“The only way to learn math is to do math.” Paul Halmos
On a rainy Friday afternoon when you have been stuck inside for days, it is hard to hook your students into a lesson of any sort. What is a teacher to do! We haven’t had recess, no woods day, no fresh air inside the walls of our classroom.
This teacher decided it was a great time to teach her first graders about estimating! We looked out the window at a freshly created puddle and I asked them how many sticks they thought it would take to go the length of the puddle. The students all guessed an amount: “5!” “30!” “14!” We grabbed our jackets and out we went!
It took the kids less than one minute to collect 5 sticks each, and less than a minute (using great teamwork) to spread their sticks the length of the puddle. They took turns counting and WALAH! The puddle was 17 sticks long!
We loved this activity because it was outside, it was quick, and it taught us that doing math is a lot of fun!
Kati Mazza, Meroby Elementary School, Grade 1
