KTB's Maths Investigation

KTB entered the Maths Investigation competiton. We decided to investigate "Animals". 

We wanted to know lots of things about animals but decided to begin with how long they were. When we went to Fairfield City Farm for our Kinder excursion, we thought it would be a good idea to measure the length of the animals we saw. Farmer Sandra helped us to do this.

We took the measurements back to school to draw how long the animals were to determine which was the longest and shortest farm animal. To do this we had to learn how to use a ruler. We borrowed our Buddies rulers and discovered lots of things about them. We learnt that rulers have numbers and that the numbers go up to 30. We also learnt to begin measuring where the '0' is.

Following this we wanted to know how long bigger animals were like lions, tigers and whale sharks were. We discovered it would be too difficult to measure these lengths with our 30cm rulers. 

Our teacher introduced us to 'trundle wheels'. We had a few turns using these around our school measuring the length of ramps and our Kinder undercroft.  

We then measured out the length of a lion, tiger and whale shark on the cement in our undercroft using the trundle wheel. We couldn't believe how long a whale shark was! Did you know that it took more than 10 of us lying down from head to foot to fill the length of the whale shark?

We thoroughly enjoyed our Investigation and learnt lots of things about animals and we had FUN!

Mathematics Investigation

Kindergarten JS are conducting an investigation called "Maths on the Farm" This investigation came about when we decided to go on an excursion to Fairfield City Farm.

JS discussed mathematical ideas that could be investigated at the farm. Some ideas we brainstormed were How many animals will we see at the farm ? What shapes can we see at the farm ? We are entering pour investigation into the Investigating Mathematics competition conducted by The Maths Association of NSW.

Our first investigation came about after we started counting down on a calendar - How many sleeps until we go to the Farm.

Investigating Calendars
In groups we investigated the calendars that we bought in from home. Some students had 2010 calendars and some had 2009 calendars.

We found that

* Calendars have months written on them.

* Calendars also have numbers and days.

* Different months have different amounts of days.

Investigation 2
1.Do all months have the same number of Mondays, Tuesday etc and are they different from year to year ?
2.When is my birthday ?

The previous day the students found that different months had different amounts of Mondays, Tuesdays etc.
Students were also discussing their birthdays. Many students didn’t know the order of the months or when their birthday was.
We decided that we should investigate these three things the next day.
In groups students participated in 4 activities according to their interest. They had the opportunity to investigate in at least two different areas.
Investigations
1.Students find out when their birthday is by looking out our birthday chart and plot it on a class calendar.
2.Students investigate the order of the months using the computer
3.Students look at a 2010 calendar and graph how many Mondays, Tues etc in each month
4.Students look at a 2009 calendar and graph how many Mondays, Tues etc in each month

We found that

* Different months start on different days.

* If a month ended on a Tuesday, the new month started on a Wednesday.

* Only one month has 28 days

* Most months have 31 days