Materials:
Set (game), Hanoi Tower
Lying
or telling the truth?
If I say that there are only girls in
this room, am I lying or telling the truth? How do you know? If I say that you
are a million years old, am I lying or telling the truth? How do you know?
Kids
reply: Lying!
If I say that you are a boy (talk to everybody at once), would I be
lying or telling the truth? Wait… how is this possible? How come Kristina is
saying that I am lying, and Dima is saying that I am telling the truth?
Something can’t be true and false at the same time, can it?
All
of the boys say: “It isn’t both true and false; it’s true!” while all of the
girls say, “It isn’t both true and false; it’s false!” Huh? Confusion. “Oh… I
get it… it’s true for some people but not others”- very good answer.
“I like cats”- am I lying or telling the
truth? How do you know? Is this a fact? Or is it an opinion?
The
kids all had their own viewpoints;
“It
is true, because since you are saying that you like cats, it means that you do
like cats.”
“It
is true, because a lot of people like cats.”
“It
is false, because I don’t like cats that much; I like dogs more.”
“We
don’t know if it’s true or false, because we don’t know what you like and don’t
like.”
Which
of these are facts, and which are opinions?
We are in a house.
We are humans.
I like blue.
Cats are fluffy.
This is a big house.
There are mermaids in the ocean.
Dragons are real.
The
kids needed an explanation between a fact and an opinion; they knew that were
things called facts and opinions, but they didn’t seem to know the clear
difference between them. They went through this activity quickly though, which
was what I expected. On the question, “This is a big house”, the kids couldn’t
decide whether it was a fact or an opinion. So, we concluded that opinions
weren’t really true or false, because they vary from person to person. The kids
enjoyed the fact that I thought that dragons were real, and that there were
mermaids in the ocean. J
Analogies:
Bird is to nest as spider is to
___________
Teacher is to school as doctor is to _________
Book is to read as movie is to _________
Paw is to claws as foot is to __________
Cat is to “meaw” as dog is to _________
Black is to white as top is to _________
I
explained to the kids what an analogy was, and for the first problem I had to hint
them a little, because even after the explanation, they still didn’t quite
understand what an analogy was. The hint I gave sounded like this: “A bird does
what in a nest?” Kids: “Lives!” “A bird lives in a nest; a spider lives in a…”After
they understood well what an analogy was, the rest of the problems were
relatively easy for them, and the kids seemed to enjoy doing the analogies.
Backwards
Simon Says- Play
Simon Says except the kids have to do the opposite of whatever Simon says.
The
kids were slowly getting tired, so I decided to play a game for a few minutes.
Anyways, the kids seemed to love playing this game, and it involved some
thought, because every round, I made the game a little harder- I didn’t just
want the kids to be sitting around. This game makes the kids think of opposites
of things, and that was something that I noticed seemed hard to them during
previous lessons.
Generalizations:
True or false?
“I came to my teacher and she got mad at
me. My sister came to her teacher and the teacher got mad at her. My friend
came to her teacher and the teacher got mad at her.” Conclusion: Teachers always get mad when people come up to them.
Kids:
“You don’t get mad at us when we come up to you, so the statement is false.”
“Well, let’s not focus on what is actually happening, but what is in the
problem.” Kids: “If only a few people came up to the teacher, then how do we
know if everybody does? Only if every person in the whole world comes up to the
teacher and the teacher yells at them it would be true. And since that didn’t
happen, the statement is false.”- very good.
“I
used to own a fish, and it fell out of its tank.” Conclusion: All fish fall out of
their fish tanks.
“A
fish fell out of its tank? Ha-ha-ha! That is so funny!” “Ok, I’m glad that you
are having fun, but we still have to solve the problem.” Kids: “Ok. Not all
fish fall out of their tanks! If one fish fell out of its tank (how did it fall
out, by the way?), that doesn’t mean that all fish fall out of their tanks!”
“I heard that somebody got eaten by a
lion.” Conclusion: It is possible to be eaten by a lion.
Kids:
“Well, if somebody got eaten by a lion, then the conclusion is true; it is
possible to get eaten by a lion. This time the conclusion makes sense; it’s not
like it says, “everybody gets eaten by lions”- that would be strange, because I
didn’t get eaten by a lion… well, for right now. Maybe I will…does it feel
scary when you get eaten by a lion?”
“I know a person from Antarctica, and he
was nice.” Conclusion: All people from Antarctica are nice.
“You
know somebody from Antarctica?! That’s so cool! Oh, fine, back to the problem.
Um… if you knew all the people from Antarctica, and they were all nice, then
the statement would be true, but since you only know one person from Antarctica
who is nice, the statement is false.”
These
are actually some good answers, considering that these are little kids.
Building Tables:
Figure out who likes which sport- there
are four sports; tennis, soccer, basketball, and badminton, and there are four
kids; Dima, Kristina, Katya, and Max.
Kristina doesn’t like basketball or
soccer.
Max used to like basketball and
badminton best, but now he changed his mind.
Neither of the boys likes soccer best.
As
they always do, the kids loved that they were in the problem. I called them up
to the board (make sure to let all of them solve part of the problem), and
asked each of them to figure something out and mark it on the table we drew
(sports vs. kids comparison). This took some time, and the kids were already
tired and started to roll around on the floor and play around. Again, time for
a game.
Simplified
Set:
Take out a few cards at random, and ask
the kids to find the similarities and differences between the cards; this can
be done in the form of a game (every child gets one or two cards, and then I
put down a card from the pile, and the kids have to put down the cards that
they have, but only the ones that are similar in any way to the starting card.)
If
the kids don’t listen, have the child who wasn’t following directions sit on a
chair in the corner, or something similar to that, because otherwise, all of
the kids take the child’s example and stop listening to directions as well. If
a child takes the Set cards and don’t give them back, tell them that either
they give the cards back or they don’t get to play the game- easy solution;
this happened once during the class, but the kids really wanted to play the
game, so they gave back the cards.
Simplified
Hanoi Tower:
Play with two-three pieces; it’s a complex and at the same time interesting
activity for the kids.
We only got to do this for a few minutes,
because the class ended, and we ran
