Math

At the end of February, the students celebrated Chinese New Year by working on a menu of activities.  Some chose to play the game of Pente (an abstract strategy board game based on the ancient Chinese game of Go), others practiced creating numbers and adding on the abacus, while a couple of others practiced Chinese writing. 

Throughout March, the students worked independently, at their own pace, on operations with fractions and mixed numbers.  Whole class assessments continued with questions like, “Some numbers add to 10 – at least one of them has a fraction part in it.  What might the numbers be?”  Or, “The answer is 3/7, what might the question be?”  The class enjoyed our traditional Fraction Waffle day by making the batter and then eating and recording how many waffle fifths each person ate.  This is a wonderful way to reinforce the concept of improper fractions, mixed and whole numbers, and the relationship between each.  

On Pi Day (March 14), the students enjoyed eating pie while I read to them, “Sir Cumference & the Dragon of Pi”, a story that emphasizes the constant that the circumference of a circle is approximately 3 and 1/7 times larger than its diameter – always.  We then investigated the relationship of the circumference of a circle and its diameter to discover Pi (C/D = 3.14).  The students measured 5 circular objects, recorded the circumference and diameter for each and then divided the circumference by the diameter to reveal Pi.  Some students came very close to Pi after doing the math.

The students continued problem solving with our weekly mental math activities of Digits and Place, Logic Pattern, Place Value, and Find X, as well as working independently in their algebra and geometry books.