Summer brings calving season, which makes a lot more work for the boys and I. It is my favorite time. I remember when I was growing up my mom and I getting ready to go do chores and we would walk over to the barn to fee all of the calves, so it is a bit of a tradition when I'm doing this with my boys.
We feed our calves fresh milk, we do not use milk replacer. When it comes time to for feeding we need to wait until Scott has milked a cow with the bucket milker. After receiving the milk in a pail we then have to divide it among smaller pails, or bottles. HHMMMM.....fractions!!! So, I casually ask Evan how we will know each calf is getting the same amount. He said,"well just fill it up to the same spot, mom." So I questioned a bit more, "So, say 1/3 of the bucket?" Then there was the look, "huh"? So I began to talk with him about how if there are 3 1/3rds that makes a whole. We got a little deeper into fractions by trying to figure out how we could divide the whole bucket into four smaller buckets, and he got it. He said, "Well wouldn't that be 1/4?" YES!!!! Then I had to do my pitch about how math is everywhere in your daily life.
It hurts when people say, "Oh, your husband is a farmer....." What people do not realize is how incredibly smart farmers are! There is so much math on a farm. From the size of tools to being able to figure out if tonight's milking is going to fit in the bulk tank. Education is around my boys all of the time and I wouldn't trade it for the world!
To have your children practice fractions click here. This is a great site for all ages.
The move from filling each pail to the same mark to asking about thirds and quarters is the strongest part of this example. It turns equal sharing into a question about the whole, rather than just naming a fraction. If filmed as a worked example, transparent overlays for a worked-example video could put the explanation next to a diagram of the divided bucket, leaving the amounts easy to compare.
ReplyDeleteThe important turn is Evan moving from “same spot” to naming a quarter himself. That shows why the real bucket is doing more teaching than a diagram added afterwards. If this became a little interactive lesson, I would keep the bucket division as the main event and use short character sprite animations only for a simple cue when a share is complete. The physical task should still make the equal shares visible.
ReplyDelete