Reply to Teachers - How to help my 3rd/4th graders write and understand this math equation?

Forum Index » Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS)

Reply to "Teachers - How to help my 3rd/4th graders write and understand this math equation?"

Subject:

Emoticons





More smilies

Text Color: Font: Close Marks

[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]in short, the problem says: there're 15 slices of pizza total; there're seven more slices of pepperoni pizza than cheese pizza.

based on that, I wrote these two equations:

P + C = 15, which they (seem to) understand, and 
P = 7 + C, which they had a really hard time with

so, how would you teach them to convert "seven more slices of pepperoni pizza than cheese pizza" into "P = 7 + C"? I ended up using a crappy example of 3 = 1 + 2 means 3 is one more than two. but I know they still didn't get it.

BTW, I know this is way beyond their grade levels but the problem is in a 3rd-gr math workbook I bought for my rising 4th grader (I'm OP of that workbook for C student thread) to review his math topics last year. I'm curious how teachers help make this 'transition' happen in their little heads, coz I found it almost impossible to use my languages to convey the idea/reasoning and grasp a new concept, even with my own kids. I really think math is the hardest to teach...

THANKS![/quote]

I don't believe that 3rd/4th graders use variables, so you explanation may have confused the kid/.  Per a suggestion below, I would make 2 tables listing concrete examples of both conditions.

So, if there are 15 slices of pizza (some cheese and some pepperoni), then list all possible combinations (1 cheese -14 pepperoni; 2 cheese -13 pepperoni; 3 cheese -12 pepperoni; 4 cheese -11 pepperoni; etc.)
Similarly, if there  are 7 more pepperoni than cheese, then list some possible combinations (1 cheese and 8 pepperoni; 2 cheese and 9 pepperoni; 3 cheese and 10 pepperoni; 4 cheese and 11 pepperoni; etc.)  
Then, circle the parts of the tables that are similar.   [/quote]

Options

	Disable HTML in this message
	Disable BB Code in this message
	Disable smilies in this message

Review message

Search Recent Topics Hottest Topics