The Mathemagician, Unpacking Our Reading Lives, and Magnitudes of Ten

One of my favorite parts of the past week has been watching the students struggle, make discoveries, invent strategies, fail, figure it out, try again, and succeed on a super challenging math problem from our read-aloud book, The Phantom Tollbooth. Here's the excerpt that inspired our mathematical investigation:

"Can you make things disappear?" asked Milo excitedly. 

"Why certainly," said the Mathemagician, striding over to the easel. "Just step a little closer and watch carefully." 

After demonstrating that there was nothing up his sleeves, in his hat, or behind his back, he quickly wrote:

4 + 9 - 2 × 16 + 1 ÷ 3 × 6 - 67 + 8 × 2 - 3 + 26 - 1 ÷ 34 + 3 ÷ 7 + 2 - 5 = 

Then he looked up expectantly. 

 When working in teams on this problem, students had some of the most incredible mathematical conversations I've listened in on and participated in all year. We talked about whether or not the order in which we worked through the steps matters. We looked at ways we could split up large numbers to make challenging tasks (such as dividing by 34!) more accessible.  One group drew 34 circles and started to distribute 612 dots evenly in the circles until they realized that they'd simply have to find a more efficient way. "What if we put 10 at a time in each circle?" 

In another situation I loved overhearing, "Can we just double what we already did instead of doing it all over again?" (yes... yes you can, my friend!)

 

We've been discussing how strong readers live lives in which reading matters by asking ourselves, "What's working for me and what's not working for me?" That way we can understand what should happen in order to make our reading lives the best they can be. We've timelined the highest highs and the lowest lows of our experiences with reading to mine those moments for useful clues.

Here are some great, reflective excerpts from the students' reading journals:

"My reading muscles are MUCH stronger at school than at home because I never want to read at home. When I get home I really want to run around because we sit a lot at school. When I'm bored at home reading really gives me something to do. When I read at home because I'm bored the story gives me ideas for fun games to play."

"To make reading the best it can be I should find books that make me feel proud, but are not too hard."

"I like to read comics or other series in my bed before bed or on the couch. School is better for "Just Right" books."

"Sometimes I lose my focus and daydream about being in my book but I think that's maybe OK."

"I get a headache when I read too long and get tired. It feels the same as looking at a screen for a long time."

"To make reading the best it can be I should read books that are worthy of my time. I think personally that really really really long books are 80% bad writing. They spend all that time writing when it's not even a good book!"

"I hated when my mom forced me to read a book that I didn't like. This makes me think that to make reading the best it can be I should pick my own books when we go to the library."

"I like to read at home way more because I can read wherever I want to in my house. When I read for too long I get tired and when I get tired I can't focus and my mind goes to other things. This makes me think that to make reading the best it can be I should take a break when I get tired of reading."

"I can read more pages in 20 minutes at school because everyone reads and it's very quiet. I usually don't lose focus when I read at school, but if I do it's hard to get my focus back again."

"My reading muscles are stronger at school than at home because I'm more focused in school. I don't know how to do that at home."

"It was awesome when I read Harry Potter. This makes me think that to make reading the best it can be I should read books that are adventures."

Excellent meeting facilitation, Will! Some students brought forward the idea of bringing our pets to school and the discussion that followed was very thoughtful and very passionate. What about smaller pets? Is it really reasonable to have a bunch of dogs running around the classroom? Hmmm. What about our students who are afraid of dogs? After much empathetic listening and compromise, the students decided that it would make more sense to bring in pictures and videos of their pets to share. And students who don't have pets could select a funny or cute video from the internet to share.

Making mold and cast fossils:

Sorting pictures of different fossils into categories based on how they most likely formed:

Here students are assembling bones into complete skeletons. Just like paleontologists, they don't know what they've found or what the complete skeleton should look like. They're basing their ideas on the four main skeleton types that we can see in the world today: mammal, fish, bird, and reptile.

Here students are modeling multiplying large numbers by magnitudes of ten. When solving 20 x 6, why can you simply multiply 2 x 6 and add the zero? Prove it! 

Acrostic Poems, Senior Buddies, Student Council, Our Needs, and Fossilization

We've really been cruisin' since we returned from Westminster Woods and I have so much to share with you. First of all, these are the beautiful acrostic poems that the students wrote as gifts for their senior buddies at Bello Gardens. They brought them to our first meeting as a jumping off point to introduce themselves and as a gift to decorate the residents' rooms. They are absolutely so sweet.

 

I was very excited to be back at Bello Gardens to introduce my students to some wonderful people whom I've known for three years now and some great new friends. The kids were brave and compassionate. I was truly blown away. I know it can feel quite overwhelming for a kid to step into such a new experience full of question marks. I was extremely proud of they way they gave of themselves. They started out by being paired with a buddy. Then they had some time to share their poem and get to know one another a bit. Dena, the program coordinator from LITA's Bridging Generations program, gave the kids some fun conversation starter questions to work with. Then we played a rousing game of BINGO, said goodbye, and headed back to campus.

When we got back they students shared what they learned about their partner. They also shared what was fun and what was challenging. We talked about hearing loss and dementia. We talked about why visiting Bello Gardens is a wonderful gift for us and our senior partners. Many of the seniors have chosen to participate in the program year after year and the Bello Gardens program coordinator shared that it is such a highlight for the residents. The place is buzzing with positive energy after we visit!

And back on campus...
Division challenges in small groups:

Claire's fantastic class meeting: What do we need to collect for our haunted house? And should we create the classroom job of "substitute" to cover important roles when someone is absent?

 

Big-time congratulations to our Student Council Representative candidates! They were poised, prepared, genuine, and passionate.  We're a lucky class to have Will representing us on the council for the entire year and William and Charlie sharing the responsibilities of the second representative as a pair! !!!!! Just AMAZING !!!!!

This weekend I went to the Teachers 4 Social Justice Conference in the city. The overarching theme was on challenging a culture of violence and I left feeling very inspired to continue to grow our social justice curriculum and introduce my students to movements for social change that are inspiring, important, and developmentally appropriate. 

Along those lines, we started to discuss the language of "needs" that comes from Non-Violent Communication.  According to the Center for Non-Violent Communication, "Non-Violent Communication (NVC) is based on the principles of nonviolence-- the natural state of compassion when no violence is present in the heart. NVC begins by assuming that we are all compassionate by nature and that violent strategies—whether verbal or physical—are learned behaviors taught and supported by the prevailing culture. NVC also assumes that we all share the same, basic human needs, and that each of our actions are a strategy to meet one or more of these needs. People who practice NVC have found greater authenticity in their communication, increased understanding, deepening connection and conflict resolution."

One of my favorite elements of their work is helping people identify the need behind the action. The big idea is that every choice we make is done to fulfill a need that everyone can relate to. They may have made a choice that doesn't work for you at all or that seems counter-intuitive to the need behind it, but the need is the root and the need is something that we can all relate to. Why not start challenging conversations or conflict mediation from that place of common experience?

So... today we identified some of our most important needs and the students worked to identify the need behind the action in a series of scenarios.

And lastly, we've been learning all about fossil and the fossil record in science! I thought it would be a great starting point for the year because it's a fantastic segue into studying the early natural and social history of California. Also... fossils are way cool!

Here students are modeling the process of forming permineralization fossils with sponges taking the place of porous dinosaur bones.