Problem Solving In Kindergarten

In Artemis' Full Day kindergarten class, her students were given the opportunity to problem solve - and connect that problem to a larger school wide issue. The school had adopted 6 families for the holiday season.  Students and their families were asked to donate clothing, food and personal items to help support the cause. 

For the minds on part of her three part lesson, Artemis read the students the book "The Jacket I Wear In The Snow" to get the students thinking about items you need for winter.  The problem (action) that Artemis gave her students was this:  We've been collecting clothing for families in need.  We can put ten things in each box we give them.  We are going to make boxes of hats and mittens.  What combinations of hats and mittens could you put in a box?

The students did a wonderful job of creating various boxes with different combinations of hats and mittens.  As they worked, Artemis was able to record not only the combinations that they made (e.g., 4 hats and 6 mittens) how they counted (was it one-on-one, did they count by 2s?) and probe them to explain their thinking (How do you know you are done?  Why do you think you have put ten things in the box?).

To finish off the lesson, (consolidate) the students came back to the carpet and recorded their boxes on a chart.  Artemis then continued to ask questions about the boxes that the students made.  (Who had more mittens in their box?  Alyssa or Shiva?  How do you know?)