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Snack Math...
Snack Math...
The idea for this task originated from a student who grouped his packaged fruit snacks by color and then proceeded to give an equation to represent the quantities and sum. A great comparison with 3 other students who also had fruit snacks ensued: comparing sums, quantities of each color and more. We posted on the board in a chart format the data for easy comparison, including using pictoral representations as well as numbers (including '0' for those colors that were not represented in each package). The students were excited and totally engaged in the learning.
The next day, more students brought out their fruit snacks and begged to "do the math" in it! Thus began our journey into almost daily "Fruit Snack Math" moments building visual spatial skills (graphing, tables/charts) as well as numeracy strategies.
Think of all the ways you could capitalize on the contents of your student's lunch kits to integrate mini math moments of learning!
Sample transcript of what this looked like in a Grade 1 classroom:
Student opened package and sorted fruit snacks by color.
Each color was represented numerically in an equation under the flavor heading. 2+3+1+4+1=?
ASK: What strategy did you use to figure out how many fruit snacks altogether?
Focus is on the strategy explanation, versus telling the sum.
Generate multiple responses and strategies shared: as students share, record their thinking (see pictures below).
Picture 1:
Picture 1:
"Breaking Numbers Apart"
"Breaking Numbers Apart"
Quite a few students counted on: started with 2, then added on 3, etc until got a total.
The next student stated counted on, but with groups of 3: 2+3+3+3. He went on to explain: “I broke apart the 4 into 2+2 and added the 2 to 1 to make 3 and added the other 2 to 1 to make the other 3”. I made a pretty big deal about being able to “break apart” numbers into other numbers (ie. “Whatttt??? You mean you chopped that number up into 2 different numbers? You can do that?” The kids thought it was pretty funny and started karate chopping their hands to pretend to break apart numbers) .
Picture 2:
Picture 2:
"Breaking Numbers Apart"
"Breaking Numbers Apart"
The next student “broke apart” the numbers in a different way- as this seemed to be a fun idea! Stating that he made groups of 3 by combining as shown below, so you were left with 3+3+3+2.
Picture 3:
Picture 3:
"Making Groups of 2"
"Making Groups of 2"
The next student, broke the “3” down into 2+1 and the 4 down into “2+2” but couldn’t figure out how that helped him count. The students were stumped and couldn’t help him.
I rewrote the equation as 2+2+1+1+2+2+1, with no new connections made by the students.
I told them that I noticed something about the 1+1, that it also made a “2” and asked if that helped them think any differently about the equation.
Immediately excitement broke out and a student shouted, “You can count them by 2s! 2, 4, 6, 8, 10 and one more is 11!!”
My “shocked response” - “You mean you could make groups of 2 and count them easily? You can do that? Counting by 2s, making new groups that are easy to count, makes it easier to count how many?”
Picture 4:
Picture 4:
"Using Doubles"
"Using Doubles"
Well, now they were thinking in groups -another student told us she made 2 groups of 4 because she “knew that 4+4 was 8 and then I just added on the rest”
Picture 5:
Picture 5:
"Using Known Facts"
"Using Known Facts"
Another student then said he saw it differently, and he said he added 1+4 to make 5, and he knew that 5+2=7 and 7+1 more was 8, and 8+3 more was 11.”
Picture 6:
Picture 6:
"More Doubles"
"More Doubles"
I took the board back to where only the 1+4 was grouped into 5, and asked if that gave them any other ideas of what they could to do find out how many. Another student excitedly raised his hand and was really desperate to share (you could tell he was brimming over with excitement) - he said, “I made another 5 by adding 2+3 together, so 5+5 is 10 and one more is 11!”
The learning! We summed up the learning by stating the strategies used to help us find the sum:
You can count on to find the sum (total)
You can “break apart” numbers to help you make new numbers that are easier to count/add together: ie 2s, 5s, 10s
You can use what we know about doubles (4+4 ,5+5) to help us count/find how many
Making groups of 10 is really easy to add onto
Fun Tip - use a window or a space in your room to record 'new' strategies discovered and name them by who 'discovered' the strategy. Example: "Stellan's Strategy: Doubles" and write an example of what that strategy looked like in an equation. Forever after, reference that student whenever the strategy is used..."You used Stellan's strategy of making doubles to help you..."
Extension...different sized packages!
Extension...different sized packages!
As students were SO excited by their Fruit Snack Math, we explored larger quantities by first estimating, counting, then using strategies to find the sum for different sized packages of fruit snacks. The video is a raw, real, unscripted recording of how this looked with one class in May.
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