Halloween Investigation
Combinations, often thought of in terms of possibilites, is an
important mathematical topic for young children. They are called
upon to think logically, to develop strategies, to organise results
and to communicate clearly. Each of these processes can be
approached and tackled in a variety of ways. This allows children
to enter and exit the problem and to engage with it in appropriate
ways and at an appropriate level. Teacher's questions around
results will scaffold children's thinking and move them along in
their efforts and strategies. Subsequently, children can be asked
to use higher order, or critical, thinking skills to assess and
evaluate the effectiveness and efficiency of the different
strategies.
This Let's Investigate problem is topical for the season of
Halloween. Even if Halloween is not part of the local culture,
setting problems within such a context is an opportunity to talk
about the celebrations and traditions of other cultures.
Each step of the problem introduces another level of complexity, as
the number of possibilities grow. This establishes the need for
results to be ordered to avoid repetitions or omissions. Some
children will need to draw and cut out the costume pieces and then
put them together. Checklists can be used while others, operating
more abstractly, can be guided toward making a table or matrix to
listing and combine the items or find the permutations.