Hands-on is best

Today was a great day in the classroom. In the morning session the student's were very engaged with their writing and editing. I love looking across the room, seeing the students silently edit their work using the 'Air Punctuation' strategy I have taught them. It is a WBT strategy that I will explain in detail in a future post IF I can learn how to add photos to my blog.

The second session was Math. In this session I divided the class into 5 groups and told them they were going to go on a Scavenger Hunt. I gave each group a set of objects that they needed to find. They needed to work as a group and once all of the items had been found they were to bring them to me. My focus for this activity was to have the students look at fractions in a different way. They were also given the opportunity to do a hands-on exploration of fractions.

At first the students were stumped, confounded, befuddled and argumentative. I walked around to each of the groups listening to their conversations, offering suggestions, prompts, nudges etc. I gave the class some time to work on their own and then called them all together to go over the task in more depth.

I reminded them about what we all knew about fractions and the different forms of measurements we had looked at this year. I wrote a chart on the board with their help that contained information they would need. For example, one thing they needed was half a kilogram of play dough. The success they had shown to this point was getting out the scales and play dough and attempting to weigh it. What they needed help on was identifying how much was half a kilogram. Then we talked about the ribbon. If one metre was 100 centimetres, how much would half a metre be? How much would one quarter of a metre be? 

After going over each of the items they needed to gather they went back to their groups to continue. When they were done they were to show me their collection.

This is a photo of one group's collection.

This group did well to stick the ribbon to their labels. Now all I need to do is measure each ribbon.

This group has done well.

I will need to have a discussion with this group and get them to explain their different groups. I wonder if the group unlabelled are the matching half to the group labelled half.

This group needs more work on mass.

This group has done well with their explanation. They worked out that they can'd cut a frog in half so the number in each group of quarters would be different.

I will need to get this group to explain why both amounts of play dough appear the same. Do they understand that one quarter is half the size of one half?

I will need to get this group to explain their measurements. The tricky part of this activity was measuring out one-eighth. The students were using kitchen measuring cups. There wasn't a one-eighth cup. Some students worked out that they needed to full the quarter cup half way. 

I have really enjoyed this activity. The classroom was just buzzing with activity. The important thing now is the follow-up discussion with each of the groups. I need to give the students enough time to repeat some the the measuring tasks. Some of the students will need more guidance to give them a chance of success.

I hope you enjoy reading this blog entry. I am thrilled to be able to finally add photos. I can't wait to continue the journey with the class tomorrow.