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Monday 27 June 2011

Martian Fractions

Saturday saw me at the PMA (Primary Mathematics Association) Seminar Day where I listened to some great speakers including Vince Wright, Peter Hughes and Bobbie Hunter. 
Bobby shared the way she introduces fractions using a linear model within the context of martian chocolate bars.  When children have a strong sense of fractions as imaged quantities martian fractions can then be used to introduce children to a set model.  This was something I wanted to use with my children in the following week so I created this martian clipart to introduce the story -
"We all know that Martians are blue (in movies anyway) and they only like to eat blue food.  Martian chocolate is always blue and comes in only one length (one whole).  The chocolate we eat is many colours and comes in different lengths.  We are going to compare martian chocolate bars with ours." 
Click on the images to open the download page.
Green Matt Martian - here
This link leads to Developing Communities of Mathematical Inquiry based on Bobby's research.
Dr Roberta Hunter – Senior Lecturer  
Massey University, School of Education - Albany

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