Showcasing South Australian Teachers

Ann is really enjoying her work with South Australian teachers. Recently Kathy Lanthois of Darlington Primary School invited Ann into her Year 7 classroom to see what her class had been up to in maths. What a term her class must have had and no wonder her students look forward to maths so much. Today we are showcasing her Jelly Bean project. Her class had been learning about fractions, decimals and percents and so, to see what they had learned and could apply, the Jelly Bean Maths activity was set up.

Each group was given a packet of Jelly Beans to investigate. Their mission was to find out about the distribution of colours in a packet and also to research favourite colours with a goal of informing the manufacturer of their findings and recommendations. The hidden agenda of course was to find out how and whether the students would apply their new understanding of decimals and percents. What a great formative and/or summative assessment task!

The following work sample was one of many showcased on the classroom wall. Sorry we only have one photo - should have taken loads.

It shows, as did the others, that the students worked out what fraction, decimal and percent of the packet each colour represented. They could translate between those forms and offer explanations of their thinking.

We love the free form layout, all different, the use of colour and details that personalise the maths on each poster. Can we start a BAN THE GREY, BORING, MATHS movement? Maybe then there would be fewer disengaged maths students around.

Watch this space for more exciting maths from this class.