Teaching Spatial Comprehension

Students will be provided with an introductory lesson on the "Cake Problem," a project in which a rectangular geoboard "cake" will be displayed. Students will be challenged to devise ways of dividing the cake so that it can be shared fairly by different numbers of people. Each student will have their own geoboard and will be asked to use a pencil and a ruler to divide the board by drawing lines to indicate divisions for two people, three people, four people, and so forth. Individualized hands-on activities of this type help students learn via manipulative activity how a single spatial plain can be subdivided into any number of equal parts.

Once students have completed a series of drawings and divisions, they will discuss the project and compare results. The teacher will have a template showing different division options using colored pencils to distinguish between each set of "pieces."

The students in this writer's third grade classroom who participated in the Cake Problem appeared to enjoy the activity and to g

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computations involved in solving the problem have been created. Handwriting instruction can take place during a time that has been singled out for this purpose even during mathematics instruction when working on the formation of numbers. Students will be given 10 minutes to solve the problem and then given 5 minutes to practice writing in cursive the numerical responses to the problem in sentence form (e.g., "The answer to the question is twenty-three pennies)." Additionally, students will be asked to use a timer to practice writing numbers for five minutes at home. This enables students to develop a solid foundation in writing numbers in cursive. Student Reaction The students enjoyed this lesson and were challenged to write as many numbers in cursive as they could during practice sessions. They enjoyed timing themselves both in class and at home. Strengths and Areas of Improvement Learning to use time more effectively is important for study skill development. This lesson plan includes an emphasis on both cursive handwriting and on mathematics problem-solving as well as new vocabulary development in the form of writing out numbers. It can be improved by transferring the process to literature or social studies/h
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Approximate Word count = 2571
Approximate Pages = 10 (250 words per page)

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