2: Simpsons Math Mania - An Introduction to Integers

I started today's lesson by showing the kids in my Math 7 the following picture and asking them "What sequence of events could have led to Homer's current score if he answered 5 questions?" I gave them 5 minutes to brainstorm on their own some thoughts and then they got in to small groups to generate a list of as many different possibilities that they could come up with.

Within 10 minutes groups had more than 10 different sequences on their group whiteboards and were still coming up with more (ps ... if you don't have extra large whiteboards to use during group work, you need to get them, they are awesome!!!!!). To wrap up the class I had each group select one sequence they thought no other group would have come up with and had them share out. The kids were surprised to see that none of their sequences repeated and were interested in how each group shared their sequence differently. We then used this as a segway to writing a numerical sentence to describe their written sequences. 

Since I teach this lesson twice (I have 2 different 7th grade classes) tomorrow I'm going to change things up a little by changing the question to, "What sequence of events could have led to Homer's current score?" I'm interested in seeing the differences in responses as well as see if there is more "thinking" going on if I take away one of the problems parameters.

Note: I used CMP 3's Playing Math Fever Lesson from Accentuate the Negative as a foundation for this lesson.