Mathematically, it has been an exciting time. Students spent several lessons on an investigation called the Four Toothpick Problem. In partnerships, students explored all the different ways they could arrange four toothpicks following the rules that the toothpicks must touch edge to edge and if they form an angle it must be a right angle. They glued each design onto a card and then whole group we determined that there are 16 designs that follow these guidelines; rotation and mirroring do not qualify as new designs.

We created a large poster of the designs and labeled them A-P. Students then transferred the designs onto grid paper, created a set of 16 cards, and labeled their own cards with the letters A-P. The next activity involved creating an order for the 16 designs in which only one toothpick would need to be moved in order to go from one design to the next. Students recorded their findings and shared which designs were more challenging to fit into the sequence. Finally, students played games using their knowledge of how to move one toothpick to create a new design. This activity was much enjoyed by all and it was great to see continued interest over several lessons and how we could extend this activity involving spatial reasoning, logic, and collaboration.

Another exciting lesson involved preparing and receiving a visit from a guest teacher and artist, Rachael Hendrickson (Rachael Spatula). We learned about the Golden Ratio, Fibonacci Sequence, and applied it to an art/math project, in which students determined the center of a piece of paper, used rulers to plot points using the Fibonacci numbers, and then began to connect curving lines through these points to create a type of mandala.

In terms of graphing, we began a complex graphing activity using only coordinates which we have yet to finish.

Students created fraction kits to begin our fraction unit. They were so focused and it was great to see how far their fine motor control and ability to follow instructions in a whole group format has progressed. We divided our group of students (12 on that day) into halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, and twelfths. We read a funny story about equivalent fractions and have played Cover Up with our fraction kits.

We continued fractions by reading the books "Cat and Dog" and "Full House". We had a wonderful hands on lesson and discussion on fractions using our pattern blocks to depict sixths, halves, and thirds.

Students made waffles and ate and recorded how many waffle fifths they consumed. Huge thanks to Kerena Saltzman, Barbara Temsamani, and Colby Smith for their help on this day.

We also reviewed doubles facts and discussed doubles plus one facts.

The Positive Discipline curriculum continues weekly. We have class meetings which always include compliments and appreciations and then we discuss agenda items if there are any, or check up on past agenda items. Together, we have come up with a new list of weekly jobs and our poster maker for the week created a job chart. The idea behind the jobs is that we all share the responsibility for taking care of our classroom and that a student who has a weekly job will feel more connected to the class and want to be present.

We have discussed the Mistaken Goals behind behavior using the example of someone who destroys another person's fairy house or construction: Misguided Power, Undue Attention, Revenge, and Assumed Inadequacy. "A misbehaving student is a discouraged student. When students believe they don't belong, they usually choose one of the Four Mistaken Goals of Behavior..." (Nelsen, Lott, and Glenn, Positive Discipline in the Classroom). Students shared why a person might destroy another person's construction and they came up with the Mistaken Goals through our discussion. Next up, how to encourage someone who has chosen each of these goals.

Below, Daxton creates our job chart using the agreed upon jobs.

The Mistaken Goals poster decorated by Juliet and Elena. Ideas on the board as we come up with reasons why someone might knock down someone else's destruction as well as solutions to help the person whose construction has been destroyed.

It has been a wonderful time!