Objective

By the end of this lesson, you will be able to apply arithmetic skills in a fun Minecraft-themed activity.

Materials and Prep

• Minecraft game (if available)
• Pencil and paper

Prior knowledge of basic arithmetic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division) is required.

Activities

1. Create a Minecraft-inspired word problem: Write a word problem that involves arithmetic operations. For example, "Steve found 6 diamond blocks and shared them equally with his 2 friends. How many diamond blocks did each person receive?"
2. Solve the word problem: Use your arithmetic skills to solve the word problem you created. Show your work using numbers and appropriate operations.
3. Build a Minecraft structure: Using the solution from the previous activity, build a structure in Minecraft that represents the answer. For example, if the answer is 3, build three diamond blocks stacked together.
4. Challenge a friend: Share your word problem and structure with a friend or family member. Have them solve the problem and build their own structure. Compare your answers and structures to see if they match.

Third Grade Talking Points

• "Arithmetic is the branch of mathematics that deals with numbers and their operations."
• "In this lesson, we will be using arithmetic to solve word problems and build structures in Minecraft."
• "Word problems are math problems that are presented as a story or situation. We need to read the problem carefully and figure out what arithmetic operations to use."
• "Addition is when we combine two or more numbers together. For example, if we have 3 apples and 4 more apples, we can add them to get a total of 7 apples."
• "Subtraction is when we take away one number from another. For example, if we have 10 cookies and we eat 3 of them, we can subtract 3 from 10 to find out how many cookies are left."
• "Multiplication is when we repeat addition. For example, if we have 2 groups of 4 apples, we can multiply 2 by 4 to find out how many apples we have in total."
• "Division is when we share or divide a number into equal parts. For example, if we have 8 cookies and we want to share them equally among 2 friends, we can divide 8 by 2 to find out how many cookies each person gets."