Any ideas for a stinking good y4 lesson on problem solving please?

[Jellypudmum]

Much like everybody else I am shattered. Need to deliver an outstanding problem solving lesson for mixed ability y5 class for 30 mins. Help??!!!

[Jellypudmum]

Stonking not stinking.... Hope tats not a sign of things to come!

[Phineyj]

Some kind of mystery to solve? Not a murder mystery given the ages, but maybe a 'teddy is missing' type thing with opportunities to look at evidence, timeline, interview a 'witness'? I teach secondary so ignore if this is a crap idea - but I bet someone's already uploaded something similar on TES.

[Goblinchild]

Maths?
nrich website?

[insancerre]

Give them a bag of marshmallows and a packetof dried spaghetti and a big photo of the Clifton suspension bridge and get them in groups to build a model

[Jellypudmum]

Thanks phoney and Goblin.

[Jellypudmum]

Phineyj

[insancerre]

Am I invisible?

[GertieFinkle]

Insancerre - love the idea but what's the LO? Don't thing wonder pets type 'teaaaaamwork' will meet any Ofsted objectives sadly.

[insancerre]

The LO is learning not to eat all the marshmallows or the bridge won't work
I am used to younger children but could it not making a plan, reviewing and adapting it?

[GertieFinkle]

This is a nice net investigation, you could change it a bit to make stinking or stonking, whatever.

Ellie has been invited to a fancy dress party. She wants to go as a witch and decides to start with the hat.

Choose one of the hats shown here (there's a picture here of a wizard hat, a fez, a witches hat and a top hat) or design your own.

What shapes would you need to cut out to make it? Think about our work on nets!

If you're not sure how to make a witch's hat, you could start with a top hat or a fez, and then see how you need to adapt them to make a witch's hat.


You could start by drawing the shapes you think she might need on squared paper, then cut them out to see if they fold into the right sort of hat.

Sellotape will do at this stage to stick your hat together.

When you're happy with your design, try making it with paper, card or fabric.

If you use A4 or A3 paper, try different ways of laying out the pieces you want on the paper.

What is the tallest witch's hat you can make from a sheet of A3 paper?

Here are some questions you might like to consider:

If you wanted to make the tallest hat possible from your A3 paper, would you choose to make a witch's hat, a wizard's hat, a top hat or a fez?

[GertieFinkle]

Oh! I lost a post, there was one inbetween about the spaghetti lesson.

Here's a link to the lesson with spangly LO.

[KittyandTeal]

I've done one of the simple murder mysteries with my class. Google them.

I have each group a clue to decipher then together we put the clues together and found out the murderer. They loved it and still talk about it now!

It did take more than half an hour but if you google it'll give you am idea, could easily do your own.

[PurpleAlert]

I did a nice investigation lesson on perimeter and area with a bunch of year 5 s once.

Here on this page Quiz and Farmers problems. There are three of them-differentiated.

I have also done a similar lesson linked to a performance poem we were doing in Literacy. Jim by Hilaire Beloc- They had to design a cage big enough for Ponto the Lion so he didn't escape again. They had to work out the area of the cages they had designed using long multiplication (which we had recently practised) and the perimeter. Differentiated by method (grid/ standard) and some did rectangular ones and more advanced with irregular shapes. They then went onto the playground with metre wheels and chalk to draw them out.

Now when they come across an area/ perimeter question I always remind them not to let Ponto escape and they remember!

[Jellypudmum]

Sorry insancerre

[Justtoobad]

These are all brilliant ideas...

As a top tip, you should ask for their work at the end of the lesson and 'mark it' and hand it back that day, preferably before your formal interview.

If they've not done much written work, then on your seating plan (that you've received already from school, or made up quickly during the lesson by getting the to write their names on post it notes and they've stuck down on the table) you should make comments/levels/www/ebi about all or some of the pupils and hand that in to teacher.

Or, to show you're planning for progression, hand in the 'next' set of resources and power point and lesson plan to teacher. (Something laminated and they'll wet their pants - honest)