An apple a day: Understanding halves and simple addition

This is a hands-on lesson which uses apples to introduce the concept of "half" and to teach simple addition. This lesson was taught to a group of 1st grade EC students.

A lesson plan for grade 1 Mathematics

By Janet Acorn

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Learning outcomes

Students will learn number sense, numeration, and numerical operations.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

60 minutes

Materials/resources

• Apples - 1 for each pair of students
• knife - teacher use only
• bowl
• paper towels
• pencils

Activities

1. Teacher introduces the lesson by stating, “Today we will learn how to divide an object in half. We will also learn how to add two numbers together.”
2. Teacher explains that dividing an object in half means to divide it into 2 equal pieces. Teacher draws a square on the board and divides it in half. Show that if you do not divide it right down the middle, the pieces will not be equal.
3. Draw several objects on the board and ask each student to draw a line straight down the middle and divide the object in half.
4. Take out the apples and explain that we are going to cut each apple in half. Ask the student to show you where to cut the apple and cut each apple in half.
5. Students will work in pairs and each student will get half of the apple. Each student will take the seeds out of their half of the apple.
6. The seeds will be used to show simple addition problems. Draw a large apple on the board with a dotted line right down the middle. Under the apple.… write ___ + ___ = ___. Draw different amounts of seeds on each side of the apple. Write the amount of seeds that are on each side on the ___ under that side. Ask the students to help you count the total amount of seeds in the whole apple. With their partners, students can show the addition problems on a teacher-made worksheet with many apples on it.
7. Do several examples to be sure that students understand the activity.
8. Students will complete the worksheet with their partner. Students will show the different addition problems for sums of 1-5.
9. Do the example of sums to 5 on the board. For example, if a student is doing sums of 5, they would use five seeds and draw all five seeds on the left side of one of the apples on the sheet. This would show 5+0=5.
10. Then they would move one seed over to the right side of the apple… to show 4+1=5. Then they would move another seed to the right side of the apple… to show 3+2=5… and so on.
11. Students may do addition problems for sums of 6-10 if they catch on quickly.
12. At the end of the lesson, while the students are eating their apples, (I brought caramel for them to dip them in), the teacher will review the concept of half by asking the following questions:
    • How many equal pieces are there when an object is divided in half?
    • Show different objects that are divided into two pieces and ask the students to tell you which objects are divided in half?
    • Do several examples of addition problems using apples and seeds on the board…just like the worksheet.
    • Give them another sheet to work on at home for practice.
    • Clean up table…

Assessment

• Monitor the students as they complete the worksheet in class.
• Check homework assignment.
• Incorporate the apple problems on the next test to see if they retained what they have learned.

Supplemental information

Comments

This lesson is a great way to teach the concept of “half” and simple addition facts through the use of manipulatives. It is a fun lesson and helps EC students because they are able to see and touch the seeds to show addition problems.