Lesson Plan 1: Secret Agent Math!

I recently taught a Math lesson to my students (5th grade) that went great! It was a Secret Agent themed lesson and they had a Mission Possible and a Mission Impossible of math skills to carry out. After attempting the first mission, the students were trained in comparing and ordering large whole numbers in the millions place and sent on a final mission to use their newly acquired Math skills...

Confidential Envelope for Secret Agents!

As they were handed a CONFIDENTIAL envelope with their mission inside, the students bubbled about what to expect. They were given 7 minutes to complete the mission (a compare and order problem) and were also responsible for telling HOW they got their answer. After the time was up, they were asked to circle a number on a scale of 1-5 related to how they felt they did on the mission. 1 stood for "I have no clue" and 5 stood for "I understood and am ready for the next mission". After scoring them, most of the students felt like they were a 5 and turned out to be a 5.

Self Assessment graded

Only a few students felt like they were a 3 and turned out to be a 5. Early finishers were told to complete the BONUS CHALLENGE QUESTION that was also included in the envelope. It was a challenge for the students to create their own compare and order problem for another student to solve. They had to include the correct answer on the sheet. They were given a decoder and decoder sheet and shown how to record their answer on the sheet. When another student tried to solve the problem, they could check their work by using the decoder to view the correct answer.

Student using decoder to look for the hidden answer

The kids really loved this and they really wanted to create problems for other classes to solve! All of the students were given an opportunity at the end of the lesson to complete the Bonus Challenge Question and create a decoder message for the answer. The other classes have the opportunity to pull these and practice comparing and ordering. Since the 5th graders switch once a day, I taught the lesson twice. By the second lesson, I felt more comfortable teaching it, but my results were just as high in the first class. After reviewing the mission results, self-assessments, and an overall reflection of how the lessons went, I am confident in moving on to the next objective.

Mission packet and Bonus Challenge Question

Student work telling how they knew this number was the greatest

Click Here to view the lesson in Google Doc's. 

Click This  to view the power point that goes with the lesson.

Click Me  to view my professional reflection.