Four in a Line activities Resources for schools Four in a Line activities By Chris Pearson - Numeracy Consultant

"Four in a Line" games These games are enormously adaptable. They can be used for a vast range of mathematical topics, and can be differentiated quite easily - by changing numbers, by giving children some sort of material support or often just by judicious pairing. Obviously there is no need for each game to follow a ‘"Four in a Line"’ rule - it might be 2 or 3 or even 5 in a line rule; it could also be ‘four joined up’ or even making a line right across the board ( as in Blockbuster ).

Developing calculations and number facts. This group of games can be used to reinforce teaching of number facts, such as tables or number bonds, and can also be used to help children develop specific calculation strategies, such as multiplying by multiples of 100, 50, 20, 5 etc.

Multiplying multiples of 10 240 360 60 120 150 20 160 200 180 90 40 300 30 10 50 100 80 250 Throw a dice, multiply the score by one of the numbers below. Cover the number you make. "Four in a Line" to win. 10 20 30 40 50 60

Multiplying by multiples of 5 30 60 75 150 20 120 15 180 90 80 10 100 50 45 25 40 Throw a dice, multiply the score by one of the numbers below. Cover the number you make. "Four in a Line" to win. 5 10 15 20 25 30

Multiplying multiples of 100 2400 3600 600 1200 1500 200 1600 2000 1800 900 400 3000 300 100 500 1000 800 2500 Throw a dice, multiply the score by one of the numbers below. Cover the number you make. "Four in a Line" to win. 100 200 300 400 500 600

Multiplying multiples of 2 12 32 30 4 24 72 6 48 60 18 50 10 40 36 16 8 20 2 Throw a dice, multiply the score by one of the numbers below. Cover the number you make. "Four in a Line" to win. 2 4 6 8 10 12

Multiplying multiples of 20 120 320 300 40 240 720 60 480 600 180 500 100 400 360 160 80 200 20 Throw a dice, multiply the score by one of the numbers below. Cover the number you make. "Four in a Line" to win. 20 40 60 80 100 120

Multiplying by multiples of 4 144 48 32 96 80 20 56 100 8 16 60 4 36 72 120 24 40 12 Throw a dice, multiply the score by one of the numbers below. Cover the number you make. "Four in a Line" to win. 4 8 12 16 20 24

Multiplying multiples of Throw a dice, multiply the score by one of the numbers below. Cover the number you make. "Four in a Line" to win.

Number bonds to 10 3 4 8 1 6 2 5 7 9 10 Players occupy spaces on the grid by spinning a 0-9 spinner and then identifying the numbers which need to be added to the spinner number to make 10.

Table facts up to 6X6 16 25 18 5 36 24 30 3 20 12 4 12 20 18 24 6 25 15 32 12 3 25 24 30 35 6 16 36 10 30 8 30 36 2 12 2 1 9 24 15 6 12 36 5 9 36 25 16 20 6 12 4 18 4 9 4 5 12 36 30 Each player takes turn in throwing two dice and covers the product of the two numbers. First to get four in a row wins

X8 Fable Facts - Four in a Line 80 24 32 40 64 16 56 72 8 48

Place value "Four in a Line" 234 456 62 167 188 992 263 115 973 896 226 13 901 500 666 138 778 504 561 892 599 474 384 248 Each player takes a turn at throwing a 1-6 die and a 1,10,100 die. The number on the 1-6 die is multiplied by the number on the 1,10,100 die. The resulting number is then found in a number on the grid which may be covered. E.g player throws 4 and 100 this give 4x100=400 the player can cover 474 or 456 because they have four hundred in them. "Four in a Line" wins.

Number bonds to .

"Four in a Line" Classification games This type of "Four in a Line" game is useful for reinforcing teaching about the properties of numbers or shapes. They will often require cards and therefore will take longer to prepare, but the blank grids should be useful. They can be used in a great variety of ways. The use of dice - as in the equivalent fractions example - can be useful, and keys like as the example below might reduce the need to create special dice. Dice score 1or 2 3 or 4 5 or 6 Action Find a lower number Find an equivalent number Find a higher number

How many angles or sides. An adapted dice can generate the number of angles or sides that a shape must have in order to be claimed. Take it in turns to throw. "Four in a Line" wins.

Shape Cards for "Four in a Line". Oval Circle Hexagon Pentagon Square Trapezium Octagon Triangle Rectangle These cards can be used in conjunction with the previous grid. Players take turns in turning a card and cover that shape. This helps shape recognition and could be played with irregular shapes as well.

Quadrilateral "Four in a Line"

Cards for Quadrilateral "Four in a Line" Square Rectangle Oblong Trapezium Rhombus Kite Parallelogram Quadrilateral These cards can be used with the quadrilateral board on the previous page. The cards might be chosen at random or using a 1-8 spinner and numbering the cards e.g. a 5 on the spinner might relate to the kite card etc.

"Four in a Line" equivalence games These games can be used to help reinforce ideas of equivalence. Either equivalent numbers such as fractions or equivalent values using different units such as 10m = 1000cm. The initial values are generated by a dice or a spinner, and any cell on the board can be covered which has that value or an equivalent amount - or an amount more than, less than or equal to the initial value has to be found (see equivalent fraction game). Any type of measurement might be applied to these types of activity.

Equivalent Fractions 1 8 2 4 32 3 16 6 12 16 1 32 2 24 32 The first player puts a counter on a square. The second child then throws a dice. If the dice shows 1 or 2 they must put their counter onto a higher number, if they throw a 3 or 4 they should put their counter on a lower number, if they throw a 5 or 6 they should choose an equivalent number. The players takes it in turns to play like this until one has 4 in a line. If you can’t go you miss a turn.

Equivalent Fractions The first player puts a counter on a square. The second child then throws a dice. If the dice shows 1 or 2 they must put their counter onto a higher number, if they throw a 3 or 4 they should put their counter on a lower number, if they throw a 5 or 6 they should choose an equivalent number. The players take it in turns to play like this until one has 4 in a line. If you can’t go you miss a turn.

Fraction, decimal & percentage "Four in a Line". 0.333. 0.5 50% 0.1 25% 100% 33.3% 1.00 0.25 20% 1 75% 0.2 0.125 12.5% 0.75 10% 0.1000 1 4 1 2 3 4 1 8 1 10 1 3 1 5 Take it in turn to throw adapted dice. Choose any equivalent value to get 4 in a line.e.g player throws ½ they can cover ½, 0.5 or 50%.

Length conversion "Four in a Line" 1.0m 250cm 5m 500mm 100cm 10cm 0.5m 10000mm 2.5m 2500mm Half a metre 500cm One metre 0.1m 5000mm 50cm Ten metres 1000mm 10m 100mm 1000cm Using an adapted dice, players cover the length shown or an equivalent length.

Time "Four in a Line" game 60 seconds 1 hour Half an hour 20 minutes ¼ of an hour 60 minutes 1/3 of an hour 1800 seconds 3600 seconds 900 seconds 1200 seconds 30 minutes 1/60 of an hour 1 minute 1/12 of an hour 15 minutes 300 seconds E.g player throws a number of seconds. They can cover that amount of time in any form

"Four in a Line"