Greatest Common Factor

     This week in the classroom I taught my first individual math lesson for the fifth graders.  The lesson was on finding the greatest common factor.  It was also Valentine’s Day; therefore, I attempted to make it a Valentine’s Day theme.  I told the students that if friends or people like each other, typically they have interests or qualities in common.  In somewhat of the same regard, numbers have things in common too- called factors.  Their greatest common factor is the largest number that two or more numbers share. 

     The students’ desks are already split into three teams in the classroom.  I gave each team a series of di-cut hearts.  Then, I asked them find the factors of two numbers, find the common factors that the pair of numbers had, and write the greatest common factors on one of the hearts I handed out.  We repeated this activity two to three more times.  I thought it was a great ways for the students to work together and also assess the students’ understanding of the concept.  The students also had to try to use the greatest common factor to put a fraction in its simplest form.  Some of the students found factors that the numbers in the numerator and denominator had in common, but they were not the greatest common factor, so the students had to divide both numbers multiple times.  I explained that if they had found the greatest common factor, they would only have to divide both numbers once in order to put the fraction in simplest form.  Their original method would get them to the correct answer, but finding the greatest common factor would eliminate unnecessary steps. 

     After my math lesson, the students had a class Valentine’s Day party in which they enjoyed several ounces of sugar.  I was surprised by their focus during my lesson when they knew that their party was going to be right after math.  Despite the fact that they focused well during my lesson, I do not know if this will always be the case when students are looking forward to fun activities that may happen later in the day.  My wondering for this week is how do you keep students’ attention during lessons when fun activities are scheduled later in the day?