Today, we introduced the concept of parts and wholes into our Number learning. We looked at photographs of fruit and vegetables and decided if it was the whole fruit or a part of it. Looking at pictures of carrots, we discussed how the parts could be cut in different places to make all kinds of different parts.
After that, we were given a tower of blocks and we used our imagination to pretend they were carrots. To begin with, we ‘cut’ them into two different parts. We used the STEM sentence “these two parts combine to make a whole” to help us in our learning. After that, Mrs Brown challenged us to see if we could ‘cut’ our ‘carrots’ into three, four or five different parts.
Later this week, we will learn how numbers can be split into parts too. We will also look at a part-whole model and begin to use it in our table learning activities.
Help at home: You could talk to your child about parts and wholes as you prepare food for meals and snacks e.g. This is a whole potato, how many parts did I cut it into to make roast potatoes? Even though this is small, this is a whole grape. How many parts did I cut it into?
When you discuss parts, you could also discuss whether or not they are equal parts or whether they are different sizes.