Math Lesson Plan

Title of Lesson
Froot Loop Probability

Context of Lesson
The students should be able to represent the fractions: ¼, and ½ . Students should know how to
draw and read a number line.

Related Virginia Standards of Learning

Math 4.13 The student will a) predict the likelihood of an outcome of a simple event; and b)
represent probability as a number between 0 and 1, inclusive.

Lesson Objectives
Understand Know Do (will be assessed)

1. Determining the 1. Probability is the 1. The students will determine which

probability of a likelihood of an event
simple event. occurring.
2. The outcome of some
simple events are more or
less likely to occur than
others.
3. The outcome of some
simple events are certain.
Froot Loop is the most likely to be
chosen out of their bag, and what
color(s) are unlikely to be chosen.
2. The students will determine if two
colors are equally likely to be
chosen out of their bag.
3. The students will generate an
example of a color which is
impossible to pick out of their bag.

4. The outcome of some

simple events are
impossible.

Assessment of Learning
To assess the three “do” objectives, each student will complete the “Froot Loop Probability”
assessment sheet. Each child will receive a bag with 10 Froot Loops inside. The student will
record how many of each color Froot Loop is in their bag. Using this information, each student
will determine which color they are most likely to pick out of their bag, which color(s) they are
unlikely to pick, and if there are any colors which are equally likely to be chosen. The student
will also generate a color that is impossible to be chosen from their bag.

Materials Needed
For each student:
 One brown paper lunch bag
 10 Froot Loops, including 4 different colors.
 One copy of the “Froot Loops Probability” assessment sheet.

Kelsey Wallace, Mallie Ziglar, Erica Park, Erin Schneeberger

Spring 2018
Procedures
Before

These students have previously placed measurements on a ruler and Mathematical

understand a number line, but have never worked with ratios. Our goal is Questions
to introduce probability and the vocabulary that relates to explaining their
predictions of outcomes.

The teacher will inform the class that today we will be learning about
probability. Probability is the likelihood of an event happening.
Play the Basic Probability BrainPOP Jr. video.
https://jr.brainpop.com/math/data/basicprobability/

Introduce probability vocabulary words.

Probability: the chance or possibility that something will happen
Certain: will definitely happen
Impossible: will never happen
Likely: will probably happen
Unlikely: probably will not happen

The teacher will create a number line on the whiteboard that includes the
terms: impossible, unlikely, equally likely to occur and not occur, likely,
and certain from left to right. The teacher will elaborate that probability is Reasoning and
a range from 0 to 1, with 0 representing an event that’s impossible to Proof
occur, and 1 representing an event which is certain to occur. Each
student will receive an example of an event on a piece of paper.
Together, the class will determine where each event falls on the number
line, with students raising their hands to explain that they have an event
which is impossible, unlikely, equally likely or unlikely, likely, or certain.

During

Before any materials are passed out to the students, the teacher will
collect a brown paper bag with 10 Froot Loops inside of the bag. They will
then document on the assessment paper how many of each color are
inside of the bag. The teacher will ask the class which color she would be
most likely to choose from the bag without looking, which color or colors
she would be unlikely to choose, if there are any colors she would be
equally likely to choose. The teacher will also ask for an example of a
color that would be impossible for her to choose out of the bag. The
teacher will also explain that the number line at the bottom of the page is
a reference for the students.

After the teacher demonstrates the Froot Loop activity, each student will
receive a brown paper bag containing 10 froot loops with 4 total colors.

Kelsey Wallace, Mallie Ziglar, Erica Park, Erin Schneeberger

Spring 2018
 The student will record how many of each color Froot Loop is in their bag.
Using this information, each student will determine which color they are
most likely to pick out of their bag, which color(s) they are unlikely to pick,
and if there are any colors which are equally likely to be chosen. The Problem
student will also generate a color that is impossible to be chosen from Solving
their bag. The student will record all of this information on their paper.

Representation

After

After students have completed the “Froot Loops Probability” activity and Communication
assessment, each of them will be able to explain what “certain,”
“impossible,” “likely,” “unlikely,” and “equally likely to occur and not occur”
means. Each student will share with a neighbor about their results from
the activity and each student will come up with an event that falls under Connections
“certain,” “impossible,” “likely,” “unlikely,” or “equally likely to occur and not
occur,” and explain their reasoning. If there is time remaining after the
students share with each other, the whole class will come back together
and the teacher will ask students to share the events that they thought of,
which category it falls under, and why.

Possible Questions to Guide Discussion:

What are examples you can think of that would be considered “certain,”
“impossible,” “likely,” “unlikely,” or “equally likely to occur and not occur”?
Possible student answer: We will have a snow day in May is unlikely.

Why would your event fall under this category?

Possible student answer: Because May is too warm for it to snow, but it’s
possible that it could snow.

Why did you have different answers on the Froot Loop activity from your
peers?
Possible student answer: Because we all had different amounts of Froot
Loops in different colors.

Modification for Students with Special Needs (Differentiation)

Extension Problem: If a student quickly completes the “Froot Loop Probability” assessment
sheet correctly, give the student a bag with 10 red Froot Loops, 5 orange Froot Loops, 2 yellow
Froot Loops, 2 green Froot Loops, and 1 purple Froot Loops. Have the student count and record
how many Froot Loops they have of each color. The student will then be asked, “How much
more likely are you to pick a red Froot Loop out of the bag than an orange?” The student will
also determine which color they are least likely to pick out of the bag, if there are any colors that
Kelsey Wallace, Mallie Ziglar, Erica Park, Erin Schneeberger
Spring 2018
they are equally likely to pick out of the bag, and they will determine two colors that are
impossible to pick out of the bag.

Remedial Problem: If a student is struggling to complete the “Froot Loop Probability”

assessment sheet, give the student a bag with 8 orange Froot Loops and 2 green Froot Loops.
Have the student count and record how many Froot Loops they have of each color. The student
will then determine what color they are the most likely to pick out of the bag without looking. The
student will also determine which color they are least likely to pick out of the bag without
looking. The student will also be asked if there’s an equal chance of them picking orange and
green out of their bag, and they’ll generate a color that is impossible to pick out of their bag.

NCTM Standards
 Problem Solving:
 Reasoning and Proof:
 Representations:
 Connections:
 Communication:

Reflection

One thing that differed when teaching the lesson, from my plans, is that when I began
the lesson and had taught a few of the terms we would be using throughout the lesson (such as
certain, likely, equally likely, uncertain, and impossible), one student raised their hand and said
“we learned this stuff in science last year!”. Once she said that, all the other students seemed
to suddenly remember learning these terms before. I was pretty caught off guard by that, as I
was just teaching what my CT told me was next on the pacing guide, so I was not anticipating
that they had already learned any of this. It was still a little bit different applying it in a math
context, but I ended up asking them to tell me about each of these terms and rather than me
telling them all of the terms. I feel that this almost worked out better because they were so
excited to tell me everything they knew about these terms, so it was more of them talking and
less than me talking.
I also ran into a few small problems with the fruit loop probability assessment. I had
very intentionally tried to put as many different combination of 10 fruit loops as possible into
the bag. I had however not realized that this would lead to some students having 3 colors that
were equally likely and only one likely or unlikely. We had talked about what equally likely
meant, but some students having more than two colors that were equally likely, confused some
students. Because of this I had the class pause their work with the fruit loops while I talked with
them about how more than two of their colors could be equally likely and that this is okay.
My impact on student learning was that the students learned how to apply the terms
certain, likely, equally likely, unlikely, and impossible to a real situation in math. While they

Kelsey Wallace, Mallie Ziglar, Erica Park, Erin Schneeberger

Spring 2018
might not encounter the probability of pulling colors of fruit loops out of a bag in real life, this
could be applied to real life situations regarding probability. We also discussed real life
examples in our opening activity. When looking at their assessments, I can tell this is true
because 9 of the 18 students got 9/9 on the assessment sheet. Of the 9 student that did not, 5
got 8/9. These students all got one thing wrong when labeling their “number line” from
impossible to certain. They primarily seemed to have thought they needed to label that a color
was certain, although I had told them that they would most likely need to label something
“none”. 2 more students confused unlikely and equally likely and the final student did not finish
the second part of the assessment sheet, but got every part they had completed correctly. I
have attached pictures of these assessment sheets. After reviewing these assessments, it
appears that most students understood very well, and those who got a point off seemed to be
confused by the layout of the assessment sheet. I know this because they correctly understood
when asked in question form, but when asked to label the same things on the “number line”,
they seemed to be confused.
One way that I could have incorporated developmentally appropriate way by doing an
informal assessment before in order to know what they already knew about the terminology
before giving the lesson. I would also have made more perfect combinations of colors of the 10
fruit loops in each bag so that every student could have had 1 impossible color, 1 unlikely color,
2 equally likely colors, and 1 likely color. This would have cut down on confusion and helped the
students be more successful.
If I were the classroom teacher, the next thing I would teach would be how to represent
the probability with numbers. I would do a similar activity, or possibly even use the same
activity so that the students are familiar with it already, and teach them how to represent the
probability as a fraction. This seems like it would naturally come next, and is appropriate
according to the pacing guide they use in Augusta County.
One thing I had reinforced about children as learners is that they love new hands on
experiences. They were extremely engaged in the lesson and seemed to have a lot of fun, but
they were a little bit loud and chatty. My CT reinforced that this was okay because it was all on
task chatter, and that they were just so excited that I was teaching and that they were getting
to do a fun hands-on lesson. It felt really good to see them be so excited for me to teach, as this
was my first formal lesson with them, and to see how much they enjoyed the activity while
learning new math content. It was very encouraging to see how something so simple made
them so excited to learn.
One thing I had reinforced about teaching is the importance of planning and the time
that goes into the preparation of these hands-on activities. Even though I had spent a lot of
time planning for the combinations of fruit loops in each bag, pouring out fruit loops and
sorting colors and making color combinations, it turned out I still could have done a better job
of planning and preparing for the lesson. I thought that putting 10 fruit loops in bags wouldn’t
take that long, but I didn’t account for all of the sorting and counting and extension bags and
preparing bags that they were allowed to eat. All of this combined turned into a lot more time
dedicated to preparation than I had expected. This shows just how much time teachers spend
on prep after school for the next day, especially if they do a lot of fun hands on lessons.

Kelsey Wallace, Mallie Ziglar, Erica Park, Erin Schneeberger

Spring 2018
 Finally, what I had reinforced about myself is that I really enjoy teaching math and I
might even some day want to teach just math. I was formally observed by Dr. Harris teaching
this lesson and the first thing she said was that I looked like I was having fun. I was originally a
math concentration because I’d love to teach math and possibly even just algebra in middle
school if I can get certified to do that. Teaching this lesson reinforced for me how much I enjoy
teaching math and that it’s something I’d like to pursue more fully.

Kelsey Wallace, Mallie Ziglar, Erica Park, Erin Schneeberger

Spring 2018
Kelsey Wallace, Mallie Ziglar, Erica Park, Erin Schneeberger
Spring 2018
Kelsey Wallace, Mallie Ziglar, Erica Park, Erin Schneeberger
Spring 2018