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©1998 University Child Development School and Bonnie Campbell Hill. No part of the Continuum may be reproduced or used without written permission of University Child Development School. Continuum adapted by University Child Development School with permission from Bonnie Campbell Hill.
In this Math Vitamin, the students are learning that with new forest growth, the owl population increases. The students choose a slip of paper with a number pattern on it, build this pattern using unit cubes, record the pattern, and continue it by filling in the blanks on their paper.
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Story: Celeste's cookies were so delicious that she opened up a bakery shop to sell them. The prices of her cookies are:
Animal Cookies: 7 cents, Chocolate Chip: 13 cents, Frosted Sugar Cookies: 26 cents
See a teacher to find out what your cookie order is. What is the total amount of money you'll spend?
Inspired by A Nest for Celeste by Henry Cole; Katherie Tegen Books, 2010
Suggested manipulatives: Unifix cubes, centimeter blocks, multilinks
Prep time: 5-10 minutes to put out a variety of manipulatives and create some pattern scenarios that work for a wide skill level span
Classroom time: Asking children to “do their best work” for each Math Vitamin assumes that some children will need a longer time than others. Ideally you want to offer a block of time for Math Vitamin projects and have another task available (writing, free exploration etc.) for those students who finish work prior to their peers. For this project allow 20-45 minutes for students to work through all the steps.
How to individualize/stretch: For the beginners, you are working to learn what a pattern actually is, so repeating two or three colors in different sequences is a good starting place. For kids needing an extension, create some “growing pattern” scenarios meaning that the span of the pattern increases with each step (pattern changes color after 3 of the same color, then 4 of the same color etc. or pattern increases by that number plus 2 for each step). Working to solve growing patterns is an excellent way to begin building mathematical thinking.
