Pecha Kucha, Diffy, Soil, Winn-Dixie, O'Keefe, and Peaceful Warriors

Team 3/4 Pecha Kucha

Friday, May 16, 2014

2:00 - 3:00

Pecha Kucha, "chit-chat" in Japanese, is a presentation format through which presenters share their big ideas. Pecha Kucha presenters traditionally show 20 slides for 20 seconds each and narrate the images for the crowd. We have been watching strong sample presentations and working hard to organize our ideas. Our third and fourth grade-style Pecha Kucha will feature some changes to the format that we hope will make for an exciting, engaging event. 

I hope that our wonderful families will be able to join us as the students present their hard work here in our classroom. See you there!

We're playing our newest math game called Diffy! Diffy is great for practicing subtraction, but it also requires students to think logically and identify patterns. We learned to play with positive integers today, but Diffy! will be played with integers, fractions, decimals, and money as we move forward. 

Building models of missions, presidios, and pueblos that demonstrate our understanding of daily life in those institutions.

Students are shaking up soil samples from different zones around campus in order to assess clay content. We need the right proportions of clay, silt, and sand to make effective adobe bricks.

Peer review of a complex, multi-step problem-solving challenge that utilized the third graders' multiplication skills in a new way.

Welcome to Naomi, Florida. We decorated the room with luminarias and pictures of puppies, just like the characters did in the novel. We drank Dump Punch and ate Otis' pickles. It was a super sweet day.

Here we are outside the de Young. Thanks so much to Teacher Julie and the gracious drivers who made the trip possible. We relaxed and snacked in the park before an orientation on color theory. Then we toured the gallery with a docent, focusing on O'Keefe's life story, abstraction, and scale.  We also created our own paintings inspired by Georgia O'Keefe's idea that, "I often painted fragments of things because it seemed to make a statement as well as or better than a whole could."

We're deep in training to become Peaceful Warriors. We read Secret of the Peaceful Warrior by Dan Millman and defined a Peaceful Warrior as someone who:

• is his/her own person 
• knows that fear is the enemy
• is always giving to the world
• peacefully defends him/herself and defends others
• tries to do no harm
• is strong
• is gentle
• is deeply aware
• uses words
• is confident and careful
• always helps people up
• "...doesn't fight, doesn't run, because no fear can withstand the courage and love of the peaceful warrior."

Today we used a simple piece of paper, something that many people would define as being very weak, to lift a heavy book. We discussed what it takes to turn a perceived weakness into a powerful strength. We were thoughtful about our own perceived weaknesses and looked for the strength waiting inside of them.

Budgeting, Polygons, and April Foolin'

 Gloria challenges me to a game of fraction war!

Students are reading from Because of Winn-Dixie. We take in this beautiful book in a number of ways. Students read independently, read aloud in pairs, read aloud in small groups, or listen to me read aloud to them.

 The fourth grade mathematicians just finished working with this question:

Jose earns allowance for doing chores around the house. He earns $2.50 each time he unloads the dishwasher, $1.25 each time he walks the dog, and $3.15 each time he takes out the trash.

He’s had his eye on a new skateboard and he has decided to try and save up to buy one. His favorite skateboard is a Skate Warehouse board and it costs $114.00.  His second choice is a Lost board and it costs $73.00. His third choice is an Enjoi board and it costs $69.00. He wants to have his board by Spring Break (in 21 days!).

He always has a lot of homework on Mondays. He has soccer practice on Thursdays and games on Sundays. He likes to watch his favorite TV show on Wednesdays.

Work with your partner to come up with a plan for Jose. What would you do if you were him?

The partners approached the problem in a number of ways. Some started by considering the restraints on Jose's time. Some started by figuring out how much Jose would need to make each week in order to have enough to by his dream board. It was interesting to see them grapple with the multi-faceted nature of this problem. They asked questions like, "Is that too much work for him to do after such a long day of activities?" "Should we just go for the most expensive board? Or is that not really reasonable?" When they gave their recommendation to "Jose" they needed to show him the math to back up their ideas for him and they needed to do it in a way that was both clear and concise.  After they finished their work, they gave the other teams feedback and made some last changes.

It's always fun to work with our buddies from Room 6! Teams selected random words from books in the library and used them in a team story. 

It was sweet to unveil our finished painting to Becky. She was so excited as the puzzle came together. 

Those stinkers!!!! Happy April Fool's Day, Devin. Here's a tray of delicious Brown "E"s!

We're working as a whole class with some new geometry vocabulary. The students are using giant elastic bands and their bodies to build regular and irregular polygons.