Math

I’m sorry I haven’t written in so long. It was difficult to type for a few weeks, but here I am.

We have been doing some really fun and meaningful math investigations with this class. One was a measuring activity which involved each student working in a partnership measuring his or her own body parts using ribbons. The students then glued the ribbons on to a piece of chart paper. Next, they measured each ribbon in inches and centimeters. Finally, we went outside and students lined up against the pool fence in order of smallest to largest for each body part, shuffling themselves around each time: foot, ankle, waist, neck, wrist, and forearm. It was so fun and interesting. Hopefully, you saw them when they brought them home.

Another great activity was our campus cleanup subsequent to the presentation by Christine Wilkinson of Native Animal Rescue. Each class cleaned up a designated area of campus and sorted what they found in to garbage and recycling. Students then estimated how much they thought the garbage weighed and used scales and weights to measure our garbage in grams.

Students also wove wheat grass baskets as part of our spring curriculum. They sprouted wheat berries and measured and graphed their wheat grass in centimeters.

Students have created their own fraction kits and used them to play the games Cover Up and Uncover, games from the Family Math curriculum which help students to understand the relationships between 1 whole, halves, quarters, eighths, and sixteenths. We read a book called “Full House” which involved sixths and made and ate fraction waffles, waffles that come in fifths. Many thanks to Brenda, Sadie’s grandmother for helping us on Fraction Waffle Day.

In between these activities, students completed work in their math journals, solved task cards, counted up the tickets for the Mayfaire, had P.A.T. time, participated in sharing circles, and completed some activities involving money. They greatly enjoyed the presentation by Christine Wilkinson from Native Animal Rescue. Gabriel and Jack seem very happy at school and I encourage all families to continue to foster friendships between all of the students. It is so exciting for me to be with them as they grow and master skills that help them deepen their knowledge and curiosity.