Behold! My old math book from 1980-ish!

 Through this math book,  I explored the hows and whys of computation.




Well, actually, just the hows. I had no idea why the heck I was doing this work. It had no bearing on reality, just pages in a book with a picture of a horse on the front. Perhaps the horse had an idea as to the meaning of this math, but he wasn't telling.

Here's how "Math Time" worked:
The teacher would give us a lesson, we would work in the book, and the teacher would tell us if we were right or wrong. If we were right, well cool, I got a little extra free time to bury my nose in a book or gossip with a friend. If I was wrong, I'd correct the problems. No one ever asked me to explain why I answered a question a certain way or what I had learned. I learned to "do" math, but I was never asked to think mathematically. By Junior High, I could add, subtract, multiply and divide like a champ, but could not apply these skills to more complicated math concepts. Because I had no idea why I needed to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. I was all math facts, no math thinking.

"Teacher! I got them all right!"

"Um, why am I doing this?"

"On to the next page! And the next..."

 I am on a mission to make sure my students are truly thinking about math. I want them to really get it and if they don't get it, I want them to be able to tell me what is confusing. I want to hear from them what stands out about a certain math activity, I want to know how they process information, how they use information. I want them examine, express, and self monitor their math understanding.

  Last week I showed you a glimpse of our Estimation Station. This week we continued this activity by counting the pasta in the small jar. I used this time to introduce the class to our Math Journals.

 By reading their journals, you can evaluate their progress and recognize their strengths and needs.

This student shares that she got a little stuck because we were doing a smaller jar than we did last week.

Here is an estimate: 52 noodles

Compared with the actual number: 150 noodles

And while they are thinking, they are also having FUN.

Here are some more FUN math activities from this week:

1. This video on place value
 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vZLbnFE_Yf4

which led to this game:

2. Place Value Snowball fight!!!

Here, Annabella and Max are throwing "snowballs", or rather wadded up sheets of paper with single digits on them. When they have filled the baskets, they choose 3 (for working on place value to 100s) or 4 (for working on place value to 1,000s).
Then, they arrange their digits to show and record in their Math Journals:

The largest number they can make.
The smallest number they can make.
The sum of all of the digits.
The value of each digit.
The number written in expanded form.
A number sentence using greater than/less than to compare 2 numbers.
The number written in word form.
One question to ask a classmate about your number.

Recording in the Math Journals:

3. Some of us stepped into rounding this week...or should I say leapt into rounding. Here is Annabella demonstrating her new knowledge, with a little help from this rhyme:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3iMbseU2LaQ&list=PLCq-7llIV3OkYp-vGlhsXx313Ica6cq_c&index=1

Watch this agile "dragon" pounce on those 10s!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xoqXNpUErWs

In non-math related news, we packed this week full of writing. Here's Bo and Zoe finishing up their outlines for their animal report. What thorough researchers they are!

Zoe records some new facts about Zebras.

Need Platypus facts? Nobody knows more than Bo!

In Greek Myths we compared the Greek creation myth with several Native American tales of creation:

Then we wrote our own amazing creation myth. See if you can figure out which part your child wrote! (Gabriel from Heidi's class joins us every afternoon for myths, so you'll see his name on this, too!)

Our Class Creation Myth

By:

Annabella Hunermund

Max Ng

Bo Fink

Tani Fischer

Zoe McLeod

Gabriel Stettner-Auerbach

A long time ago, B.J. Upton, a Braves baseball player, hit a home run. The baseball created Space. He made all of the stars and planets out of baseball field grass.

A European Dragon was hunting and he came to the grassy field. He pulled up some grass, got some tree bark and got some leaves from Mars. He burned it all up with his fire and it turned into a little ball. When he threw it to the stars, it turned into the Earth.

An outdoor cat made a container from his whiskers and captured some air from space. He spread the air on Earth and it made the skies.

When the cat burned some things (with a little help from the Dragon), he made another container from his whiskers and captured some smoke from the fire. He turned the smoke into clouds. Then, he got some water and put it in the clouds. Three days later, it rained. That’s how the sky was invented!

The Platypus made the creeks with magical powers from his webbed feet. Then, he created the rivers by using his webbed feet to dig a very long, straight line. Then he put in the curves and got some water from the creek. He put lots of the water into the river, and that’s how the river was created!

A house cat used his claws to dig a circle. Then he dug the inside. He spread his blue gray fur into the circle and it turned the fur into the water in the lakes!

A Golden Retriever dug a gigantic hole and used her magic powers to get water. She went to her kitchen and got a container of salt and came back outside. She put the salt in the water and mixed it up with a spoon. Then she used her magic power to turn the sea blue. That’s how the oceans were created!

The Dragon was in the Arctic and had the idea to build mountains everywhere. He started pushing the ice together and it created big mountains. He went all around the world doing that.

Out of the mist, a woman appeared. B.J. Upton married her and they had lots of baby people.

THE END

The biggest buzz this week was around SCIENCE. Rocks, rocks, and more rocks were on the minds of these kids. Several of them even took it upon themselves to make a Rock Lab in the classroom! 

Yes, our class truly ROCKS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!