You can design your own task, with numbers appropriate for your class, by downloading the master we have available here. The ensuing debate over whether or not there really would be room for all these animals on a single broomstick lead to the question of another constraint: the length of the broom! One boy became interested in the smallest number of animals required to reach 13 pounds (3) and the largest number (13). This task, with many possible solutions (see student work), generated more mathematical talk than the teacher even expected. So the numbers she chose to assign to the different animals’ weights lend themselves to this strategy. She anticipated that students would use the familiar strategy of “make a ten” and then add three more. They are also working to deepen place value understanding of teen numbers as a combination of a ten and some additional ones. The teacher selected the number 13 as the constraint because she knows that first graders are working to develop fluency with sums to 10. Show any combination of animals that weighs 13 pounds––no more and no less! One teacher developed a mathematical task for first grade by assigning weights to the different animals and giving the broomstick a weight capacity of 13 pounds.
Identifying the constraints in a mathematical situation is necessary for making sense of the problem and for reasoning about possible solutions. The answer to the question is subject to the constraint of how much weight the broomstick can hold. It is a good opportunity to introduce Room on the Broom activities.
The central question of this book – Is there room on the broom for me? – is a mathematical one. Then, when a hungry dragon threatens, the animals use their wits to save the stranded witch. In this lively story by Julia Donaldson and Axel Scheffler, a witch makes room for her animal friends to ride on her broomstick… until there’s one too many animals, and the broom snaps in two. Have some Halloween fun with the witch’s tale Room on the Broom.
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