Fourth graders continued trying to determine the missing side of a rectangle with an area of 276 when one side has a length of 6. Today the last group determined the correct length of the remaining side. All three groups are working to showcase their thinking.  The explanatory part of the activities is definitely what is challenging for everyone these days. It’s an important part and we will continue to work on it, but I know it’s hard.

Third graders worked in new groups today to share their different Cinderella stories. They’ll have time to finish on Thursday. It was fun listening to students explain how their stories were similar, but not quite the same. I loved hearing how one was unable to go to a ball, while another was going to miss the Eid Festival, while yet another was unable to go to court and another to attend a feast. All little clues about what was important within that culture.

Second grade was on a field trip this morning so I did not see them for math. Be sure to ask them about their musical adventure!

Third grade came back for more hard work in the dungeon as we started a graphing activity. Students are learning about data and data collection in their classrooms. Students were given data about animals and allowed to choose what data they wanted to graph. From there, students were given very little guidance about what and how to graph. Tomorrow we’ll look at how they started and how to ensure that the data is presented in a way that makes it easy to read.

Fourth graders started a new activity today. It’s called What’s the Missing Side? We reviewed our work of a few weeks ago that asked them to construct visual proofs for multiplication. This activity asks them to determine the missing side of a rectangle if given the area and the length of one side. Needless to say this caused a lot of consternation as they grappled with the idea. Two groups have come up with a strategy – though both strategies are different – and one group is very close to determining a strategy to answer the question. The next step is to ask them to create a visual proof that explains their strategy to other students.

Each group in third grade reading has finished their assigned Cinderella story: they’ve read it, determined the important story elements, and filled out a plot diagram. Tomorrow students from each group will be redistributed into new groups where they will share their Cinderella stories with students from different groups. Our goal is to see how stories change based on the setting, but also on what is important to a culture. Students who finished earlier than others were allowed to choose a different Cinderella story to read.

Second grade is struggling a little in their exploration of geometry. They’ve been asked to create 2-D shapes and to describe their attributes. Precision is not necessarily something second graders have been asked to worry about. In the dungeon, as they like to call it, it is required. Groups have had to go back multiple times to revise their list of attributes if it was not quite accurate. Once they completed that, they were able to move on to 3D shapes. They will compare the attributes of 2D and 3D shapes by the end of the week.

Second grade reading quickly reviewed the story Four Feet, Two Sandals and together, we completed a plot diagram for the story. I then read I Want My Hat Back to them. On Friday, we’ll review the book and they will work in groups to determine the story elements for the book: characters, setting, problem and solution. They were also introduced to the “Somebody wanted but so” method of summarizing. Ask them to tell you about it – it’s a quick and easy way to summarize a book in a single sentence.

Fourth grade completed their visualizing numbers exploration. We had an excellent discussion about how to color-code some of the numbers.

• Why are you coloring that 6 the same as the 2, doesn’t it need to be its own color so that when we get to numbers that are multiples of 6 it shows?
• The only main numbers are 1, 2, and 3 (which was later expanded to add the number 5).
• So…if a number is a multiple of 12, it’s also a multiple of 2?

This is why we do math the way we do. I know it can sometimes drive you a little batty because it’s not the way you (nor I) were taught, but the conceptual exploration forces students to really grapple with the material in ways I never did. While this matters now, it will matter much more as they move into upper elementary and middle school  – when they are asked to apply what they’ve learned. They’ll know how to do it because they understand the mathematical reasoning behind it rather than simply the algorithm.

I read Four Feet, Two Sandals to the second graders today as we talked about plot diagrams. The story is of two girls in a refugee camp in Peshawar who share a single pair of sandals. I introduced the concept of a plot diagram and we will refer back to the story on Monday to help us fill it out. Because writing is an important focus this year, students will also be asked to think about how to use this plot diagram when they write their own story. We haven’t quite finished with the Who Am I? assignment, but we needed a short break before we get back to it.

Third grade math played a new game – and at least one student loved it so much he took some of the extra copies home so he can make you play it too! It’s called Don’t Break the Bank. Students were given a game board and a die. The game board consists of 9 empty boxes, arranged into 3 rows of 3. They roll the die and must decide where on the game board to put that digit. They do this for 9 rounds until the game board is complete. Each student must then add up their 3 3-digit numbers. In order to win, students must come as close to 1000 as possible without going over. This game helps to solidify understanding of place value, but also forces students to estimate and do a lot of mental math. It is fun, but it’s also a lot of work.

Fourth grade continued with the visualizing numbers activity. Today they were asked to take a picture of their color-coding and post it to Seesaw with an explanation. After the explanation was posted, I usually asked a follow up question regarding their understanding of the pattern. Being able to explain their mathematical thinking is an important skill on which we will work for most of the year. Problems of the week are designed to help with this as well.

Third grade reading continued their Cinderella reading. Today they spent more time delving into the story to determine the setting – which includes time and place – as well as the conflict, resolution, and climax. We had some really great discussions and some students were reminded that having background knowledge is important when reading new stories. The Islamic version of Cinderella had a reference to hajj and one of that group immediately knew that this referenced Mecca and Saudi Arabia. Looking for tiny nuggets like this within a story is an acquired skill and it’s a struggle sometimes for students who have always read quickly and easily, to be reminded that slowing down and paying attention to the small things is a really important part of reading.

Second grade continued to build 2D shapes. This part of the activity is taking a little longer than expected because, like the fourth graders, explaining their mathematical thinking is difficult. Students can easily build the required structures, but can’t always explain their attributes. We’ll work on this next week.

Fourth grade reading had another wide-ranging conversation about WWII and how it relates to the book they’re reading with Mrs. Rickabaugh. We talked about rules during war, the formation of the United Nations and the Geneva convention. We discussed chemical warfare and we watched a short video that contained an animation of Dulce Et Decorum Est by Wilfred Owen. Students were given the opportunity to walk away, if they chose, but it did really help them understand why it’s considered such a bad thing. One student, who can always be counted on to ask really great questions wanted to know if it was ever the right thing to do the wrong thing. We touched on that for a little bit, but that is one of those questions that will require a lot of time to think about and discuss. We’ll definitely bring that up again for discussion.

Third grade math continued their study of area. While we will wrap this up on Friday, one group is now pushing their understanding of area and perimeter while a few of the other groups are still struggling to understand just how to prove an area. We’ll have a discussion on what they’ve discovered on Friday.

You won’t hear from me on Thursday, as I will be attending the Camp Albemarle field trip with the fourth graders.