Arrange children into groups of two or three. Give each group a six-sided die and a bag of pennies. Students take turns rolling the die. They stack pennies to match the number on the roll of the die. When the stack falls, the students sort the pennies into two groups—heads and tails—based on the way they landed when they fell. They count the number of heads and the number of tails.
Have students work with partners. Distribute a bag of pennies to each pair. Instruct the students to display the pennies in the various heads-and-tails patterns that you assign. Tell them to begin with a simple arrangement, such as positioning 10 pennies in a pattern of alternating heads and tails. Increase the pattern difficulty—alternating two heads and one tail or five heads and three tails—to match the children’s ability levels.
Make a spinner large enough for all students in the class to see. Glue alternating pictures of penny heads and tails around the outside of the spinner. Place the spinner in front of the classroom. Divide the children into two groups. Students take turns spinning the spinner and recording the results on individual team tally sheets. The winning team is the one who spins the greatest number of tails.
Distribute a heads-and-tails recording sheet to each student. It should contain a picture of the front side and the back side of a penny. Students can work alone or in pairs. Give each student a penny to flip. Tell them to flip the penny 20 times. After each flip, they place a tally mark next to either the heads or tails picture on the recording sheet. After the experiment, students discuss their results with the class.
Cut a large rectangle from felt material and position it so that students can reach it. Cut replicas of pennies—both heads and tails—from cardboard and glue a strip of felt to the back of each one. Each student in the class flips a penny—use an overhead device so all students can see the coin tosses. Each student places a large cardboard penny on the felt board to match his coin toss.