Favorite Snack Number Story - 3 Versions of Join with Result Unknown
Number stories are the key to helping your child build a connection between their counting skills and learning to add, subtract, multiply and divide:
“Contextual problems are the primary teaching tool to use to help children construct a rich understanding of the operations [addition, subtraction, multiplication, division]. These contexts are what elicit problem-solving strategies (Schwartz, 2013) and help children make sense of the operations.” (Van de Walle, Teaching Student-Centered Mathematics, V1, pg 147)
Number stories allow our children to develop meaningful connections between their daily lives and their developing understanding of mathematics.
In this week’s number story, your child will be solving a joining problem with an unknown result. A joining problem describes a context in which two or more quantities are being brought together (joined). A joining problem can have an unknown amount in three different spots: an unknown starting amount, an unknown amount being joined (the change), or an unknown result. This week’s problem has an unknown result because we know how much we start with, we know how much is joined to it, and we need to figure out how much results at the end.
This Week’s Problem:
All the setup is done for you! Just grab a favorite snack, sit down with you child, and show them the number story video.
There are three versions so you can pick the one that’s the best fit for your child (same story, different numbers):
(1) Version 1: Numbers within 5: I have 3 pieces of snack on my plate. My friend gives me one more piece of snack. How many pieces of snack are on my plate now?
(2) Version 2: Numbers within 10: I have 7 pieces of snack on my plate. My friend gives me 2 more pieces of snack. How many pieces of snack are on my plate now?
(3) Version 3: Numbers within 20: I have 11 pieces of snack on my plate. My friend gives me two more pieces of snack. How many pieces of snack are on my plate now?
After the story, pause to give your child time to solve.
Once they solve, the second half of the video shows one possible way to solve the story! Discuss similarities and differences between their strategy and mine. (REMEMBER there are LOTS of ways to solve! Flexible thinking is the goal.)
Join us next week for another number story!