Area: Topic:

Maths Number and Algebra

Year Level/Class: General Capabilities

Class 11, Year 1  Literacy
 Numeracy
 Critical and creative thinking
 Personal and social capability

ACARA links:
Recognise and describe one-half as one of two equal parts of a whole. (ACMNA016)

Elaborations
 sharing a collection of readily available materials into two equal portions
 splitting an object into two equal pieces and describing how the pieces are equal

Year 1 Achievement Standard

By the end of Year 1, students describe number sequences resulting from skip counting by 2s, 5s and 10s. They identify representations of one
half. They recognise Australian coins according to their value. Students explain time durations. They describe two-dimensional shapes and
three-dimensional objects. Students describe data displays.

Students count to and from 100 and locate numbers on a number line. They carry out simple additions and subtractions using counting
strategies. They partition numbers using place value. They continue simple patterns involving numbers and objects. Students order objects
based on lengths and capacities using informal units. They tell time to the half-hour. They use the language of direction to move from place to
place. Students classify outcomes of simple familiar events. They collect data by asking questions, draw simple data displays and make simple
inferences.

Emily Westmoreland, 110171372

Teacher resources:

Background knowledge Resource rich, interactive learning experience

Halves, Pieces and Twoths

The notion of ‘unit’ is essential in developing an understanding of fractions. Therefore when teaching halves, must model the mathematical
language to ensure that the knowledge and understanding is carried across contexts of understanding. Both representational units and
existing models need to be employed to ensure a well rounded and holistic understanding of fractions. Using the representational models
provides the scaffolding as they have the markings marked out to explicitly outline how much ‘half’ is, while the exisiting models such as
portioning sections of a drawn circle provide a more relevant context.

Teaching Fractions and Ratios for Understanding: Essential Content Knowledge

Understanding fractions is the basis for comprehensive number understanding and development of number knowledge. Not only do children
need to engage in fraction ‘doing’ they need to understand this. Rather than teaching the act of doing, the students need to comprehend the
lofic behind what is happening and understand to use the method provided as a problem solving technique. This highlights the importance of
students developing their own strategies in problem solving, to ensure understanding and engagement.

Theres More to Counting than Meets the Eye

Educators need to employ a range aspects to promote teaching of part-part whole thinking, particularly of fractions and thus a half as being
two parts of a whole. These aspects include encoruaging children to speak and verbalise their actions and thinking, encouraging children to
listen to develop a wider range of problem solving strategies and listening to how people around them think, prompting the students to read
as a strategy of developing understanding, and encouraging children to write in order to articulate how they understand, and strategise.

Give me Half! Sturt J Murphy

This book provides context to introduce the unit of work, discussing relevant examples of when halves are needed, and encouraging the
students to solve problems and actively think.

Give me Half, Halving with water:

Lead up to halving water by using other familiar objects such as paper, encourage students to consider how we can divide it into half, and then
check this.

Emily Westmoreland, 110171372

Lesson idea: When halving the water, reiterate how we found half and checked half, and question how we can use these strategies to check the
equal division of water: this provides a different context for the learning of halves to develop this understanding.
Lesson idea: ‘Half stations’ counters, unifix blocks, playdough and scales, string and scissors, paper circles, rice and cup measures: find and
record findings of how to find half

Bert and Earnie: Half Eaten Sandwhich:

This resource contributes an ICT component to the unit, using familiar characters entices it to be engaging and interesting, providing a basis
for investigation into halves

Learning Intention: Assessment Success Criteria:

By engaging with this unit, children will develop their understanding Students’ knowledge is/was communicated through:
of fractions thinking; the concept of part-part whole thinking, and  observations
particularly halves and wholes.  interview
Children will be able to identify two halves as creating a whole.  work samples
 oral presentations / group feedback
 self assessment on wall

Curriculum Links Assessment:

English: Opportunities for language development, forming of
sentences
Science: Water Sciences, data collection
The Arts: Creating own shapes through different modes
 Images of work samples taken throughout: worksample from
activity 2 and 3 assessed and compared to see how
understanding is developing - against rubric appendix 1
 Conversations with children throughout to monitor
development
 At the end of each activity, the studets will have the
opportunity to use a picture of their face and locate it to
describe how they feel about the activity; appendix 2.

Emily Westmoreland, 110171372

Activity 1: Resources
 Prepared paper plate pizza
Book reading: Give me Half!  Scissors
Explicitly modelled understanding of ‘half’ as being 2 equal parts of a  Book: Give me Half!
whole. Model word and fraction.  Youtube video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo_svGP-
iO4
As the book is read, relate to contexts relevant to them and engage
students with questions about what they think and what they would
do differently.
 Reinforce fractions discussed, write on board
 Do you have to share with your siblings, what do you have to
share? How can you share this equally?
 Does this remind you of the doubles facts we have been
learning about?
 If you share a pizza with a friend, how much would you each
get?

Bert and Ernie: Half eaten sandwich

 What do we notice? Is anything the same as from the book?

Pizza fraction: I have my yummy pizza here and I want to share it

with my friend. How can we cut the pizza so that we both get some?
Split it in half!

The children will then participate in a self assessment, moving the

picture of their face on the board. For the first time, this will be
explicitly modeled to the students. Examples provided of how
they might feel and therefore where their face might go on the
board. As students engage, ask questions to justify their
placement. Their feedback can be used to guide modification
and adaption of future activities.

Emily Westmoreland, 110171372

Activity 2: Resources
 Different materials
Rereading of ‘Give me Half!’ remind students of what half is, how can we find half of  scrap materials
something? What strategies do we have? Record these on board.  paper
 card
Cutting materials in half, stick these into book  string
1. We have lots of different materials here, which of these strategies on the board  Scissors
could we use to find half?  Glue sticks
(Model the cutting of half. If students have other ideas such as folding it and  Blue book (maths book)
colouring one part, they may do this.)  ‘Give me Half!’ book
 Whiteboard Marker
2. In the circle, each child is passed a piece of material eg. Paper. We each find own
strategy to find half. I might find half by folding the paper down the middle.

3. Using these strategies and ideas, we will now pick 5 materials each, take these back
to our table, find half and then put them in our maths book.
(Write these steps on the board: visual cues)

4. When we open our book, we can write the date at the top of the page. What is the
date today?

5. Once you have finished with the 5 materials, you may choose to do more, at the end
of the lesson put your book at the front of the class please. (Work Sample Assessed)

6. If we have any questions we can ask a friend, or Mr J or I who will be walking

around the class.
(Again, visual cue on board for students to refer back to).

The children will then participate in a self assessment, moving the picture of their face on
the board.

Emily Westmoreland, 110171372

Activity 3: Cookie: I divided my cookie into 2 and shared it with: Resources
What have we been learning about in Maths? Halves! What was the problem ‘Give me Half!’ Book for reference
we had in the book? We have a cookie and we need to share it with a friend. Cookie proforma for each child
Refer to book for this example. Crayons and pencils to colour
Materials and glue to decorate
We are now going to make our own cookie to share with a friend. Pencils to write with
What flavour are you going to make yours, who are you going to share it Scissors
with? Model a coloured cookie and ask how I could split it in half. I’m Glue stick
going to share my cookie with my friend Sam. Maths book (blue book)
Visual cue cards for white board.
Here I have a cookie for each of us. We are going to
1. Go back to our desks
2. Colour in our cookie
3. Find a way to split in half with our friend

What can we use to colour in our cookie? Pens, pencils, or gluing materials.

Visual Cues on board: (appendix 3)

1. Back to table
2. colour in/decorate,
3. who are we sharing with?
4. Cut in half
5. stick in book
6. put book up the front of the class.

Once we have finished we put our books up the front and we can help a
friend of chose a quiet activity to do. (WS Assessed: appendix 1)

At the end of the activity, sit in a circle, go around the circle and present our
cookie: the flavour, who we shared with and how we cut our pizza in half.
How do we know it was half? Conversation/verbal communication
assessed in appendix 1 rubric.

The children will then participate in a self assessment, moving the picture of
their face on the board.

Emily Westmoreland, 110171372

Activity 4: Resources
 Scales
Maths rotation: puzzles, fraction pizza,  play dough
 3D puzzles (piece puzzles)
Today for maths we are going to go in our groups and rotate between  Fraction puzzles (word puzzles)
each station. What do you think we might be exploring in our lesson  Printed grids and pencils to colour
today, what have we been learning about?

Stand at each activity and model how to appropriately engage in the

activity, modeling expectations. When we are at each station, what
voice should we be using? What voice would be an A choice?
Stations
At each activity, we will record in our green books how we found half 1. Scales and play dough
and what we learnt. You might draw a picture or write some words. 2. Puzzles with image, word and fraction
3. 3D puzzles (piece puzzles)
Visual cues: (Appendix 3) 4. Grid: colour half.
1. station
2. find half
3. record in books what we found.

Model in a book how we might record findings.

Ring bell in between to signify moving between activities.

Once we have participated in all four activities we will come back to

the matt and be able to share with our partner what we found.

So we will
1. go to each station
2. find half
3. record in our blue book what we found
4. pair share on mat

The children will then participate in a self assessment, moving the

picture of their face on the board.

Emily Westmoreland, 110171372

Activity 5: Resources
Water halving  ‘Give me Half!’ Book
 Jug of water
Reread: Give me Half!  Plastic cups
 Reiterate notion of half and question how we find half,  Permanent marker
and how we have found half over previous tasks

 Group activity rather than individual

 Providing different context for learning ‘half’ – it applies
more than to abstract concepts of string and paper, it is
relevant and applicable to all aspects of our life, needed in
many situations.

I have a jug of water, how can I share so that each of my friends gets
half? Test the theories and question how we know if this is correct.
This adds challenge to check if it is infact half.

As a group the children will be given opportunities to hypothesise how

to find half, with the theories documented by the educator.

Depending how long it takes to find an effective theory:

1. Each child can be given the opportunity to go back to their
tables and share water between cups.
2. Otherwise, stay as a group and continue to find more working
theories. This is flexible and negotiable depending on levels of
engagement.

Highlight the importance of problem solving and persistence.

To finish the unit, students can chose the final place on their self
assessment chart to highlight how they feel about the summary of the
unit.
Students who are still unsure or confused may have a discussion with
the teacher about this.

Emily Westmoreland, 110171372

Reference List

Schipp, L 2016, ‘Halving with water’, Prime number, vol. 31, no. 1, pp. 10-11.

Ball, D 2012, ‘Halves, pieces, and twoths: constructing and using representation contexts in teaching fractions’, in Carpenter, T Fennema,
E & Romberg, T Rational numbers: an integration of research, Routledge, Abington United Kingdom, pp. 157-196.

Seasame Street 2010, Sesame street: ernie's half-eaten sandwich, video, YouTube, uploaded 8th Janurary 2010, viewed 11th April 2017, <
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bo_svGP-iO4>

Lamon, S 2012, Teaching fractions and ratios for understanding: essential content knowledge and instructional strategies for teachers,
3rd edn., Routledge, Abington United Kingdom,
<https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=C5OpAgAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=teaching+fractions&ots=Zc8uaZi8C7&sig=z
uw7aFc_25XneWrpJhNrlvXUO6k#v=onepage&q=teaching%20fractions&f=false>

Siemon, D 2008, There’s more to counting than meets the eye (or the hand), DEECD, viewed 11th April 2017
<www.education.vic.gov.au/studentlearning/teachingresources/maths>

Emily Westmoreland, 110171372

Appendix 1: Rubric for activity 2 and 3

Childs name: ___________________________ Activity ____

Needs Adequate Above

improvement average
Can use materials to show ‘half’

Can write to describe ‘half’

Can verbally communicate understanding of half

Able to communicate understanding of half through drawing

Any other notes/observations

Emily Westmoreland, 110171372

Appendix 2: Self Assessment

At the end of each activity, children will be able to use a photo of themselves and attach it to the card
which is associated with how they feel.

Confident Getting there Confused

(Velcro dots here, child to stick photo (Velcro dots here, child to stick photo (Velcro dots here, child to stick photo
of their face where they feel they fit) of their face where they feel they fit) of their face where they feel they fit)

Emily Westmoreland, 110171372

Appendix 3: Visual Cues
Source: https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Visual-Direction-Cues-For-Your-
Whiteboard-1367508

These visual cues will be laminated and stuck with magnets to the white board, alongside the oral
instruction, these can be referred back to throughout the lesson to remind children of the task.

Emily Westmoreland, 110171372