Number Devil Activities: The Second Night
Chapter Two, The Second Night, introduces Roman Numerals, Zero, Positive and Negative Numbers and the Base Ten System. Here are a few ideas to expand these concepts. Some activities can be done alone and others are better with friends.
1) Posing Roman Numerals:
Supplies: Number Cards
Set Up: Print and cut out number cards. Fold cards in half and place in a bowl or hat from which to draw.
Activity: Divide children into two teams. A child chooses one card. Using the children on his own team the child positions the children lying on the floor to make the number on the card, but in Roman numerals. For example, if the number is 5, the child might have two children lie on the floor with their feet touching and heads angled away to make a "V". The other team tries to figure out what number it is. Then the other team takes a turn and so forth.
2) Roman Numeral War
Supplies: Roman numeral cards (print on cardstock)
Set Up: Cut apart Roman numeral cards.
Game: Mix up the cards. Pass out all the cards equally among all the players face down. Players keep their cards face down. All players flip their top card at the same time in the center of the table. The player with the highest number takes all the cards and adds them to the bottom of his pile. Play continues with all players laying down cards until all players, but one is out of cards. The player that ends with all the cards is the winner.
3) Negative to Positive Hopscotch
Supplies: Small Wooden Block (about 1" cube), Hopscotch Numbers- Positive Numbers (print pages 10-17 on blue paper), Negative Numbers (print pages 1-8 on red paper), and Zero (print page 9 on yellow paper), Pebble
Set Up: On each side of the dice write one of the following numbers: 1,2,3,-1,-2,-3. Lay the numbers out from zero in hopscotch fashion. The negative numbers will mirror the positive numbers.
Game: One player stands on zero and tosses the pebble onto any number. The other player rolls the die. This tells how many spaces to hop. If the number is positive, hop that many numbers forward from zero (just like if on a number line). For a negative number, hop the given number of hops backward. (The hopping can be done forward, but moving backward on the hopscotch number line.) Repeat the process. The player on the hopscotch number line continues until they accidentally land on the forbidden square or until they beat the game by hopping for 10 rolls without error.
4) Zero Challenge
How important is zero? Try going all day without saying zero or any word that means or represents zero.
Read A Place for Zero
5) Base Two vs. Base Ten Systems
Supplies: Base Two and Base Ten Comparison and Binary Worksheet, Answer Key
Set Up: Print worksheet.
Activity: Discuss how base two (binary) and base ten (decimal) systems work using the comparison chart. Complete the practice writing in binary worksheet.
Learning about a base two system will help you understand how a base system works.
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Base 2 System |
Base 10 System |
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In a base two system each column is worth 2 times the previous column. We have a ones column, twos column, a fours column and so forth. The columns would be worth: 128,64,32,16,8,4,2,1 |
Just like in our base 10 system where we have a ones column, a tens column, a hundreds column and each column is worth: 1,000, 100, 10, 1 |
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Which is the same as: 2⁷ 2⁶ 2⁵ 2⁴ 2³ 2² 2¹ 2⁰ |
Just like our base 10 system can be represented as: 10³ 10² 10¹ 10⁰ |
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And the same as: 2x2x2x2x2x2x2, 2x2x2x2x2x2, 2x2x2x2x2, 2x2x2x2, 2x2x2, 2x2, 2x1, 1 |
Just like 1,000 is 10x10x10 and 100 is 10x10 |
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There are only two digits in a base two system. They are 1 and 0. |
There are ten digits in a base ten system. They are 9,8,7,6,5,4,3,2,1,0 |
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The number ten is represented as: 1010 Because the first 1 is in the eights column and is therefore worth 8. There is nothing in the fours column. The twos column has a 1. The ones column has nothing. Think of it as 8 + 0 + 0 + 2=10 |
The number ten is represented as: 10 Because the 1 is in the tens column and nothing is in the ones column. Think of it is 10 + 0=10 |
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The number seventeen is represented as: 10001 Because 16 + 0 + 0 + 0 + 1=17 |
The number seventeen is represented as: 17 Because 10 + 7=17 |
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A base two system is called binary. It is the language of computers because computers can only recognize two things. Whether there is an electrical impulse (represented as 1) or no electrical impulse (represented as 0). |
A base 10 system is called decimal. We have 10 fingers so for humans a decimal system is easily visible. |
6) Number Systems Discovery
Supplies: How to Count Like a Martian
Lesson: Learn about numbers in civilizations from the Egyptians to the Mayans and many other places. How to Count Like a Martian
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