You are the Zoo Keeper Assistant and the Zoo Keeper needs your help!
He saw 12 legs scurry into their cages, but he doesn't know which creatures they are. Which creatures could they be?
Guiding Questions:
Which manipulative will you use to help you find the creatures?
How does what you know about animals help you answer this question?
How can you use the colour choices to help you keep track of your creatures?
Are there any manipulatives that wouldn't help you on this menu? Why?
Problem taken from nrich: http://nrich.maths.org/136
This is so fun! The link to various manipulatives is so awesome. Where did you find this link?
ReplyDeleteIn the counters the fact that there are actually animal manipulatives that grade 1's could use is very cool and I think they would really enjoy using that to help them come to their solutions.
ReplyDeleteThis online problem and the use of manipulatives in the problem solving was really effective!! I was able to visually represent the number of feet using 1-1 correspondence using the counters. Being able to move them around helped me to represent the visuals I had in my head and play around with the numbers, moving from 1-1 correspondence to 2 counters representing 2 pairs of feet. It has the best of both worlds, the physicality of the manipulatives and the convenience and ingenuity of technology
ReplyDeletelove aidan
I chose to use the counters rather than the 10 blocks. I could use the stamps to show the animals and how many legs each had, although the problem becomes do my students know how many legs each animal has? I think I would add this information to the problem for my students.
ReplyDeleteI used counters and cubes to solve this problem and I think that it would be a fun activity for grade one students. The manipulatives also allowed you to use two legged and four legged animals which was a great visual for students that may need to use one.
ReplyDeleteThe manipulatives provided on the website are beneficial when answering the problem. As a young child this is an engaging activity which incolves problem solving and also a chance to have "fun".
ReplyDeleteWhen solving this problem I used cube-a-links which worked well since I was able to see allt he ways I can create a creature. You can have 6 two legged animals, 3 four legged animals, or 4 three legged animals. However, some children may want to mix and match which would be interesting. Anyone try that?
These manipulative would prove really useful when using a smart board. Students could also bring in pictures of animals to help them picture all the different types of animals that could be in the cage.
ReplyDeleteYou can use different counter colour choices to represent the legs of an animal. This is a great problem to have students decide which manipulative is best to solve this type pf program.
ReplyDeletewhen clicking on a link hold down the control key "Ctrl" to open the linnk in a new window. Clicking on the link without holding down the key can result in the link replacing the open problem window, in this case the blog containing the question. For students being able to go between the two will probably be necessary to help students get through the problem.
ReplyDeleteI think the online manipulatives available for this problem are all helpful to stdents in solving this problem. In particular, the counters with actual animal faces was great because it provided a more "concrete" pictoral representation of animals with both four and two legs.
ReplyDeleteI found this activity to be very fun. The ability to choose from a variety of manipulatives allows the "student" to choose what makes them feel comfortable problem solving.
ReplyDeleteLike the fact you can comment anonymously. This will allow some shy students to give their input as well without fear of being singled out.
ReplyDelete