*Sorry there are no notes on this one!
Midget
Spell
A dragon put a curse on you (one of the kids) that
made your steps twice smaller every time you took a step. Can you get from this
side of the room to the other, with your first step being half the way to the
end of the room? Have the kids take turns and try it out and see whether they
can get to the end of the room this way. At first though, have them make a
prediction whether they will make it to the other side of the room.
Folding
Paper
How many times can you fold a piece of paper in
half? Try to fold it in half as many times as possible. Give each of the kids a
piece of paper so they could each try it on their own. Compare results.
Folding
Toilet Paper
After the kids have folded a normal piece of paper,
now have them try to fold toilet paper (I am using a long ribbon) in half as
many times as they can and see how the result differs from the number of times
they could fold a normal sheet of paper. Again, before you start the activity,
have them make predictions of what they think will happen. When they complete
the activity, they should have an idea of how exponential growth can be very
rapid, and that folding something in half one time already makes it twice
smaller.
Splitting
Pies
How do you split three pies for four people evenly?
Draw three big “pies” on the board and have the kids try splitting them, and
then counting what part of a pie every person gets.
Exploring
Fractions
Draw circles, squares and other shapes on the white
board and have the kids explore fractions. Don’t forget to explain what
fractions are!
·
Are 2 out of 4 parts of a square equal
to 1 out of 2 parts of an identical square?
·
If you have half of a square, and you a
fourth more, how many parts out of 4 will you have?
·
If you have a pie, and you split it in
half, and take one of the pieces, what fraction of the pie will be left?
·
What is bigger – one third or one half?
·
What is one half + one half?
·
What is one third + one third?
·
What about one third + one third + one
third? Explain that when a fraction is x/x (same number for numerator and
denominator) that means that it is a whole (1).
·
Explain that when the numerator is
bigger than the denominator, it means that there are more pieces than what is
available in one whole (1), which means that there is more than one of
something.
·
If you split one half of a cake in half,
what fraction of the cake would one of those pieces be?
·
What is 1/2 – 1/4?
Do all of these things on the white board (the kids
can’t understand most of these unless they are visual).
Play fraction Simon Says (half of you sit down, a
third of you raise your right hand, etc)
Play opposite fraction Simon Says (if Simon says “a
third of you sit down” that third has to not do that, but the rest of the kids have
to do that)
If there is still time left, have the kids try to
color this triangle with three different colors but no two same colors can
touch (if there are lines connecting two circles, those circles can’t have the
same color):
