Can You See a Pattern?

Today both year 8 groups were asked to discuss and solve a number of Algebraic patterning tasks. These started off with basic colour patterns and gradually built up to number patterns and representations where they needed to work out the rule/formula/relationship of that sequence.

Patterning is, "critical to the development of mathematical concepts and algebraic thinking and reasoning. General mathematical processes of representation, symbolization, abstraction, generalization and proof rely on initial pattern recognition and application in a variety of shapes, counting, spatial arrays or geometric patterns" (Bobis, Mulligan & al, 2013, pg 54).

As they worked in a group, it allowed every member of the group to contribute. In Group 3, one person made a suggestion of the relationship between the first three numbers in:

1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 13, 21, __

which helped others in the group to explore that idea further which eventually ended with the discovery of the pattern and the answer.

Below is a picture of some of the tasks I used today.

It's All About the Money

Last week my Year 8 groups and my Year 5 group were using play money. Money is good to use because it relates to real life. Everyone of my students has had experience at some point of handling money and buying or selling goods in exchange for money. 

My year 5's role played 'Shop Keepers'. They took turns being a shop keeper and had to sell an item to a customer. The problem for them in this challenge was working out how much change to give back i.e. if a drink cost $3.80 and they were given a $10 note, how much change do they give back? This involves using knowledge of place value, counting, addition, subtraction, parts of a whole (fractions) and decimals

My year 8's were first asked to count the pile of money put in front of them then they were asked to use money to solve addition and subtraction story problems involving money. 

Here are a couple of photos of one of my year 8 groups engaged in using their money to solve a problem.

My year 5 students (below) playing 'Shopkeepers'

Group 3 Learning to problem solve

Today group 3 was given the same mathematical problem as Group 4 were given previously. However, their problem was put into a different context. As you can see from the video the group were new to problem solving so they found it hard to talk to each other at first to try to solve the problem. As the video goes on you'll see they start to communicate and work together. This is only a small snippet of the work they did. They are sure to get better and better as they become more experienced with using mathematical talk and relying on each other within the group. Please check back regulaly to see how much they progress :)

Miss Breen

The problem: On a picnic at Totara Park there are three classes with eighteen students in each class. There are only allowed to be a maximum of 60 students swimming in the pool at one time. Will all three classes be able to swim together?
(we discussed what maximum means so that the problem was accessible to all the students)

Term 1 Groups Begin

I am so excited to have begun working with my wonderful students.

I have four groups - 2 x year 8s, 1 x year 2/3 and 1 x year 5's. Here are some of these awesome kids below.

Group 1

Mya, Michael, Ripeka, Sacred, Heseti

Group 2

Serenity, Shaza, Dorothy, Sisilina

Group 4

Giovanni, Losana, Andre

Group 3

Teri, Vera, Faleupolu, Paul, Bethel