Math

Together, the two grades continue to solve math challenges (taken from Marilyn Burns, Math Solutions) on Tuesdays. They like to work collaboratively and once they have written down the problems they are free to work inside or out.  Matt, Shay (Jaxson's father), and I circulate and provide support.  On Thursdays, I provide them with the time of sunrise and sunset and students determine how many hours and minutes of daylight we have had. This is a challenging activity. They have been used to working with minutes and seconds and now we are building on that skill by including the hours. Each week, more students feel comfortable with this activity. They always challenge me by saying that they woke up early and it was light earlier than the official time of sunrise. I have told them they are welcome to bring in evidence and until then we will use my data. 

Then, we have been doing a facts quiz to increase fact fluency. We will begin graphing our quiz scores on a line graph next week. I stress that their achievement is individual and emphasize that each student is doing his or her best.  Efforts are to be honored, not compared.  

Harvest Festival was a big part of our curriculum during the first week of October. Students were so industrious:  creating two apple cakes, apple juice, lemonade, kale salad, and tomatillo salsa. They were collaborative and responsible, helping with cleanup and figuring out ways to make the work/fun equitable.  

Creating Cinnamon Apple Cake. Needed to figure amounts for one and a half times the recipe. Good use of fractions.

Our Lemonade crew. They loved it tart!

Thanks to Liz(Aoife's mother) on Mondays, Shay on Tuesdays, Katy(Sascha's grandmother) on Wednesdays, and Matt on Tuesdays and Thursdays; I have the opportunity to split the grades for lessons when need be.  

Third graders have continued the skillboard lessons described in previous blog post, have reviewed number sequence and patterns using the number grid, have graphed an elephant using coordinates, and have practiced time to the five minute mark. Please practice time at home whenever the opportunity arises.

4th graders have continued geometry, learning about collinear points and naming of angles and lines.   We played Name That Number using addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division.  

I have told fourth graders to practice multiplication facts at home. Games you can play are Name That Number, Multiplication Top It (like War but using two cards and highest product wins), Circles and Stars, and Rectangles. Instructions will be at the bottom of this post.   Please practice in any way that makes sense for your family. 

Snapshots from this time:

Ella creates a tangram puzzle using 2 sets.  

Tallest tower? 

We used cuisenaire rods to solve these Read-My-Mind challenges and then had time to build.

Apple mind map, each student created their own in math activity book.  

3rd and 4th game to play at home.

4th grade multiplication game they learned last year.  You will need two dice and to create a little six page booklet.

4th grade multiplication game learned last year.  You will need two dice and some grid/graph paper.