There are 10 Easter baskets lined up in a row. The Easter bunny puts 1 egg in the first one, 2 in the second, 3 in the third, 4 in the fourth. The bunny continues to fill all of the baskets like this. How many eggs were used to fill … More The Easter Bunny Needs Your Help! »
I was not planning on writing a post on Easter Sunday, but some real-life math occurred while preparing for dinner. I am sharing here what I posted on my Math Motivator Facebook page. My ham is 5.49 kilograms. The instructions say to cook it 12-15 minutes per pound or … More Easter Math »
When engaging students in problem solving and I hope you are doing so often, it is important to think about the types of tasks you give them. Which of the following two will give you the most information about your students? Example 1: (closed) Nathan finds 6 pink eggs, 1 … More Easter Egg Tasks »
Recently I was in a Grade 6 classroom and the teacher gave this problem to her students to solve. Mrs. M is planning on cooking a turkey. She read online that it takes 20 minutes to cook 500 grams of turkey. The turkey weighs 9.75 kilograms. About how long will … More Proportional Reasoning – Time For Turkey »
Some of you who were involved in the EQAO Primary Assessment last year may remember this question. There are 24 students in Mrs. Lowe’s class. She divides the class into 4 equal groups. Make a drawing to show the 24 students divided into 4 equal groups. One of these groups … More The Library Problem – Fractions »
Recently in a Gr 3, 4, 5 classroom we gave the students this question: Students are learning about insects. They discover that an ant has 1 body, 2 antennae and 6 legs. They each make a model. How many bodies, antennae and legs will they need for 5, 10 and … More Ants! Ants! Ants! »
Recently I had the opportunity to work in a Grade 6 classroom as they began a unit on division and multiplication. The teacher gave the students the following problem from the Ministry support guide (division) to begin. The purpose for that day was to see what the … More Proportional Reasoning – Division »
When it comes to math, I have mixed feelings about success criteria at times. Yes, I believe that it is important for students to know what they need to do in order to be successful, but if we want students to solve problems in a way that makes sense to … More Success Criteria – Timing is Everything! »
I love problems that provide authentic opportunities to cluster several big ideas. Recently, I was in a classroom where the teacher gave the following problem to his students. Tia is filling a bucket with water. She knows that 500 ml of water comes out of the hose every 10 seconds. … More Proportional Reasoning – Measurement »
With our focus on proportional reasoning many educators are discovering that it is everywhere in our math curriculum. Once we become aware of this we know what to look for and listen for so that we can impact students’ fluency and flexibility with numbers. Recently, I gave the following problem … More Proportional Reasoning and Area »
