Use Equipment
What is a problem?
Why teach problem solving?
Strategies
Resources
Inset
Page Index
Prompt poster: PDF 
Printable versions: PDF Word 
Holly's Big Adventure
Holly the dog was out for a walk in the woods when she saw a leprechaun sitting on a log crying. Holly asked 'What is the problem?' the Leprechaun replied that his wife had ordered him to collect some chestnuts. Holly looked around the forest floor and saw all the chestnuts that had fallen from the trees in the gales. 'So pick them up said Hollly' 'No' replied the leprechaun, 'you don't understand. I have to collect exactly 50g of chestnuts..not one more or one less!'
Holly noticed in the clearing the see-saw that the elves had left behind. Holly asked the leprechaun if he had anything in the bag. He produced a 400g tin of soup. 'Ah ah!!!' said Holly, 'Now we can solve the problem.'
What did Holly do?
This type of problem encourages children to use equipment to represent real examples. I.e multilink for chestnuts.
| Questions to ask | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Why was the see-saw important to Holly's solution? | Helps to establish the concepts needed to solve the problem. |
| What can we use to represent the chestnuts? | Introducing the concept of using one object to represent another. |
| What is the only thing that we know the weight of? | Focus the children's attention on to the relevant facts from the problem. |
| What does the leprechaun need? | Focussing the children on the resolution to the problem - encouraging them to persevere. |
Possible extensions:
- Change the known weights
- Give different combinations of known weights and required weights
- Set a similar problem for someone else