Lewis, Clark, and Sacagawea and a Multi-Day Math Challenge

Happy Friday! Have a great weekend everyone. I can't wait for the Thanksgiving/Variety Show Celebration on Friday. Don't forget that it's a half day next Friday. Pick-up is at noon.

Here are some of my favorite happenings on the Team:

The students are practicing finding the cardinal directions on a compass.

Following the model of Lewis and Clark and the Corps of Discovery, the exploration teams came up with a name for their troop. They looked at William Clark's detailed maps from his expedition and prepared their own maps by drawing a compass rose and deciding on a reasonable scale. I told them that CCS had recently purchased a large tract of land from France and I needed them to explore it. I'd heard that there is an incredible red lagoon to the East, but that was all they had to go on. They headed East, measuring their journey in ten-foot increments, and recording every step and landmark on their maps. Like Lewis and Clark, the explorers collected natural specimens to bring back. At one point, the explorers became very lost and sent a Native American guide/interpreter to meet with a local tribe and get help. They also periodically sent a scout ahead to investigate the coming landscape for hazards or perhaps a glimpse of the red lagoon. In the end, all three groups made it to the red lagoon and celebrated like the Corps of Discovery when they arrived at the Pacific Ocean.

We are currently studying some important moments in the Westward expansion of the US. The students will dig into this time period more deeply with Javier in a couple of years, but I like to introduce the giant land acquisitions and the resulting draw West as context for what happened in California. It was an exciting time of exploration and discovery for Americans, and a terribly exploitative, dehumanizing time for Native Americans and African slaves. I'm proud of the way that my students are learning to always ask how historical events affected the groups of people who didn't have as much financial and physical power.


 The third grade mathematicians are looking for patterns in this multiplication grid:

The entire class is working in groups on a week-long math challenge. I told the kids that every PE teacher in the county is going to store their PE equipment in our classroom over the Winter Break. There is no way that every piece of PE equipment in Marin County can fit in our room, but how much can?

The students are using so many interesting strategies to approach this question. Some started by finding the area of the floor. Some used actual PE equipment to see how much they could fit in a designated space, then used multiplication to extrapolate out. Some started by measuring different PE equipment to see what type of gear could fit together like a puzzle.

 I really appreciated this magical mathematical moment. Cole and Claire needed to find the product of 12 and 12. They used two very different strategies and then compared their results. Check it out!

Reading with Expression, Pumpkins, Museum, and Parachutes

Happy Friday everyone! Thanks for visiting the Museum of the 3rd-4th Grade Mind.  I was very proud of my students for sharing their learning and passion so confidently.

Here are some pictures from life on the Team this past week. The first set of pictures shows the students practicing reading their personal narratives with expression and fluency. Today we finished recording everyone reading their stories in Adobe Voice and we'll listen to them together at our publishing party on Monday! I'll be sure to send the recordings to you as well :)

Last week, we carved pumpkins and did an estimation activity with the seeds. Thanks to Shreya for coming in to help us! And thanks to everyone who brought in pumpkins!

 After completing the activity the groups presented their carved pumpkins to the class and shared their strategies for estimating the number of seeds, perhaps re-assessing their estimations halfway through the counting process, and accurately and efficiently counting such a large number of seeds. One pumpkin had 1,041 seeds inside!

Here the 5th and 6th graders are visiting the Museum. Some of the visiting Tahitian students were there to participate in the gallery walk!

 Peggy and the kindergartners came as well!

Teacher Brad and I decided to get our classes together and build some parachutes in partners. They strategized design ideas and made observations on the playground. When the 3rd and 4th graders helped the younger students record their observations in their science notebooks. I'm feeling inspired to do some big design challenges in the near future!

After Brad's class left, we talked about wind resistance and gravity. We watched and discussed this really awesome video. I highly recommend checking it out!

http://www.iflscience.com/physics/dropping-bowling-ball-and-feather-vacuum


Thanks again for coming this afternoon!