The purpose of this activity is to challenge the children in an problem-solving task where there are several different alternatives while also being able to work together, talk and cut with scissors or tear with their fingers. There is also a lot of mathematics, as well as conceptual ability.
How to Do It:
Get an apple and ask: How long is an apple peel?
- Document the children’s hypotheses, which can be anything from minute to one meter. Some children draw their answer and others show with their hands.
- Bring out a potato peeler and ask first if they know what it’s called and what you can use it for.
- Carefully peel the apple around, making the apple peel much longer than the children first think.
- Measure together how long the apple peel became but first ask what tools we should use to measure it. Relatively soon the children discover that the ruler is difficult to use so it often takes to hands, the cords and after a while we retrieve the tape measure.
- Get scissors and A4 paper and challenge the children with the question of whether they think they can cut the paper longer than the apple peel.
- Have the children try different solutions