We live in a world of mathematics.
It’s all around us! Math can be
fascinating for students when they can relate it to everyday life skills, such
as work, play, sports, and stores. A
good chunk of class time needs to be spent learning math concepts, but hands-on
activities bring math to life. I found a great lesson plan for 4th-6th
graders. Using the cooperative learning
strategy to experiment, students discover the real purpose of math. The
experiments with each math subject help them to understand why they need to
learn that subject in math.
This is how the lesson goes. The class is divided into four groups. Each group selects one of the following math
subjects: place value, division, percents, and conversion of measurement. Each
group then creates its own math story to demonstrate an everyday use of math. Each
assigned group will demonstrate its math word problem by writing and drawing
pictures on paper. The teacher can approve each math story before allowing
students to continue. After each group has its math story approved, allow time
to create a slideshow presentation demonstrating the real-life math problem. There
is a PowerPoint template supplied for the groups to use. When groups have
completed creating their presentations, they each present their math stories to
the class. There is a rubric for grading the projects.
Let’s look at an example. Situation: You find a shirt at Old Navy, it costs
19.99. It’s on sale for 15% off the
regular price. The cashier scans the
sweater and tells you the price of the sweater is 18.93. Is that correct? Or did you get beat by the
Old Navy scanner?
How We Got Our Answer
$19.99 X 15% = Change percent to decimal.
$19.99 X .15 =
$2.99
$19.99 – $2.99 =
$17.00
I got beat by the scanner! I want a recount
This lesson plan also offers links
to remediation pages that include general teaching strategies/classroom
accommodations for students with identified learning and/or behavior problems.
Link to the Lesson Plan: http://alex.state.al.us/lesson_view.php?id=5812
