The School Fair

Session 1

In this session we introduce the idea of helping to plan the school fair (or other relevant event), discuss some of the activities that might be found at a school fair, and vote to see which activities are the most popular.

1. Introduce the idea of a school fair, ask students to brainstorm activities that might be at a school fair. Journal articles, picture books, or online videos could be used to engage students in this discussion. Record their suggestions on the board. Try to keep the list reasonably short by grouping similar responses, for example ‘Sweet Stall’ and ‘Cake Stall’ could be grouped.
2. Ask students which they think might be the most popular activities. Discuss suggestions but do not record them for now.
3. Ask students how they could work out what might be the class’ favourite activities. Hopefully someone will suggest voting.
4. Run through the activities listed, collecting a vote of the most popular – ensure that students each only have one vote.
5. Have students work together in groups to discuss the results:
   Which activity is most popular?
   How many students voted for that activity?
   How many students voted for each of the other activities?
   How many more students voted for … than for …?
   What are some of the differences between the numbers of students who voted for different activities? Explain your thinking.
   Encourage students to explain to each other how they worked out their answers, prompting them to use part-whole strategies where possible.
6. Gather students to ask whether the activity they voted for is the only one they liked. It almost certainly won’t be. Suggest another vote, but this time students vote for their three favourite activities from the list. 
7. Depending on whether you think your students will be able to keep track and only vote for three activities each, you may want to distribute three ‘voting counters’ to each student which they hand in to make their votes. 
8. Count the piles of counters to see how many students voted for each activity.
9. Have students work together in groups to discuss the results:
   Which activity is most popular?
   How many students voted for that activity?
   How many students voted for the other activities?
   How many more students voted for … than for …?
   What are some of the differences between the numbers of students who voted for different activities? Explain your thinking.
   How are the results different when we each get three votes?
   Encourage students to explain to each other how they worked out their answers, prompting them to use part-whole strategies where possible.
10. Have students work together in groups to produce a graph of the most popular activities, from either, or both of the two sets of data. Depending on the skills and experience of your students, this graphing could be done using a digital tool (e.g. Google Sheets) or with pen and paper. If using pen and paper, consider providing a template for students to use. You may also need to do supplementary teaching around the necessary features of a graph.
11. Gather students and share and compare the way different groups have presented the information in a graph.

Session 2

In this session, students practise making estimates of weight, and discuss some ways to improve the accuracy of estimates.

1. Ask students if they have seen how candy floss is made. Most will probably not have, so watch a YouTube clip together to learn about the process. The important point to make is that candy floss is just sugar (sometimes with colour added).
2. Have students work in groups to estimate how much sugar they think they would need to buy to make candy floss for all of the candy floss that will be sold at the fair. You may need to do supplementary teaching around grams and kilograms, and provide different sized containers for students to make their estimates against. Each group needs to record their estimates and working-out. This should show their thinking and any assumptions made.
3. Gather students and compare estimates, along with how these were made.
4. Show them a 1.5 kg bag of sugar and question whether this might change their estimates. Allow them to feel the weight of the bag, and encourage them to estimate how much a bag of candy floss might weigh. (Around 50-100g is reasonable). If possible provide them with some objects of known weight to judge by (packets of crisps would be ideal).
5. Ask students to work in their groups and revise their previous estimate. As they work, support them to consider how many bags of candy floss they think will be sold at the fair, and the weight of each bag.
   How many people are there in the class?
   How many people are there in the school?
   How many people will be at the fair if each person in the school brings two other people? (Parents, or siblings, or grandparents etc.)
   If one quarter of the people at the fair buy candy floss, how many bags will be sold?
6. Gather students to compare the reviewed estimates, and students’ working.
   Share some strategies for calculation. For example if we sold 200 bags of candy floss, and each bag weighed 50g:
   Advanced additive students are likely to group in 10s, that is, 200 x 50 = (200 x 10) + (200 x 10) + (200 x 10) + (200 x 10) + (200 x 10) = 2000, 4000, 6000, 8000, 10000g. Students may or may not realise that 10000g is the same as 10kg.
7. Ask students to work in their groups to estimate how much money the candy floss stall will make:
   How much would it cost to buy the sugar if 1.5 kilo bags of sugar costs $2.10 each? Students must realise that you can not buy part of a bag so they will need to round up their estimates. You may need to do supplementary teaching around rounding and the addition of decimals. If this is not appropriate to your students, consider providing calculators to detract from the cognitive load required for this task. 
   How much money will the candy floss stall make if candy floss costs $1 per bag?
8. Gather students again to share estimates of money, and strategies for calculation.
9. You could extend this activity by following the same process with other foods that might be at the fair:
   How many cups of popping corn do you estimate we’ll need to buy for the fair?
   How much tomato sauce do you estimate we’ll need at the fair for the sausage sizzle? 
   Students work in groups and record their working-out, then report back to the class.

Session 3 

In this session we work outside to plan where activities could go on the school field so that they all fit in.

1. Ask students to identify which of the activities would be best run on the school field. If necessary you may need to add or exclude activities to make the problem solvable, yet challenging. Suggest that activities such as gumboot throw (with a triangle of area required) and three-legged race/sack racing (a long strip required) are included.
2. Once you have listed the activities, draw a rough picture of the field and ask students to suggest where they think each activity should go. With a little luck not everything will fit the first time.
3. Working in groups, have the students go and measure the side lengths of the field using a trundle wheel or a tape measure.
4. Return to class, compare measurements, and establish agreed measurements for the side lengths of the field.
5. Working in groups and using the agreed measurements, have students draw a scale picture of the field on an A4 piece of paper. Ensure that students understand the concept of scale. For example the scale might be 1cm to 5m, meaning that every 1cm on the map represents 5m on the field. Support students to work out the measurements required for the map, as required:
   If the field is 40m long, how long should the field in the map be?
   If the field is 25m wide, how long should the field in the map be?
6. Now, on separate pieces of paper, but in the same scale, have groups work together to draw and cut out the shape and size of the area required for the gumboot throw, the sack race, and the other events on the field. This area for the gumboot throw will be a triangle (or more accurately a segment of a circle) big enough that everyone’s throw will be contained within the area. Students will need to estimate how far people might be expected to throw a gumboot. A practical experiment might help.
7. Once students have separate pieces of paper to represent the different activities that would be on the field, have them work together to arrange them in the best way for the fair.
8. As students work, discuss the size of their various pieces and other factors that they are taking into account in the arrangement of activities. (For example, the water bomb catching activity is near a tap to fill water bombs from.)
9. Bring students together to discuss their final maps and compare similarities and differences.

Session 4

In this session students will design and make a box for fudge.

1. Ask students how many pieces of fudge they would expect to buy in a small packet of fudge at the sweet stall. Agree on a number around 5-10.
2. Establish that the pieces of fudge will be around the same size as multi-link cubes, and that their task is to design and make a box for the fudge to go in.
3. Show students how to make a basic box, using a net like the one below. Students may have other knowledge and experience of building nets for cubes. Draw on their experiences, and consider pairing together students to encourage tuakana-teina.
4. Students work together to design and make a box that holds the agreed number of pieces of fudge. Encourage students to vary the size of the base and the depth of the sides, to alter the volume of the box.
   
5. This activity is a good opportunity to reinforce measurement skills, as well as geometry skills. Ensure that students measure lines and keep angles consistent. You may want to require that the boxes be constructed solely from rectangular panels as this will simplify the activity. A variety of pre-drawn templates could be made available for students to use where needed.
6. Gather students to share their designs and compare design decisions at the end of the session.

Session 5

In this session we plan for a stall selling native seedlings. Adapt this to suit the context of your class. It may be more relevant, and therefore engaging, to plan a stall for selling clay sculptures, raranga putiputi (flax flowers), or other items that have been developed as a result of learning in other curriculum areas.

1. Discuss the idea of selling native seedlings at the fair and describe how native seed or seedlings can be collected from mature plants.
2. Have students work in groups to plan how many small, medium, and large seedlings will be needed, and how many classes will need to contribute to collecting the seedlings. They will need to estimate the number of each size of seedling that will be sold, and how many seedlings each class will be able to collect. Ask students to record their working as well as their plans. 
   How can we use the number of students in the school to help us estimate the number of people at the fair? How many family members will each student bring?
   How many of the people who come to the fair will buy a seedling? Which size will be most popular?
   How many students are in our class? How many of us will be able to collect seedlings? How many will we collect each? How many will we be able to collect in total?
   If other classes can collect a similar number of seedlings as us, how many classes will we need to collect all the seedlings we need?
3. Gather students to compare their plans and discuss their methods of calculating.
4. Working in groups and using the numbers of seedlings from their previous working, ask students to set a price for the seedlings, calculate any expenses, and estimate the profit from the stall. Students could look up the cost of commercially bought containers for the seedlings (both plastic and compostable) and consider using freely available materials to make containers (e.g. cardboard, newspaper, fruit rinds).
   How much income will we receive if we sell small seedlings for $1, medium seedlings for $2, and large seedlings for $5? What if our prices were $2, $5, and $10?
   How much will it cost us to buy plastic containers for the small seedlings? For the medium seedlings? For the large seedlings? How much in total would it cost us for plastic containers?
   How much would it cost us to buy compostable containers for each of the different sizes of seedlings? How much in total? 
   Are there any options for containers that won’t cost us anything? Are these workable?
   How much money will we raise if we use plastic containers? How much money will we raise if we use compostable containers? Homemade containers?
5. Gather students to compare the prices they have set, and the expenses and income they have estimated. Discuss their methods of calculating.