This week, we started our first “Math Adventure.” After reading the book How to Bake An American Pie by Karma Wilson, we decided to pick some apples from the tree in our garden and make apple pies for our 1-3rd grade math groups. Together, we “question-stormed” to figure out what we needed to know in order to accomplish this goal. We came up with the following list of questions:
How many people will be eating?
How many pies will we need?
How many pieces are in a pie?
What ingredients will we need?
How much of each ingredient will we need?
How many apples will we need to pick from our tree?
How can we measure an apple?
We spent time Monday adding up all the students in both math groups and looking at the different equations and ways we used to get the answer (11 students in one class plus 7 in the other = 18. Plus two teachers and one aide is 18+3 =21, or 11+7+2+1 =21. We shared ideas and looked at different strategies for solving equations, including ways to do mental math by thinking about/making tens.
Tuesday we got out the circle fraction models and used drawings and models to figure out how many pies we would need to have 21 1/8 sized pieces. Almost all of the students managed to figure out we needed three pies using the fraction models.
On Wednesday, we found 1 ½ apples equaled 1 cup, and then tackled the questions of how many apples would be in 5 cups, (the amount needed for each pie), and how many apples we would need altogether. Using various tools and methods, each student worked through this problem of 5 x 1 ½ and then 3 x 7 1/2. Many easily figured the whole number but got hung up on the fractions. After again sharing ideas and strategies, most of the students built some solid understandings of basic fractions this week!
We also got lots of practice estimating and figuring, and Thursday we looked at basic units of measure and equivalencies. The more advanced math group got practice tripling the recipe.
On Friday, of course, we measured ingredients, baked, and ENJOYED our pie. It’s been a beautiful week of mathematical thinking, and it’s great to see that hard work pays off! Yum!
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