Using Chocolate Bars to Teach Fractions

Using Chocolate Bars to Teach Fractions Believe it or not, teaching fractions can be both educational and delicious. Use The Hersheys Milk Chocolate Bar Fractions Book and kids who once crumpled their brows in frustration at the concept of fractions will suddenly salivate at the mere mention of this important math concept. Theyll even get to the props - milk chocolate bars! Not everyone loves math, but surely everyone loves Hersheys Chocolate Bars, which are conveniently divided into 12 equal squares, making them the perfect manipulatives for demonstrating how fractions work. This witty and kid-friendly book walks you through a straightforward lesson that serves as a fantastic introduction to the world of fractions. It starts off explaining the fraction one-twelfth in relation to one rectangle of chocolate and continues all the way up through one whole Hershey bar. To do this lesson, first get a Hershey Bar for each child or each small group of up to four students. Tell them not to break apart or eat the bar until you instruct them to do so. Set the rules upfront by telling the children that if they follow your directions and pay attention, then they will be able to enjoy a chocolate bar (or a fraction of one if they are sharing in groups) when the lesson is over. The book goes on to include addition and subtraction facts and it even throws in a little science for good measure, offering a brief explanation of how milk chocolate is made! Some parts of the book are really funny and clever. Your kids will hardly realize they are learning! But, sure enough, you will see the lightbulbs go on as their eyes sparkle with understanding that they didnt have prior to reading this book. To close the lesson and to give the children a chance to practice their new knowledge, pass out a short worksheet for them to complete before eating the chocolate bar. The kids can work in small groups to answer the questions. Then, if they are splitting a bar, they have to figure out how many rectangles each child should get in order to split it equally. Have fun and rest easy as you know that your kids will really be able to visualize fractions after this delicious lesson. A hands-on lesson with scrumptious manipulatives always helps drive a concept home better than a dry, lifeless blackboard lecture. Keep this in mind as you plan future lessons. Dream up new and creative ways to reach your students. Its certainly worth the extra effort!

Why Your Personality Type is Important For Your job

Why Your Personality Type is Important For Your job When we fall in love with someone, we don’t expect that person to be everything- to tick our every box or satisfy our every need. So why do we so often expect that kind of â€Å"you complete me!† feeling from our jobs? Not even the dreamiest of dream jobs can be all enjoyable all the time. Barry Schwartz, a researcher on human behavior and mastermind of choice, recently suggested that most of us will find ourselves in one of two categories when it comes to making (and keeping) decisions: we’re either maximizers or satisfiers.A maximizer always wants what’s best. (Top-end stereo speakers, the greatest recipe for sangria, the fastest car.) A satisfier, on the other hand, is content with what is good enough, as long as a few basic criteria are met. (The recipe has to include red wine and macerated fruit and be easy enough to make in bulk.) Mr. Schwartz found that maximizers tend to be more â€Å"successful† (with nicer, flashier things, better careers, etc.), but that their satisfier peers are much happier with their lot.Career-wise, a satisfier might be pleased to stay in one job forever, provided it ticks the requisite boxes (good pay, challenging tasks, benefits, fun co-workers). A maximizer probably won’t be completely content at any job. There will always be another pay raise or promotion on the horizon- another, better company to work for- another, better reward for doing something else.There’s nothing wrong with being a maximizer. Striving to be and do your best is always a good strategy†¦ But it might be worth asking yourself what your criteria are, then seeing how well your current job holds up. If your current job ticks all your boxes and then some, maybe it’s worth asking why you really assume the grass is greener at that other company. Your grass might be just as nice, and worth cultivating.