Introducing Fractions

Today I introduced our new central idea for our Proportion and Ratio Unit. 

First, I asked kids to read and discuss what they thought were the KEY words from within the CI. Then, on post it notes, I got my students to write down what they knew about fractions. 

Some kids could recall prior knowledge from previous Grade 1. 

Other students were open enough to admit that they don't know... yet. So pleasing to see growth mindset developing in the way they think about maths.

I then showed them this video I made using Lego Movie as a provocation. I wanted to see if this would give me more insight into the students prior knowledge. 

I asked them to answer these questions:

1. What are the problems the gorilla and the monkey face?

2. How would they solve the problems?

There responses to this showed me that some students already have a good understanding about the concept of equal sharing and knowledge of using vocabulary such as half or thirds to represent whole -part amounts.

Most could write the symbols, but some had difficulty using fractions to represent the correct amount. e.g. 3/1 is half a cake.

Interestingly, some students who said that they didn't know anything about fractions, were able to solve this problem.

This always reminds me of the importance of formative assessment and getting students to share their initial understandings .


              

                      

Tech Provocation for Multiplication

This is my first attempt at using tech, in this case Lego Movie Maker, to create a provocation for a maths lesson. In terms of engagement it was a big success, students found it really fun when reflecting at the end of the lesson.

Here is the video: (in hindsight I probably should have just kept them multiplying in rows of 3 rather than changing to rows of 4, but hey... next time!)

To start the lesson I showed them the movie and asked them to come a questions that they could ask after watching this video. 

Here is an example of some student responses. As always, they tend to come up with better questions than I do.

My favourite was.."How many lego holes did they take up on the board?" - I hadn't thought of that!

Next, I ask them to show me the equations using different operations that this movie shows. 

Examples of responses:

3x4

6x2

4x4+2

To lead into the next lesson I got the idea of asking them to look at the last clip and show me how they could find out how many man there were only using multiplication and subtraction?

In all in an engaging lesson. I am going to try to use tech as a means of providing provocations in the future. 

In my next lesson I am going to ask students to create their own movies to show multiplication facts that they are having trouble with. 

Reflection on the activity:

1. engaging

2. great way to explore maths questions

3. great way to differentiate the lesson

4. students learn what it really means to multiply sets.

5. provided me with a different angle to start my next lesson on.

Feel free to post any ideas you may have!

How do you solve problems?

In yesterday's class students created their own maths stories. Today they had to use Showme to record how they solved problems. Some kids responded with, "Here is the answer" and others said, "I just solved it". I challenged them to show me their thinking.

A big take away we got when reflecting on today's lesson was that, it is important to understand the question before we solve it! 

Just the start of showing our thinking! 

I love how this child even added a question from our previous unit at the end about rounding! 

I solved it Mr Boyd! Success! It was a reinactment, but a true one!