Small Number, the Salmon Harvest & Division

As we moved from learning about multiplication to division, I wanted to keep as many ties to that unit as possible.  When students make connections between their learning, concepts and ideas it makes it more concrete for them and they're able to create their own understanding with a base schema.

In our multiplication unit, we talked about how salmon is a symbol of persistence and a staple for many First Nations groups (as hunting, fishing and gathering were traditional ways of life for FNMI groups).  As we move into division, I wanted to connect the ideas and theme together as we discuss how division is the opposite of multiplication and related to fact families.  To continue with this theme, from my resources (print and person) I came across this video:

Small Number and the Salmon Harvest:

http://mathcatcher.irmacs.sfu.ca/story/small-number-and-salmon-harvest

In this video, Small Number (a young boy) helps out with the salmon harvest.  He learns many skills and the video shares with the audience how they fish (using nets). In our division unit, we're currently looking at the division strategy sharing.  In using this strategy, students need to understand that they're sharing with a set number of groups and need to find the amount in each group.  The video lends well to this concept as during it, there is reference to sharing fishing (dividing) among the families.

To extend using this video into division concepts, I came up with the following questions for students to work through:

If they caught 25 fish and there were 5 families, how many fish would each family get?

If there were 20 fish caught to be shared with 4 families, how many fish would each family get?

If 14 fish were caught and only 2 families were sharing, how many would each family get?

These problems offered critical thinking skills and offered realistic, FN connected ideas.

Here are a couple of students performing the task: