Time for Prime

Chanda Kuhn  -   Westside Elementary School

Introduction

Standards

Objectives

Activities

Assessment

Results

Resources

Student Page
Activities
Materials
Your Grade
Teacher's Corner

Introduction
Do your students understand what a prime number is?  These are fun activities that will help students truly "see" the prime numbers and be able to identify the prime numbers from 1 to 100.

Subject:  Mathematics
Topic:  Prime Numbers
Grade Level:  Fourth Grade

Student Lesson for Time for Prime and URL:  http://ctap295.ctaponline.org/~ckuhn/student

Standards Addressed
FOURTH GRADE
MATHEMATICS
NUMBER SENSE
California Mathematics Standards
4  Students know how to factor small whole numbers.

4.2  know that numbers such as 2, 3, 5, 7, 11 do not have any factors except 1 and themselves, and that such numbers are called prime numbers

Instructional Objectives
Given a chart of the first 100 numbers arranged in ascending order, students will be able to identify the prime numbers by circling only the prime numbers from 1-100 and tell why they are prime numbers.

Return to Top

Student Activities
Students will participate in five activities to lead them to an understanding of prime numbers and enable them to find the prime numbers from 1-100.

1.  Initial Activity
Give students the pretest to assess their understanding of even, odd, factors, multiples, prime,  and composite numbers. 

2.  Introductory Activity
Students will create "counting charts" with multiples of 2, 3, 5, and 7 up to 100 to help them understand the meaning of:

prime numbers, composite numbers, 
factors, products, multiples, sequence, 
even numbers and odd numbers. 

These charts will also help them with the completion of the enabling activity.  I have included a  "family of facts" to help them better understand factors and products.  They may also use an online calculator or a hand held calculator to help them with the counting.  A glossary will help them with meanings of the terms.  After completing the charts, use the lists of numbers and the fact families to help them come to an understanding of the above mentioned terms.

3.  Enabling Activity
Students will take a virtual field trip on the World Wide Web to complete this activity using a 100 chart.  A completion of this chart will give them all of the prime numbers from 1-100.  Instructions are given to the students using a step-by-step procedure.  They need to know the multiples of 2, 3, 5, and 7, so they will want to use their counting charts from the introductory activity.

4.  Culminating Activity
Using index cards numbered from 1 to 100, students will be able to sort the cards, pulling out all of the multiples of 2, 3, 5, and 7 leaving only the prime number cards.  They will work in groups or individually using their counting charts to check the answers.  
Then they will be given a chart with the numbers from 1-100 in ascending order.  Individually the students should circle the prime numbers and then tell in a sentence or two why they are prime.  This will fulfill the requirements of the instructional objective.

5.  Final Activity
Students will use the prime numbers between 1 and 100 in a bingo game by using a blank card that they fill in themselves.
After this activity students should be able to take the posttest with a great deal of success.

Assessments
Pre and Post tests
Answer Keys for pre and post tests
Rubric for grading.
Objective Activity

Return to Top

Results
Chart of Results for pretest, posttest and culminating activity which fulfills the instructional objective.
 

Web Resources & Supplementary Materials
These are GREAT resource links!

For Ask Dr. Math and other references:
http://www.forum.swarthmore.edu/

For math resources and other links:
http://www.li.net/~ndonohue/math.html

For flashcards for kids:
http://www.edu4kids.com/math/

For more information on prime numbers:
http://www.sunny.issaquah.wednet.edu/mathclub/
lesson2/2Lesson.html

Initial Activity
Pretest

Introductory Activity
glossary:
http://www.hbschool.com/glossary/math/
calculator:
http://www.calculator.com/
Counting Chart
Fact Families

Enabling Activity
Prime Time by Georgia Louviere

Culminating Activity
Index Cards
Objective Activity

Final Activity
Blank Bingo Cards
Posttest