Planning tool

Students:

• identify and describe real-world problems involving additive or multiplicative relationships
• represent additive or multiplicative real-world problems mathematically as number sentences and using bar models
• choose and apply appropriate calculation strategies
• use a mathematical modelling process to solve practical, real-world problems involving additive or multiplicative strategies.

Some students may: 

• need direction and guidance when solving a problem, as they may not yet feel confident in choosing an appropriate calculation strategy.
• require support in formulating problems using appropriate number sentences to represent the situation.
• not yet realise that the solution must be connected back to the context of the original problem, and may simply state an answer, for example, ‘five’.

To address these misconceptions:

• encourage students to identify key information in the problem and use this to create a number sentence that reflects the mathematical operations needed to solve it. For example, ‘If each carton contains 24 cans and there are 5 cartons, the number sentence would be 5 × 24 = 120.’
• prompt students to clarify their answers. For example, when a student says, ‘The answer is five,’ ask them to explain, ‘Five what?’ This helps them understand that the number alone is not the solution, but the answer needs to be framed in the problem's context.
• explicitly teach that solutions should connect back to the scenario. For example, in the problem, ‘Work out the number of cartons of soft drink cans needed for the entire Year 3 cohort,’ a more complete answer would be: ‘They would need five cartons of 24 cans each to ensure that every Year 3 student gets at least one can.’

The Learning from home activities are designed to be used flexibly by teachers, parents and carers, as well as the students themselves. They can be used in a number of ways including to consolidate and extend learning done at school or for home schooling.

Learning intention

• We are learning to use additive and multiplicative thinking to solve maths-based problems.

Why are we learning about this?

We use additive and multiplicative thinking everyday to solve problems and do mental calculations in various situations.

What to do

Complete these three tasks.

1.Setting the table

• Task: Draw your dining table set-up for a family dinner. Make sure to include a plate and three utensils (fork, knife and spoon) for each person.
• Question: How many plates and utensils are there altogether, for everyone at the table?
• Challenge: Write a number sentence to show your calculations.

2. Laundry

There are 20 socks in the pile. If there are 5 people in the family, how many pairs of socks will each person get?

• Show how you worked out the problem.
• What is your number sentence?

3. Movie tickets

Your parents have budgeted $50 for you and two friends to go to movies at the local cinema. Each ticket costs $15. Will you have enough money left for popcorn, which costs $2.50 a box?

• Show how you worked out the problem.
• What calculation strategies did you use?

Success criteria

I can:

• represent everyday maths problems mathematically as number sentences
• choose and apply appropriate calculation strategies to find solutions to the problems
• use visual representations to illustrate my thinking and support my calculations.