The Peanut Butter and Jelly Dilemma

The Peanut Butter and Jelly Dilemma

Watch the Video. Play the Game.

The Game:

After watching the story, students can extend their learning by playing Hungry Aliens! This flash game, created by Lanz Singbeil, puts players into the position of a deep space explorer suddenly confronted by a hord of hungry alians! But fear not! Because just like Zac, this explorer is armed with a pack stuffed with sandwiches! Each alien is asking for a certain number of sandwiches that will make them full. Your students will practice grouping by 2's, 3's, and 4's and matching them with the correct total. 

This game encourages primary age students to begin thinking in terms of multiplying numbers rather than just adding them together. This game can be used to help solidify understanding of basic multiplication concepts or just as a fun extra activity.

http://www.sfu.ca/~lws2/PDP/HungryAliensGame/

The Video:

When asked to design and create a story that was not only brilliant but also dealt with the BC Curriculum PLOs for Mathematics, Jade Seto, Lanz Singbeil and Sarah Seller huddled together and decided to create a story that would introduce multiplication up to 2 x 5. In the classroom, stories can provide a clear introduction to a new concept and allows for cross-curricular connections. According to the BC Ministry of Education, in grade 3, students are required to “demonstrate an understanding of multiplication to 5 x 5 by representing and explaining multiplication using equal groupings and arrays.” In our story, which works with the two times tables, students can visually see how we use equal groupings to solve the dilemma involving the Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches. Students can also visually see how they can relate multiplication to repeated addition.

Working collaboratively, the trio decided to use Jade’s keen artistic ability, Lanz’s technical prowess and Sarah’s love of word play to design the book.

PLOs:

A11 demonstrate an understanding of multiplication to 5 × 5 by representing and explaining multiplication using equal grouping and arrays creating and solving problems in context that involve multiplication modelling multiplication using concrete and visual representations, and recording the process symbolically relating multiplication to repeated addition relating multiplication to division [C, CN, PS, R]