Making chocolate gift packs

Making chocolate gift packs

Auto-markingPencil and paperOnline interactive
Overview
Using this Resource
Connecting to the Curriculum
Marking Student Responses
Working with Students
Further Resources
This task is about working out height, width and length.
A box of chocolates has these dimensions.
single-chocolate-gift-pack.png

Question 2Change answer

a)  Marsha makes a gift pack of 3 boxes of chocolate.
     Write the height, length and width of her gift pack.
height:cm
chocolate gift pack A width:cm
  length:cm  

Question 2Change answer

b)  Taine makes a gift pack of 6 boxes of chocolate.
     Write the height, length and width of his gift pack. 
height:  cm chocolate gift pack C width:  cm
  length:  cm  

Question 2Change answer

c)  Jo makes a gift pack of 4 boxes of chocolate.
     Write the height, length and width of their gift pack.
height:  cm
Chocolate gift pack B
width:  cm
  length:  cm  
 
Task administration: 
This task can be completed with pencil and paper or online (with auto marking displayed to students).
Level:
3
Keywords: 
Description of task: 
Students work out the height, width and length of gift packets.
Curriculum Links: 
This resource can help to identify students' understanding of length for the Measurement objective and additive strategies (Number strategies).
Learning Progression Frameworks
This resource can provide evidence of learning associated with within the Mathematics Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Read more about the Learning Progressions Frameworks.
Answers/responses: 
    Y6 (11/2015)
a)
height: 30cm
width: 20cm
length: 50cm
 
All 3 correct
very easy
easy
easy
 
moderate
b)
height: 30cm
width: 40cm
length: 50cm

All 3 correct
moderate
moderate
moderate
 
difficult
c)
height: 20cm
width: 20cm
length: 100cm
 
All 3 correct
moderate
moderate
moderate
 
moderate
Based on results of 37 Year 6 students
Teaching and learning: 
This resource explores the measurement sense of height, width and length in different ways.
It is concerned with the sense of what measures change for each question, and also whether students can calculate correctly. 
 
Diagnostic and formative information: 
Common error
Students don't recognise that only some measures are changed
The most common error involved students in the trial not recognising that only one or two attributes had changed and then indiscriminately applying a multiplication factor (the number of packets) to all measures - height, width and length. This spatial measurement idea is a key aspect of this task. Students need to apply measurement sense to work out the height, width and length of the various gift pack constructions. 
 
If students make this error, they would most likely answer the questions as follows:
a) multiplying all measures by 3: height: 30 - width: 60 - length: 150
b) multiplying all measures by 6: height: 60 - width: 120 - length: 300
c) multiplying all measures by 4: height: 40 - width: 80 - length: 200
 
Next steps: 
Students don't recognise that only some measures are changed
Students who don't recognise that only some measures are changed when the different gift packs are constructed may need to explore the measurement sense of the problem in a more physical form.
They could get several small packets and see what happens to height, width, and length as they make different shaped "gift packs".
 
The assessment resource Making different rectangles explores the relationship between  height and width of a rectangle, and the resource Packing sweets explores the measurement sense in boxes and cartons. Together these resources could provide more of a context for students to draw on to recognise how the dimensions of the gift pack would change.