Maths Week – 16th Oct 2020

Maths Week, October 12^th-16^th 2020

In the senior classroom, we started Maths Week by working on problems collaboratively on our whiteboards, such as how long it would take a snail to crawl out of a well. We followed clues to eliminate numbers and figure out how many Olympic medals Ireland has won. We played place value games against each other and looked at the strategies involved in winning, and also what condition would give us an automatic win. Later in the week, we examined area and perimeter and challenged ourselves to create as many shapes with a given area as possible, but with different perimeters. We looked at the Mayan system of numbers and reimagined modern sums using this old method. We also challenged our principal to figure out answers to our sums. We also worked collaboratively during the week, challenging ourselves to get all of our work in class correct so we could get homework off!

Meanwhile in the junior room, the children were presented with a differentiated problem solving challenge each day. The problem was discussed, the children worked out their answers, wrote the answer with their name on a piece of paper. Strategies and solutions were discussed the following day. The child/children to get the most problems solved received a prize.

On Monday the children completed a bridge building challenge with spaghetti. They worked in their pods to construct a bridge that would stay upright and hold the weight of their fingers crossing it.

On Tuesday we were looking for patterns around us in the classroom, patterns in the environment and animal patterns. The children had to design a matching patterned pair of socks. They worked really hard and created lovely designs.

On Wednesday we played one of the games from the Maths Week Resource Pack called Picking Apples. The children working in pairs were given a tree template and ten counters. They had to take it in turns to pick either one or two apples from the tree. The person who picked the last apple won. There was a lot of logic and reason in this game as they had to think ahead when picking their apples.

On Thursday the children had to use newspaper to protect an egg when dropped from a height. First the class discussed various ideas. Then they worked in their pods to create their construction. Finally we tested each pod’s construction by dropping the egg from a height. The children then examined their eggs and determined which pod’s egg was best protected.

On Friday the children completed an outdoor Math trail. It challenged them to find certain amounts of items around the school and to create shapes with leaves and twigs.

We had a very enjoyable week exploring Math in our environment and working out how to complete lots of challenges.

Maths Week Trial completed by junior pupils on October 16th