Materials for the lesson

The children bring from home:

Beans (about 20 each, the teacher can decide).
A small casserole pot each from their kitchen.
Plastic/paper water cups.                                                         One large steaming pot (or a plastic basin or any other container of that size . Only one needed.

Teachers Bell.

Layout of the classroom

The desks are put aside to have empty space in the middle.
Children are divided into two groups.
Group A and Group B and they operate as couples. The cups are on the desks in a line with the name of each student. They have, let’s say, 20 beans each.

Each student from group A needs to put some beans into their pocket before playing. 

1^st Phase

This Creative Lesson concerns Chapter 25 (added number) but it can be extended and in the next ones and include equations that have as unknown the subtracted number, or the divided number etc. Always according to the needs, resourcefulness and imagination of the teacher.

The teacher tells the children that today he/she has guests at his/her house and he/she wants to make a bean soup δάσκαλος/α λέει στα παιδιά ότι σήμερα έχει στο σπίτι του τραπέζι και θέλει να φτιάξει μια φασολάδα.
This scenario can be connected with an offer to some institutions or an organization (for immigrants, orphans etc) that is near the school.

So we need to help by collecting beans for the steaming-pot.  But to collect them we need to add all the beans that are in the pockets of their classmates in Group A and the beans in the cups of group B.

2^nd Phase

 The action starts and the children of Group A go to their cup and get some beans (always less than 15). And put them in their left pocket. The rest stays in their cup (i.e. if they take 9 there are left 6). The children of Group B go the ones of Group A and stand opposite one another. The children from Group A have their casserole in hand and talk to the children of Group B facing them.

I.E. Couple: George (group A)-Maria (Group B)                              Couple: Kostas (Group A)- Ioanna (Group B)

They ask:

Group A (couple a)
GEORGE: I have 8 beans in my left pocket, how many will  you add in my right pocket so we can put 15 totally  in the casserole and give it to the teacher to make bean-soup?
MARIA: I will put 7 (added number). She runs to her cup and takes 7. She comes and puts them into George’s. Then takes the beans from Georges pocket and puts those too into the casserole.
The same happens with the other couples of groups A and B with different number of beans in their pockets and therefore different number beans that the children from group B, bring.
KOSTAS: I have 3 beans in my left pocket, how many will you put in my right pocket, so we can put 15 beans in total in the casserole and give them to our teacher to cook a bean soup?
IOANNA: I will put 12 ( added number)

3d Phase

 We empty the casseroles and count beans (we find the equations) i.e. Pocket (8)+ Cup(7)= Casserole (15) Correct.                                                                                        The children run and write it on the black-board.
Pocket (8)+ Cup(7)= Casserole (15)
They put the beans back into the casserole and wait for when the teacher will give the  signal to throw all 15 beans from their casserole to the steaming pot.

The action can continue and repeat, especially if we have beans left in the cups.
Then we reverse the roles of the groups.

4^th Phase

The creative Lesson can continue with the beans that are in the casseroles and will go to the steaming-pot.

For example:
Teacher: each plate has 28 beans.
Kostas, George is giving me from his casserole 15 beans, how many will you give me so I can complete 28 beans for one person? George’s answer: 13 (added number)

Teacher: But I have 12 more guests, so I have to add…
(Then )
2 guests called that they will not come, how many should I subtract? Etc

5^th Phase

 The teacher continues his/her class as usual with questions and discussion with the students, analyzing what they said before and the children wrote  on the board.  He/she presents the according horology (added number etc…)