Counting and categorizing the trail mix. One student was overheard remarking, "I really like math when you can eat it!"
Posted by Hello
Monday, February 28, 2005
Probability
Today we had a delectable math lesson -- really! I had a big bag of trail mix left over from an Oscar party. The students looked at it and guessed which item would be the most likely to get pulled out of the bag: pretzels, pretzel sticks, cheese crackers, wheat chex, puffed wheat, or little croutons. Most of the students guessed the pretzels.
They worked in partners and each took a scoop from the bag. They made a tally chart as they pulled out each piece, and then most of them ate what they took! Each group then reported, and we added up the lists. To our surprise, we discovered that cheese puffs were really the most likely to get pulled out. Not that this was important. What mattered was that the students figured out how "more likely" and "less likely" was based on their experiences, and that they could systematically collect data to support or inform their predictions.
Wednesday we will create out own spinners to find out more about probability.
Homework: Write sentences for the first group of homonyms. These are cellar, seller, cent, scent, sent, serial, cereal, cheap, cheep, and close. The sentences should be in cursive. Students should also finish the storyboard from the story of their choice for the culminating project/video. Finally, students should continue work on the math packet. This one is due THURSDAY. It will be corrected in class.
They worked in partners and each took a scoop from the bag. They made a tally chart as they pulled out each piece, and then most of them ate what they took! Each group then reported, and we added up the lists. To our surprise, we discovered that cheese puffs were really the most likely to get pulled out. Not that this was important. What mattered was that the students figured out how "more likely" and "less likely" was based on their experiences, and that they could systematically collect data to support or inform their predictions.
Wednesday we will create out own spinners to find out more about probability.
Homework: Write sentences for the first group of homonyms. These are cellar, seller, cent, scent, sent, serial, cereal, cheap, cheep, and close. The sentences should be in cursive. Students should also finish the storyboard from the story of their choice for the culminating project/video. Finally, students should continue work on the math packet. This one is due THURSDAY. It will be corrected in class.
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