Gummy Bear Math

On Friday I was fortunate enough to engage in some very interesting math PD and was introduced to the idea of three act math videos! These interactive videos engage children in a rich, real life situation that is highly interesting.  I wanted to replicate this idea with my kindergarten students but had difficulty accessing a developmentally appropriate math problem.

 

I decided to create my own. I told the children that on the weekend Sobey's had a sale on gummy bears and I bought a big pack, but the problem was I didn't know how we were going to share all the gummies in the class. I asked them what we should do.

 

 

One child immediately suggested that in order to accurately count the gummies, we should use a tool like a hundreds grid. He knew the gummies were way too many to count quickly and figured that it would be a big number.  We covered our hundreds grid with plastic wrap (so it was a clean surface) and began to count them out.

 

Once we reached 100 gummies on the grid, the children suggested that we remove them into a pile (because we already knew there were 100). We then started the process again.

 

Altogether there were 179 gummies! The children knew this was a big number and predicted that they each would get a big handful! I told them I wasn't sure how we were going to fairly share 179 gummies and asked them what to do. A number of children immediately suggested that we use ten frames to make sure that each child gets a fair number of gummies. I asked them to clarify "fair" and they explained that fair meant "equal".

 

We sat in a circle and each child had a ten frame. I passed the gummies out one by one and the children carefully placed them on their ten frame.

Another problem quickly arose...the ten frames became full and we had more gummies to pass out. "We need another ten frame each!" one child shared.

 

Finally the gummies were passed out. Each child received 16 gummies with a remainder of 3. The children knew it would be difficult to split the remaining 3 gummies so we kept those aside.

 

Wow! I was incredibly impressed! Not only were the children able to quickly suggest a tool for helping us to calculate the large number of gummies altogether, they knew how to use math tools to help them fairly divide the gummies so that each child had the same amount. This complex, multi-step problem was a breeze for this math experts!

Cooking Squash

We were so lucky to have a special parent volunteer with us today! Mrs. Montcalm spent time with the children in our kitchen cooking two kinds of squash. The children were very excited to be making something to eat! They first explored the differences in the outsides of the squash...

...and then scooped out the seeds.

The squash guts were so much fun to squish!

We used child friendly choppers to help remove the peel of the butternut squash...

 ...and also to chop it into little pieces.

 

We also chopped some apple to add to give it a sweet flavour.

When the spaghetti squash was cooked the children each had a chance to help scoop it out.

We were so proud of the children! Many tried the different kinds and some even asked for a second helping!

We love having parents and other family members in our classroom! If you have a special talent that you are willing to share with us, please consider spending time volunteering in our room!

What's Inside?

Last week the children were very interested in seeing what they had each brought for snack. There were some great conversations happening at the snack centre about what the food looked like, smelled like, and tasted like.

 

Today I brought in some different kinds of squash. I wanted to extend the children's interests and thought this would be an engaging way to do so.

 

First we passed the different squash around the carpet. The children were encouraged to use many senses to explore; what did the squash feel like (exploring textures), how heavy was it (exploring measurement), how did it look (noting similarities and differences). This was also a good activity to reinforce turn taking.

During playtime the children were invited to explore the inside of the squash. This lead to many interesting math discussions - equality (2 halves of a squash are the same as 1 whole), estimation and counting (how many seeds are inside), measurement (which squash is biggest? which has the biggest seeds?) and shape (some squash are round and some are not). The children also practiced their fine motor skills as they used the tweezers to pick the seeds out. This took a lot of patience and perseverance because the seeds were slippery and stuck in the squash guts!

 

 

Families we are hoping to cook some squash for the children to taste. If you have any you are able to donate to our room, we would appreciate it! Also, if you are interested in volunteering to help with this activity, please let us know! Thank you!

Making Soup

It's always fun to make soup on a cold day! We read the book 'Soup Day' at circle...

...and put utensils, pots, bowls, plastic veggies, and real alphabet pasta to inspire some dramatic 'cooking' in the water table. 

Nearby we had a writing easel with our book and food vocabulary cards and children were invited to create a communal soup recipe by writing the ingredients they think would help create the perfect pot of soup!

Yummy fun!