T14's Maths Challenge- How to find and show a half...

What great mathematicians T14 were today: 

• they shared their thinking with their buddy
• they listened to their buddy and said if they agreed or disagreed and why
• they proved their thinking using the salt dough worms
• they kept trying and tried different ways of working out the challenge

The Challenge- Make salt dough following this recipe. 

Recipe for Salt Dough

1 c flour

1/2c salt

1/2c water

Then make 3 worms. 

1. a long worm
2. a worm 1/2 the size of the long worm
3. a worm that is 1/4 of the size of the long worm (extra challenge)

The problem was we didn't have a half-cup measure! We had to problem solve how we could make one. Some great thinking and listening to each other's ideas came up with two solutions:

Some children used the cup of flour and the spare cup to find a half. 

Some even checked using the scales.

The children then used their half mark on the cup to measure half a cup of salt and 1/2 a cup of water

All the buddies did a great job of taking turns and sharing the jobs.

"We decided to split the salt dough in half to make it fair". 

There was lots of exploring for how to make the different sized salt dough worms.

We are still exploring what a half means. See if you can find things at home that show a 1/2.