Problematic Peas and Carrots

We like to joke in our classroom that our brains get really hot when we are thinking and working hard! Although it was a chilly day, we had warm brains in our Math class!

We continue to explore numbers to 20. Today we were presented with a problem:

The children collaborated to find a solution to this open-ended problem. Manipulatives (e.g. counters, blocks, bean bags), whiteboards, and chart paper were all on hand. The children were encouraged to use objects, pictures or numbers to explain their thinking.

Here are a few of the final solutions the children recorded in their Math Journals:

Did you notice that there is no one right answer? The children enjoyed the fact that there were many "right answers" to this problem.

When solving problems, the children are encouraged to draw functional pictures, not fancy ones. In fact, while pictures should be organized and legible, it is not uncommon for scribbles or arrows to be scattered across their work as they carefully count and double-check their answer with the information in the problem.

Many more open-ended problems are to come!