This week as part of my math centers I had my students work on story problems using dinosaurs. I wanted my students to have some hands on experience in creating their own story problems before I asked them to solve written word problems. I knew they needed this in order to really understand what a word problem is, so I got a little creative. I put a blank sheet of paper (green cardstock) in a sheet protector. Then I set out a tub of dinosaurs and some whiteboard markers. I asked students to draw their dinosaur environment/scenery and then create a story problem to go with it.
My students loved this. Some students seemed to be enjoying themselves a little too much and were taking a little too long to draw their picture and/or to pick out their dinosaurs, but when I checked on them, they were doing these tasks with a purpose. They wanted specific things in their picture and they wanted specific dinosaurs for their story problem. They really took it seriously.
When I first introduced this activity I really only gave one example. It was very simple. Example: There were 6 dinosaurs in the grass and 3 more joined them. Now there are 9 dinosaurs. As I went around to have students tell me their story problems they were using the word "joined.". They also began trying to write out their story problem or were trying to set up their equation. I even had one student ask if they could do a subtraction problem.
This very simple activity was really worth the time. I'm going to use it again next week, but this time I am going to have student use comparison word problems. Example: There are 8 red dinosaurs and 2 black ones. There are 6 more red than black and there are 6 fewer black than red.
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