As well as promoting healthy eating in a fun way we decided to extend the task into a fun way of solving mathematical problems (problem solving).
The maths task is made up from the set of instructions on the inside of 'Every Little Garden Seedlings' packaging.
Students were put into 3 groups of 5 and 1 group of 6 and given copied instructions to read for understanding. The older students had to support the younger students to read each instructions.
Instructions
- Put the soil tablet on a saucer and pour 50 mL of water over it.
- Put on gloves and mix the water into the soil with your hands to make a wet mixture. Watch the soil expand.
- Use most of the soil to fill up the pot to around 2cm before the top.
- Now place your seed mat on top of the soil (take care not to press down to hard).
- Now use the rest of the soil mixture to cover the seed mat.
After reading the instructions 3 times and clarifying their understanding each group was given their first problem to solve.
If each soil tablet needs 50 mL of water how much water would 5 soil tablets need?
- how do you know?
- show how your group solved each problem
- use pictures , numbers, symbols or words
Indi solved the problem using repeated addition. She had to use 300 mL of water for 6 tablets of soil.
Faith decided to sort the plant names into different colours.
Tyler started by drawing 5 containers and added the soil tablets. He continued to show his understanding of the problem to the class. He required 400 mL of water for 8 soil tablets to help the plants to grow healthy and strong.
With support Memphis worked out that the soil tablets needed 2 cups of water for her plants to grow.
We discovered that 50 mL of water is the same as a 1/4 cup of water.
More photos of students working together.
Part 2
Here are the herbs and vegetables we planted today...
Vegetables:
Broccoli, Cabbage, Capsicum, Carrot, Cauliflower, Celery, Cherry Tomato, Chilies, Eggplant, Kale, Leek, Lettuce, Radish, Spinach, Spring Onion, Rocket, Fennel, Cress
Herbs:
Basil, Chives, Dill, Mint, Parsley, Thyme
Our Wondering questions:
What are the differences between a vegetable and a herb plant?
- physical appearance
- size
- use of
