Launch the Learning ~ Bag-O-Chips

Grade 1 Unit 3 - Add & Sub Strategies and Story Problems

Big Idea:
• Represent and solve an addition/subtraction problem in a real life context that includes multiple parts.
• How many of each flavor are missing from the case?

I Can Statement:
• I can represent and solve addition and subtraction story problems by modeling the situation with tools
such as counters, number lines, or ten frames.

Teacher Notes (to consider when planning):

• Take a look at the task yourself before presenting it to students so that you can anticipate what tools and
strategies students might use.
• A point of confusion for students could be thinking about the parts and the whole. For example, students
may be confused between trying to find how many chip bags are missing or find how many of each
flavor are missing. The focus of this task is to find how many of each flavor are missing.
• Suggested language to use with the task:
o Big bag with all of the chip bags → case
o Chip flavors → pair with the color (ex. Yellow Classic, Green Sour Cream and Onion)

Materials Needed:
• Copies of chip bags on corresponding color paper (Classic-Yellow, Sour Cream and Onion-Green, Salt
and Vinegar-Blue, Barbecue-Black)
• Cubes (colored green, yellow, blue, black)
• Student Recording Sheet
• Google Slides with visuals
• Student partnerships
• Observation checklist

Anticipated Strategies:
• Students may choose to represent the number of chip bags for each flavor that should have come in the
case, then indicate the ones that were included, revealing how many of each flavor is missing.
• Students may choose to represent the number of chip bags that were included, then draw in or add on to
each flavor until it matches how many should have been included. To find the answer to the question,
students would count the chip bags that they drew/added.
• Students may add up how many should be included in the bag and how many came in the bag and
subtract the two totals to see how many bags were missing. However, this will not tell them how many
of each flavor are missing.

Lesson Sequence:
1. Gather students on the rug and watch the video (link included in google slides)
 2. Ask, “What do you notice?” Write down student responses on chart paper or on the whiteboard. It will
be important for students to note that the man in the video is disappointed. Refer to suggested language
above to guide your discussion.
3. Ask, “What do you wonder?” Document all questions followed by students’ names to affirm students’
ownership of their learning. If the question you want to target for the day has not been brought up, guide
students to ask questions in your direction, or write it down as your own question.
4. Determine that today’s target question will be, “How many of each flavor are missing from the case?”
5. Have students come up with an estimate that is too low and an estimate is too high as a response to the
target question, this provides students with a range (ex, there could be 0 Classic flavors missing or 10
Classic flavor missing, but 30 bags may be too high of an estimate because 30 bags would not fit in the
case.)
6. When thinking about the target question, ask students, “What information do you need to solve that
question?” (How many came in the case and how many were supposed to come in the case) If students
do not come up with these questions, feel free to send them off to start working and revisit the question
again in a few minutes after they have struggled.
7. Then, ask students, “What tools could help you answer the question?” Help students locate the tools that
they name and bring them to their working space. Introduce colored chip bags.
8. Students go off to work in pairs.
9. Take notes on students’ use of strategies and evidence of the practice standards on the note taking sheets
provided keeping in mind which partnerships’ work you would like to focus the discussion on during the
share.
*Possible Mid-Workshop: Consider choosing a partnership that has a clear representation or a clear
strategy for one flavor.

Share/Closure:
• Gather on the rug and share representations and strategies from a few selected groups.
• Consider discussing what went well and what was hard about the task or working with a partner and
what mistakes they made that helped them get to a solution in the end.
• Reveal the final picture and see how it compares to students’ solutions and representations.

Extensions:
• Students could find out either how many bags should have been in the case or how many bags came in
the case or how many bags were missing from the case by working with the parts (flavors) in relation to
the whole (case).