Three Part Lesson: Kilometre Sticks

Prior to this lesson, Sharon's class has been doing a lot of hands-on problem solving activities.  They also learned about the days of the week during their seasons unit in science.

Part 1: Getting Started

To get students ready for the problem, Sharon read the book 'Cookie's Week'.  This activated students prior knowledge about the days of the week and the weekend.

Part 2: Working on It

Sharon introduced the problem using the context of the school's kilometre club.  All her students participate in this club at recess.

Students discussed what they knew about the problem and what they wanted to find out through the think-pair-share strategy.

Working in pairs, students solved the problem.

Some misunderstood the problem while others had some misconceptions (weekdays, weekends):

How great is this child's communication?  Clear, concise, and convincing!

This pair finished early so Sharon extended their learning by asking them to solve the problem in more than one way.

Part 3: Consolidation

Pairs shared the above work during the math congress.  The incorrect answers were shared to get the rest of the class thinking about the weekends.  Sharon also wanted to point out the different ways each pair organized their thinking.

Many students shared that they solved the problem in their head.  So the explicit teaching of the lesson was focussed on getting students to show what's in their head visually.  They've used a number line before by it didn't show up in any student work.

Sharon differentiated the lesson for students by having them complete a problem with friendlier numbers.