S16: Blog 8: Marshmallows and Math
- Emily Johnson
- Mar 10, 2016
- 3 min read
We’ve recently started a new unit in math that’s all about geometry. This week we’ve been working on learning about 2-D shapes like triangles, quadrilaterals, hexagons, etc. Specifically, we’ve been teaching students about how many sides, vertices, and angles each shape has. My students have been doing really well so far with the material so my CT and I came up with a fun (meaning more fun than their math workbook pages) way for them to practice.
My CT introduced me to the book The Greedy Triangle which is about a triangle who decides that he doesn’t want to be a triangle anymore and goes to see a “shapeshifter” and is turned into a quadrilateral. The triangle continues to be unsatisfied and eventually has so many sides that he can’t balance. He realizes that he misses being a triangle and happily goes back to his old job. It’s a great story to read to students when talking about 2-D shapes because all the ones that students the age my students are need to know. It also shows them real-life examples of the shapes, like how you make a triangle when you put your hand on your hip and how pages in a book are quadrilaterals.
However, a read-aloud of this book was only part of the lesson. We also wanted our students to be able to practice drawing and creating 2-D figures. To do this, we gave our students pieces of paper that had been divided into 8 boxes. While I was reading the story, whenever the triangle shapeshifted into a new shape the students drew it in one of the boxes on their paper and wrote down how many sides, angles, and vertices the new shape had. They also got to make models of the shapes using marshmallows and toothpicks!
The students loved getting to get a little messy and make shapes out of the marshmallows and toothpicks. It was especially interesting to see the creative shapes they made when we asked them to create a decagon (a ten-sided figure). Some students decided to add on the octagon they had already made while others created much more abstract shapes. My favorite creation was made by one of my students who figured out how to make his decagon into a fish.
Other than engagement, another reason I really loved allowing the students to use the marshmallows and toothpicks was that it allowed them to problem-solve and think a little more deeply about what they’re learning. For example, the major misconception that many of my students were having is that a quadrilateral is synonymous with a square. A square is actually only one kind of quadrilateral. Many of my students created squares with their marshmallows and toothpicks. But, when they picked up their creations they realized that the shape was changing and looked more like a diamond! This allowed my students to realize that “quadrilateral” means any shape that has four sides, not just a square.
Also, students often had to problem-solve to figure out how to create the shapes that had lots of sides like the octagon and decagon. They began to realize that it was difficult to get the marshmallows and toothpicks arranged in a way that was as tidy as the picture in the book. They had to think and come to the understanding that as long as the shape had the right number of sides, it didn’t matter what it looked like.
Teaching students in a way that allows them to problem-solve, not just mindlessly answer questions from a worksheet or workbook, is a strategy encouraged by the textbook we’re utilizing in our class about teaching mathematics. Van de Walle, Karp, and Bay-Williams (2016) discuss how important it is that students be taught to think about what they’re doing and are able to truly understand the concept, not just memorize the procedure. Also, the text shows how problem-solving allows teachers and students to address some the SMPs (Standards of Mathematical Practice) that are part of the Common Core Standards like SMP 1, “Make sense of problems and persevere in solving them (Van de Walle et. al, 2016, pg.8).
I’m so pleased with how well my students did during this lesson and how well they seem to be grasping the concepts, especially since our last unit about time and money was so rough. Seeing how well they did with this lesson has made me determined to try to make more of my math lessons more engaging, activity-based, and inclusive of real-world connections.
Addresses FEAPS 1 a and 3 a, b, d
References:
Van De Walle, J., Karp, K., & Bay-Williams, J. (2016). Elementary and Middle School Mathematics: Teaching Developmentally (9th ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.
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