Doing maths with "Bunyols"

Aims:
To find different ways to solve a repeated addition.

Materials: Bunyols ( a traditional pastry eaten over the Easter period in Catalonia), 26 small baskets, pencil and paper.

Introduction:
The pupils prepare “bunyols” for Easter and after that they are placed in small baskets. There are 6 in each basket. The teacher asks the pupils what they would do to find out the total amount of “bunyols” in all the 26 baskets in the class.?

Main part:
The pupils work in pairs.

• Some draw pictures of the baskets and count the bunyols

• Others use a more abstract way of reasoning and use numbers directly to carry out the repeated additions

Round up:
In pairs they show and look at the work of the other classmates. They analyse each possibility. One pair even used the concept of multiplication in their results and the teacher then explained the meaning of multiplication to the whole class.