First Problem of the Month of the Year - PART TWO

On Thursday, I started the POM "Squirreling It Away" with my new second grade class. (Part One is here.) Friday was Day 7 of the school year, so why not open up a can of crazy? Level A reads that there are 17 acorns, and we are going to feed 8 squirrels an acorn each, then we are going to feed 5 more squirrels an acorn each, then we are going to answer the question, "How many squirrels can we still feed?" If you think this is an easy problem, it is because you are  a) not seven years old and/or b) not dealing with 32 seven-year-olds. The logistics of them getting out their math tool bags, passing out trays for them to work in, and getting them to choose which tools to use for this problem takes about 3 years off my life.

I think a lot about how to introduce a problem without discussing how to solve it. I think here I decided on a two-pronged approach, really. First, I knew we were going to read it together, and I knew it was akin to what they had acted out the day before (though, I will give you a dollar if even four of my students made that connection :-/), so I wanted to simply unpack the word "each". I predicted that if they could understand the mathematical implications to the word each, these Littles (with no formal instruction in multiplication) would have a good jump on how to attack the problem.

Second, I knew I did not want to tell them what "each" means. Instead, I used my favorite unpacking- a-new-idea device... I gave them a non-example. Even very young children have a lot of intuition about how math works. Tapping into that intuition is as easy as giving them a counter example and letting them talk about why it doesn't match the problem situation. This keeps the cognitive demand I'm placing on them much higher than were I to simply demonstrate what "giving one to each" squirrel means.

So I whipped up a quick little powerpoint that I could project to broach the subject. The first slide, I replaced "Austin" from the problem with "Cevanna", one of my students, and I put her picture in. I don't know why, maybe because it's my habit to sort of math-harass all my students, but I didn't mention there were 17 acorns. I just put them in and made them tell me. After giving them a moment to count, it turned out that we weren't in agreement and two or three different volunteers got to point with the pointer while we all counted them out. Yes, there are 17 acorns in the bag.

(Sorry about Cevanna's creepy face blurring, I just can't remember if I have permission to share her image and the paperwork is in my classroom, so this is what we get. Also, the "17" on this slide is animated, so after we counted and recounted and convinced ourselves, the 17 comes in.)

This slide is also animated. The 8 squirrels are there, as is Cevanna, but we read the prompt on top and then an acorn flies in and attaches to the squirrel. When I ask if this is how she fed the squirrels they are all "yes" and they are all "no" in equal parts. The bottom prompt comes in and without further ado they turn and talk.

(Here is a copy of the powerpoint that can be downloaded and edited to add a student's picture, if you want to try it this way with your own class.)

When I call them back, and I ask if this is what Cevanna did, they unanimously tell me NO. I call on a few people to describe why it's wrong and after several tense minutes we have a really viable argument about how this is not a model for each. I'm the only tense one, by the way, they are having the time of their lives.

After this, most of the class is good to go! I poster up the problem and we get our bags and trays and it's on.