Materials for the lesson

1. 10 apples drown on cartoon or plastic ones

2. 10 pairs drown on cartoon or plastic ones

3. 1 basket

4. 1 farmers hat

Layout of the classroom

The classroom should be empty. All desks and chairs are put aside.

Phase 1

It’s a Fruit Market Game. The teacher explains the rules. 10 pupils will impersonate apples. 10 pupils will impersonate pairs. 1 will be the farmer who sells his/her fruits. 1 will be the buyer and he/she will go to the fruit market to get some fruits in the basket. The rest of pupils must say how many fruits the buyer got in the basket, and how many apples and pairs are left on the market.

On the class board the teacher has already written many samples of addition and subtraction like: 3 + 2 = 5, 8-3=5, 6-2=4, 5+2=7 etc. (Could also be that teacher dicides to write them without solution and make this at the end of the lesson, asking pupils).

The pupils help putting aside desks and chairs to free the middle of the room.

Phase 2

The teachers makes points places of apple’s group and pair’s group. 10 apples and 10 pairs are chosen as well as the farmer. The ‘’fruits’’ get cartoon/plastic fruit each in their hands, the farmer puts the hat on. The rest stay aside and observe and count.

One of the observers is the buyer. The buyer takes the basket and goes to the market and asks farmer to get for instance 3 apples and 2 pairs. Farmer chooses who will be ‘’sold out’’. The cartoon/plastic pairs and apples are put inside the basket. The teacher asks and the observers say how many fruits total are has been bought, and also how many apples and pairs are left in each group. The teacher makes sure that numbers are said clear (3+2 = 5, 10-3=7, 10-2=8). The teacher may decide that just one pupil is answering instead of the whole group. This is left up to the teacher to decide upon situation.

The pupils from apple and pair group left without fruits in their hands become observers and are replaces by some of the already observing pupils. Buyer and farmer also change after every case and are replaced from pupils from observing group.

The idea is that everybody passes all the ‘’roles’’.

Phase 3

When teacher decides to stop the game, the pupils put the classroom back to normal order.

Phase 4

The teacher focuses the attention of everybody on the written samples of addition and subtraction on the classroom board. Everybody says it loud altogether: 3 + 2 = 5, 8-3=5, 6-2=4, 5+2=7 etc. (Or if teacher decides the solutions can be found altogether).