A.3.A.K.ai4

“I want to know if we have enough snacks for everyone who is here today. We have 18 cookies. Will that be enough for everyone to get one cookie? When you have figured out if we have enough or not, be sure you can show me how you know.”

Give students pictures of dogs in which to draw the number of spots you specify. For example, “Draw five spots on the first dog. Draw eight spots on the second dog.”

TEACHER NOTES:

“Students should learn to make models to represent and solve problems.

There are six chairs and stools. The chairs have four legs and the stools have three legs. Altogether there are twenty legs. How many chairs and stools [each] are there?

One student may represent the situation by drawing six circles and then putting tallies inside [the circles] to represent the number of legs. Another student may represent the situation by using symbols, making a first guess that the number of stools and chairs is the same and adding 3 + 3 + 3 + 4 + 4 + 4. Realizing that the sum is too large, the student might adjust the number of chairs and stools so that the sum of their legs is 20.[1]

[1] National Council of Teachers of Mathematics. (2000). Principles and standards for school mathematics (p. 95). Reston, VA: Author.