Dewch i Feddwl Mathemateg (9 i 11 oed) Gwers 9 Pa Goed

Lesson Plan

Abstract
I’ve just bought a new house and it has a beautiful garden. But some of the trees are not growing very well. While I am out at work, I’ve asked a gardener to give them some special plant fertilizer. The problem is that I don’t know how to describe which trees they are over the phone.
Episode 1
Intro
Show the children Resource Sheet A showing a garden with trees and a house. Point to one of the trees and ask the children how you could explain to the gardener on the phone where the tree is. Allow several children to have a go. As the children produce descriptions, record their language on the board into three groups (without actually naming the groups): 1. attributes of the trees, 2. sizes of trees, 3. positional language. Ask the children if they can work out why you have grouped the words in this way.
Group Discussion
Give each pair a copy of Resource Sheet A. Pairs of children work together to describe a tree – one child picks a tree without telling the other child which one it is, and describes it to the second child. The children collect useful words to add to the class list.
Sharing
Can we add any more useful words to our list? Which group shall we put them in?
Episode 2


Intro
Which of these words do we actually need – are there some words that have the same or a similar meaning, that we could get rid of? Eg small tree / baby tree. Once the words are reduced to the bare minimum (probably big/medium/small, bush/tree, top/bottom/left/right/middle) ask the children to think of a short way of writing them. You want the children to suggest the idea of codes eg letters to represent words.
Group Discussion
Groups of children try to code the trees on Resource Sheet A.
Sharing
Groups compare their codes. Some groups may have a system for coding eg each tree has three codes, the position codes always comes first, etc. Discuss whether this helps them to describe the locations of the trees. Why?
Episode 3


Intro
Tell the children that the back garden is even bigger than the front garden, and has more trees. Show the children Resource Sheet B. Will our coding system work for the back garden too? Let the children have a go at using the coding system to label their own copy of Resource Sheet B. They will soon realise that this garden is much too complex for the simple coding system to work. Can you think of a different way to describe where the trees are in the back garden?

Group Discussion
Groups of children work on a blank copy of Resource Sheet B to devise a coding system. There are several possibilities, involving grouping bunches of trees eg radial lines from the central tree, cutting the garden into a two-by-two grid, etc.
Sharing
Share your coding system with the class, explaining how it works. Which coding system do the class think is best and why?

License

Gwersi PCAME a Dewch i Feddwl Mathemateg (9 i 11 oed) Copyright © by Ann Longfield, David Johnson, Jean Hindshaw, Linda Harvey, Jeremy Hodgen, Michael Shayer, Mundher Adhami, Rosemary Hafeez, Matt Davidson, Sally Dubben, Lynda Maple, and Sarah Seleznyov. All Rights Reserved.

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