I Have a Problem!

Here are some problems for you to think about. Have a go working them out and write your answers in the comments box. Good luck!

How many squares on the chessboard below: 

(hint: the answer is not 64 - look again)

Created by Mark Warner -  - www.teachingideas.co.uk

0

9

Problem sourced from http://nrich.maths.org/

Learning to Trade - Place Value

As a warm up, Group 1 played a place value trading game we call 'The Shark Game'. 

In the game there are worms, small fish and a shark. The aim of the game is to win the shark. In order to do that the children must roll two die and whatever number they roll i.e. 8, equates to how many worms they take. Once they have ten worms they can trade these ten for one small fish. They keep taking turns with the die, collecting worms and trading them for small fish until they get ten small fish which they can then swap for one shark and then they win the game. 

This is a great game for reinforcing the fact that in place value we must change 10 ones into 1 ten and when we have 10 tens we change it for 1 hundred. They are quick to pick up this trading aspect with ten quickly, especially if they see that the other students have more small fish!

 

Adding Fractions with Common Denominators

We have started to look at adding fractions with common denominators. This was new to my students so we have spent time previously making sure that we can identify fractions both shapes and sets and discussing in depth how the numerator is the number of parts whereas the denominator is the number of parts in the whole.

So we have now moved on to looking at adding basic fractions. The photos below show what my year 5 group began looking at today. We were using fractions cards and the students had to imagine (or touch the cards to imagine) that they were moving parts of one whole over to the other card. Once we understood that when we have created a whole (fraction) we write it as 1 (whole) and what ever is left over is also written.

So if we add 3/5 + 4/5 we need to take one part or piece from 3/5 and move it to 4/5 which now becomes 5/5's or 1 whole. We mustn't forget that there is still 2/5 left so our answer will be 1 (whole) & 2/5

Take a look at the video below (from youtube.com) which demonstrates how to add and subtract simple fractions with common denominators

Numeracy Home - School Partnership

On Wednesday the 9th April we had our annual Numeracy Home - School Partnership here at Clendon Park. 

This is an evening designed to give parents and caregivers an opportunity to learn practical ways that they can help their children with maths at home. Five teachers including myself ran stations where we showed parents (and their children) how to play maths games and use different activities to help build their maths knowledge. 

It was a very popular night and the children even got to take home a pack with all the games/activities shown so they can keep practicing with their parents at home.

Working towards Stage 7

Both year 8 groups (group 3 & 4) and my year 5 group (group 1) have been working on multiplicative strategies using arrays. Arrays are rows of objects that are used for the children to be able to see groups rather than single objects. The arrays we have been using are animal strips. Each group has started off using the strips to partition (break up) additively then they use multiplication and additive strategies to solve the answer. Using arrays also helps to correct children's misunderstanding of what multiplication looks like i.e. 6 x 3 is 6 groups of 3 whereas 3 x 6 is 3 groups of 6. Though they have the same answer, the arrays look different so using the materials helps clarify this in their minds : )

In the videos below you will see the students explaining their strategy. What the students are doing:

To solve 27 x 6, 

27 is split into 20 and 7 and these parts are multiplied then recombined, as in: 

20 x 6 = 120 

7 x 6 = 42 (or 7 x 5 = 35 and 7 x 1 = 7) 

120 + 42 = 162)

Group 1 (Mya, Heseti, Ripeka, Michael, Sacred)

Group 3 (Paul, Bethel, Teri, Faleupolu, Vera)




Group 4 (Andre, Giovanni, Losana)