ring is taken last.

Turn the carousel so Rider # 1 is opposite the ring dispenser.

Instructions

(Round 1)

1. Give Rider # 1 the first silver ring.
2. Rotate the carousel counter-clockwise so Rider # 2 is opposite the ring dispenser. Give Rider # 2 the second silver ring.
3. Rotate the carousel counter-clockwise again so Rider #3 is opposite the ring dispenser. Give Rider #3 the third silver ring.
4. Play continues in this fashion until one Rider takes the gold ring after all the silver rings are taken. The player that takes the Gold Ring wins.

(Round 2)

1. Ask the child to play again and to choose the number of silver rings (9 – 29) and add one gold ring.
2. This time tell the child that you have a secret – – as soon as they pick the number of silver rings, you know which Rider is going to win.
3. Tell the child which Rider will win and play the game again. The child will see that you knew the winner before the game started.

(Round 3)

1. Tell the child that you will teach them your secret so they will always know who will win the ring game.
2. Ask the child to pick the number of silver rings to play with ( 9 – 29 and again add a gold ring.)
3. After they choose, have the child organize the rings in equal piles of 4.
4. After that is done, have the youngster count the number of rings left over; that number is equal to winning position. 
5. In general, to find Winning Position divide the initial number of rings in the dispenser by the number of playing positions. 
6. By “grouping”, a youngster can predict winning position.
7. For example, if there are 25 silver rings and one gold ring (26 rings) with six Riders, the child will organize the rings into 4 groups of six with two rings left-over (26/6 = 4R2). That means that Rider # 2 will win.

Below is a video showing play with 9 silver rings and 1 gold ring (total = 10 Rings). You know that Rider #2 will win because 10/4 = 2R2. Remainder 2 means that Rider #2 must win.