Students will determine the number of pea seeds that can be planted per pot.

In this task, students will determine the total number of peas to sow per pot. In this partitive context, the students will likely fair share the total quantity of peas amongst the 6 pots in order to determine the number of peas in every pot.

Some of the big ideas that may emerge through this task include:

• There are two types of division;
• Partitive division is when the total quota is known (the dividend), and the number of parts or groups (the divisor) is known;
• Partitive division reveals a rate;
• In partitive division, the dividend and the divisor often have different units;
• The dividend and the divisor of any division sentence represent a ratio;
• In a partitive context, the ratio is often a composed unit;
• The dividend from any division sentence can be decomposed into smaller parts to allow for friendlier division by the divisor. This strategy is known as partial quotients. (i.e.: 85 ÷ 5 = 45 ÷ 5 + 40 ÷ 5 = 9 + 8 = 17).

Show students the following video:

Then, ask students:

What do you notice?

What do you wonder?

Give students 60 seconds (or more) to do a rapid write on a piece of paper.

Replaying the video and/or leaving a screenshot from the video up can be helpful here.

Then, ask students to share with their neighbours for another 60 seconds.

Finally, allow students to share with the entire group. Be sure to write down these noticings and wonderings on the blackboard/whiteboard, chart paper, or some other means to ensure students know that their voice is acknowledged and appreciated.

Some of the noticing and wondering that may come up includes:

• There was a pot.
• I noticed a package of peas.
• I wonder what is going on here?
• It looks like they are going to plant peas in a gardening pot.
• And many more.

At this point, you can answer any wonders that you can cross off the list right away. For example:

• Yes, this person is in fact planning to plant the seeds in small gardening pots.
• The package had quite a few seeds in it, but we aren’t sure how many there are.
• And so on.

After we have heard students and demonstrated that we value their voice, we can land on the first question we will challenge them with:

How many peas were poured into the container?

Make an estimate.

We can now ask students to make an estimate (not a guess) as we want them to be as strategic as they can possibly be. This will force them to determine a number of peas that would be reasonable before determining a more precise answer. Consider asking students to think about a number of peas that would be “too low” and a number that would be “too high” before asking for their best estimate in order to help them come up with a more reasonable estimate. Encourage students to share their estimates, however avoid sharing their justification just yet. We do not want to rob other students of their thinking.

Show students the following video:

Ask students to update their estimate.

Facilitator Note:

Be sure to reiterate that we are not leveraging the help of a calculator here as we are always trying to give students an opportunity to build their fluency and flexibility with operations by leveraging strategies and mathematical models.

While students are updating their estimate, listen and observe as students work to make updates. What strategies and mathematical models are students leveraging? Are they:

• Counting by ones?
• Skip counting?
• Repeatedly adding?
• Using spatial reasoning?
• Using an algorithm?

Celebrate student estimates that were very close to the actual number of peas using a routine of your choice as we head into the sense making portion of this lesson.

Now that we have confirmed that there are 78 peas to be planted, prompt students by stating:

All the peas that are shown will be sown in six pots. We want to ensure that every pot has the same number of peas. How many peas should be sown in each pot?

Be sure to remind students that they are not to use a calculator to determine the number of peas per pot as using that tool will rob them of this mathematical experience. Students should use a mathematical model in order to communicate their thinking.

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Show students the following reveal video:

Or consider sharing the final screenshot of the video:

Answer: 13 Peas per Pot

Provide students an opportunity to reflect on their learning by offering these consolidation prompts to be completed independently.

Consolidation Prompt #1:

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Consolidation Prompt #2:

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Consolidation Prompt #3:

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We suggest collecting this reflection as an additional opportunity to engage in the formative assessment process to inform next steps for individual students as well as how the whole class will proceed.

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