Chickens and Learning

A box of 30 (one for each student) fluffy one-day-old chicks arrived today at school. I thought the kids might have been too old for fluffy chicks but they certainly weren't!
The arrival of these chickens has made for some great maths learning. Yesterday the problem below was posed on the board:

Question:

Pippa, Libby and Gus rang the Lepperton Hatchery on Friday. They will have one day old chickens for us sometime this week, hopefully.

The chickens cost $3.50 each, plus GST and we have asked for 30 chickens.

How much will it cost us in total to buy the chickens?

This prompted some fabulous learning about GST and percentages. Thank you to everyone who discussed GST and percentages at home with their children. Students first had to learn what GST is and why we have it, and how it impacts on our lives. Then they had to work out that GST is 15% which of course lead into percentages - what they are and how to work them out. This will be the basis of our learning for the next few days.

Another problem came to light today when our 30 babies arrived all looking exactly the same! We decided to buy some stretchy rubber leg bands to go on the chickens so we could identify them however the leg bands only come in 6 different colours. The challenge was put to the students to find a way to use the bands and colours in the most effective cost efficient way. To add to the challenge - the bands come in packs of ten.

 

Lots of great ideas and patterns were created. We shared our ideas and looked at the positives and negatives in each idea. In the end we decided to go with one of each colour on the left leg, one of each colour on the right leg, one of each colour on both legs, two of each colour on the left leg and two of each colour on the right leg.  Once the bands have been ordered and arrive, we will be able to identify each chicken and name them!