Classroom activity Grade 1 Math
Aspen Grove's Recycling Relay: A Grade 1 Bottle-Counting Game
A grade 1 relay game where two teams add a small new bottle count onto their growing two-digit total each round, practicing place-value addition strategies within 100.
Objectives
- Students will add a two-digit number and a one-digit number using place-value strategies.
- Students will explain when adding new ones causes a new ten to form.
Vocabulary
Key words: recycle, bin, add, new ten
Teacher overview
Aspen Grove Elementary runs a recycling relay during recess: two teams race to fill their bin with plastic bottles, one small handful at a time. This activity turns that race into a math game for 20 to 30 students in two teams. Each round, a team rolls a number and adds that many new bottles to its running total, so the relay's scoring mechanic is the same math as adding a two-digit number and a one-digit number, including the moment a team's ones digit rolls over into a new ten.
Activity Directions
- Split the class into Team Blue and Team Red. Give each team a scoreboard on chart paper with a starting total of 0 bottles written at the top.
- Explain the rule before play starts: each round, one player from a team rolls the number cube, walks to the bottle bag, and carries that many bottles back to the team's bin.
- After carrying the bottles, the team writes a new addition sentence on its scoreboard: the old total plus the number just rolled, such as "14 + 6 = 20."
- The team says out loud whether adding the new bottles made a new ten (for example, going from 14 to 20 crosses a ten) or just added more ones (for example, going from 12 to 15 does not).
- Teams alternate turns, with a new player from each team running each round.
- Play continues for 6 rounds per team, so every scoreboard shows 6 addition sentences by the end.
- After round 6, both teams read their final total aloud and compare: "Team Blue has ___ bottles. Team Red has ___ bottles."
- End the game once both teams have completed 6 rounds and announced their final totals; gather the class for the debrief.
Student Handout
Debrief questions. Team Blue started at 0 bottles and rolled 5, 6, 4, 3, 6, and 2 over its six rounds. Use those six rolls to answer questions 1 and 2.
- What is Team Blue's final total?
- During which round did Team Blue's total first cross a new ten?
- If a team's total is 18 and it rolls a 4, will the total cross a new ten?
From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.
Answer Key
- Answer: 26 bottles.
Debrief question: "Team Blue started at 0 and rolled 5, 6, 4, 3, 6, and 2 over six rounds. What is Team Blue's final total?" 0 + 5 + 6 + 4 + 3 + 6 + 2 = 26. - Answer: 2 (the round number).
Debrief question: "During which round did Team Blue's total first cross a new ten?" Round 2. After round 1, the total was 5; adding 6 more in round 2 makes 11, which crosses from the ones into a new ten. - Answer: Yes.
Debrief question: "If a team's total is 18 and it rolls a 4, will the total cross a new ten?" 18 + 4 = 22, which crosses from the teens into the twenties.
Differentiation
Support
Let struggling teams use loose counters instead of mental math to combine each new roll with the running total, moving counters onto a place-value mat before writing the addition sentence.
Extension
Ask stronger teams to predict, before rolling, whether the next roll is likely to cross a new ten based on their current total, and to explain their prediction using the ones digit.
ELL supports
Post the sentence frame "___ plus ___ equals ___" for teams to fill in each round, and pair "new ten" with a simple gesture (both hands forming a circle) that students perform whenever a round crosses into a new ten.
Extensions
Run a second relay the next day starting each team's total at 40 instead of 0, so students practice the same addition strategy with larger two-digit starting numbers.