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Classroom activity Grade 3 Math

Peachstone Dam Turbine Gauge Cards: A Grade 3 Match Game

A 35-minute grade 3 card game where small groups match equal-groups cards from a fictional dam powerhouse to total cards and record each multiplication equation.

Objectives

  1. Students will interpret a product as the total number of objects in a stated number of equal groups.
  2. Students will write a multiplication equation that matches a described set of equal groups.
  3. Students will identify two different equal-groups descriptions that share the same total.

Vocabulary

Turbine
A machine with blades that spin when water rushes past, like a high-tech waterwheel. Spinning turbines turn generators that make electricity.

Also: gauge, equal groups, product, factor

Teacher overview

Inside the powerhouse at a dam, each turbine has its own small panel of gauges, and an operator walks the row of machines reading every gauge in turn. Peachstone Dam in this activity is fictional, and the turbine and gauge counts on the cards were written for the game rather than taken from a real powerhouse. This is a small-group card game for teams of three or four: one deck describes the equal groups on an operator's round, a second deck holds the totals, and a team wins the round by matching every group card to its total card. The activity maps directly onto the concept, because a card reading "6 turbines with 2 gauges each" is a picture of 6 equal groups of 2, and the matching total card is that product. Two pairs of cards deliberately share a total, so students meet the idea that different factor pairs can give the same product.

Activity Directions

Step 1, setup before class (5 min). Print and cut one set of cards per team. The six group cards read: 3 turbines with 4 gauges each; 6 turbines with 2 gauges each; 5 turbines with 5 gauges each; 2 turbines with 8 gauges each; 4 turbines with 4 gauges each; 7 turbines with 3 gauges each. The six total cards read: 12 gauges, 12 gauges, 25 gauges, 16 gauges, 16 gauges, 21 gauges. Shuffle each deck separately and clip them together with the team's handout.

Step 2, explain how the activity works (5 min). Tell the class that an operator at Peachstone Dam reads every gauge on every turbine once per round. Hold up one group card and one total card and think aloud: 3 turbines with 4 gauges each is 3 equal groups of 4, so the operator reads 12 gauges, and the total card that matches is 12. Point out that two of the total cards look the same, which is not a printing error.

Step 3, first play (8 min). Teams of three or four spread the six group cards face up and keep the total cards in a face-down pile. A player turns over one total card and the team decides together which group card it belongs to, saying the equal-groups sentence aloud before placing the pair together. Play continues until all six pairs are made.

Step 4, record (8 min). Each student fills in rows 1 through 6 of the handout, writing the multiplication equation and the total for every pair the team made. Every student writes their own sheet even though the team matched the cards together.

Step 5, second play against the timer (6 min). Teams shuffle both decks again and rematch all six pairs, this time trying to finish inside three minutes. The activity ends when every team has completed the second play or the three minutes are up, whichever comes first.

Step 6, debrief (3 min). Students answer handout items 7 and 8 and share their answers with the team. Ask one team to explain aloud why two different group cards can point to the same total card.

Peachstone Dam Turbine Gauge Cards: A Grade 3 Match Game — Grade 3 Math
Name: ____________________________ Date: ______________

Student Handout

Peachstone Dam has turbines. Each turbine has gauges. An operator reads every gauge on every turbine.

Write the equation and the total for each row.

  1. 3 turbines with 4 gauges each. How many gauges does the operator read?
  2. 6 turbines with 2 gauges each. How many gauges does the operator read?
  3. 5 turbines with 5 gauges each. How many gauges does the operator read?
  4. 2 turbines with 8 gauges each. How many gauges does the operator read?
  5. 4 turbines with 4 gauges each. How many gauges does the operator read?
  6. 7 turbines with 3 gauges each. How many gauges does the operator read?
  7. Two rows above have a total of 12 gauges. Which two rows are they?
  8. Two rows above have a total of 16 gauges. Which two rows are they?

From Water for Schools (waterforschools.org). This material is in the public domain (CC0) and may be copied, edited, and shared freely.

Answer Key
  1. Answer: 12 gauges.
    Three equal groups of 4 gauges, so 3 × 4 = 12 gauges.
  2. Answer: 12 gauges.
    Six equal groups of 2 gauges, so 6 × 2 = 12 gauges.
  3. Answer: 25 gauges.
    Five equal groups of 5 gauges, so 5 × 5 = 25 gauges.
  4. Answer: 16 gauges.
    Two equal groups of 8 gauges, so 2 × 8 = 16 gauges.
  5. Answer: 16 gauges.
    Four equal groups of 4 gauges, so 4 × 4 = 16 gauges.
  6. Answer: 21 gauges.
    Seven equal groups of 3 gauges, so 7 × 3 = 21 gauges.
  7. Answer: Rows 1 and 2.
    Three groups of 4 and six groups of 2 both come to 12 gauges, even though the number of turbines is different.
  8. Answer: Rows 4 and 5.
    Two groups of 8 and four groups of 4 both come to 16 gauges.

Differentiation

Support

Give these teams counters and a mat with the group card's number of circles already drawn, so a student can drop the stated number of counters into each circle and count the total before searching for a matching card. Reduce the deck to the four cards with different totals, which removes the duplicate-total decision until students are ready for it. Allow skip counting aloud instead of a written equation on the first play.

Extension

Ask students to write a seventh group card that also totals 12 gauges without repeating either row 1 or row 2, and prove it with an equation. Have them sort all six equations by whether the first factor or the second factor is larger, then say what the sorting tells them about which number names the groups and which names the size of each group.

ELL supports

Pre-teach "turbine," "gauge," and "each" using a photograph of a dial panel with one dial circled and the word "gauge" written beside it. Post the sentence frame "There are ___ turbines. Each turbine has ___ gauges. That is ___ gauges in all." and have teams say it aloud together before placing a pair. Accept a labeled drawing in place of a written equation on rows 1 and 2.