Math problems

In a comment for the previous post, Anne asked some valid questions.

“I got lost between the math lesson and the recital of the apple cake recipe.  What happened to the child’s lessons? How does your math grade hang in the balance?  How does the child’s?  What topic are you working on with the child?  Does the child despise, enjoy or feel apathetic towards mathematics? Was the recipe a part of the math lesson?  Cooking is great for ratios, fractions, measurement (obviously) and estimation lessons.”

And they are all quite reasonable.  I’ll try to elaborate.

The apple cake was baked by my friend (the child’s mother) because she wanted to do something nice and have a snack because I was coming to their house.
She mixed and baked it while the kids were in school, so there was no lesson involved.  Well, maybe when a friend comes visiting, have a something to eat and serve iced tea.
I read aloud the recipe just to be a smart aleck and to entertain the children while their mom was slicing cake and putting it onto plates, and pouring tea or water or milk into glasses, and setting the table.

My math grade depends on how well I set up the situation, the child’s response to the lesson, and my write-up/follow-up given to my Instructor for a grade.
I had beads and bowls to use as counters and holders, extra scratch paper, questions to ask, problems to solve.  The child is simply doing this as a favor for me, and because he likes to have the extra attention, and he likes Math.  His school grade does not depend on this in any way.

My assignment is to explain to the child and watch how he goes about getting the answers.  These problems are aimed for late Second Grade, early Third Grade.  The student I was with is early Second Grade, but he’s the closest boy I know within the age group.
He did solve all the problems in a typical and timely fashion.

“Have your student solve these nonroutine problems.  Report how the problems were solved and discuss the solutions in relation to Direct Modeling.”

Problem 1)  19 children are going to the zoo in a minibus.  The minibus has 7 seats.  How many children will have to sit 3 to a seat, and how many will sit 2 to a seat?

Problem 2)  Maggie has 3 boxes of cupcakes with 4 cupcakes in each box.  She eats 5 cupcakes.  How many does she have left?

Problem 3)  In a field with cows and chickens, I counted 30 feet and 11 heads.  How many cows were in the field?  How many chickens were in the field?

See how well you do.  If you need to, get some beads and bowls and lay them out.  Or you can use tally marks, count on your fingers, and plenty of scratch paper.
Consider that you do not know multiplication, very little subtraction, nor how to “borrow” from the other column of numbers.
~~love and Huggs, Diane

Oh, and Anne, you are a very good teacher.
Asking for clarification, expecting thorough answers.
Same stuff my Composition Instructor is trying to hammer home inside my head.  There’s a 10 page research paper looming in the weeks ahead.  This weblog is bringing in some good practice, eh?