Animal Math - Problem Solving and Measuring

We have working and learning about numbers all year. Every day we count and have  been learning  to show numbers in all sorts of ways.  We can use tally marks, pictures, tens frames, fingers, etc to show what we know.  We are also using our math brains to figure out different math problems.

We were super lucky to have Mrs. Math come and show us a fun way to show our thinking when we are solving math problems.  First, she set the stage by having us imagine we were at a park and that we could see different animals.  As we pretended to be different animals, Mrs. Math asked us how many legs each animal has. She drew a simple pictures on the Smartboard to represent the different animals and the number of legs. Together we figured out how many legs, 2 or 3 animals would have altogether. 

As we were counting legs, we noticed that our classroom looked very different.  The tables were turned on their sides and there was a big white square on each one.  She told us we were going to work together in pairs to figure out what animals together would have 12 legs.  But that wasn't the only problem, she gave two kids only one marker!  We had to really talk and listen to our partner so we could figure out an answer.  It was a little tricky at first, but we all did it!!

 

     

When we play, we also have to show what we know about numbers. As we are playing Vet, we write down numbers we see on the scale, on the thermometer and on the measuring tapes. We play with money and write receipts.  This time when we played Vet, it looked a little different.  Instead of measuring our stuffies on the rolling exam table, we turned cozy corner into a huge exam table and measured our friends.  One person got to dressed up like the Vet and everyone else dressed up in an animal costume.

We set up our bone measuring tape and started to figure out how many bones long we were.

 

When we started, we would count each bone one at a time to figure out the length. We made a little mark on our measuring tape, and then started again at one. 

It was suggested that maybe there is a faster way to get our job done.  We realized that if we used  a number already marked on the bones and counted backwards or forwards we wouldn't have to count from one every time.  

This was some great group problem solving!!

 

Morning Class

Afternoon Class