Teamwork

Most of us worked on our ShowMe presentations on patriotic symbols and famous Americans with a partner. Because we have an odd number of students, a few students did choose to work on their own rather than in a group of three. Even then, I saw those students helping each other gather facts and information. I loved watching them all dig right in and get to work locating resources, finding facts, choosing photos and writing their scripts. They worked hard and they also worked very well with each other. They are learning some of those beginning collaboration, communication and critical thinking skills that they will use throughout their lives.

Homework ~ Read a good book or two. Check out a Bedtime Math story.

Read Across America Day
Today is Dr. Seuss' birthday and so to celebrate schools across the country participate in Read Across America Day. We had some special guests come and read to us. They were 8th graders from Mesa Middle School. They were all alumni of Renaissance and it was great to see them. I must admit that I got a little tear in my eye when they walked in.

Mathematical Thinking

Mathematical Thinking
We are learning to share our ways of looking at mathematical situations and ways of solving mathematical problems with each other. We are noticing that most of the time there is more than one way to solve a problem or look at a situation. When we listen to each other explain how we figured something out we learn new ways to think about things. This helps us to be mathematically flexible which helps us not "get stuck" when working on math problems. Below are some photos of one way that we look at a mathematical situation - seeing dots on dot cards - in different ways.

We do a short (5 minute) daily activity that involves looking at dot cards. I flash a dot card picture (as seen below) to the crew for a few seconds. After I cover the picture, I ask the crew what they saw. They then tell me how many dots they saw and how they saw it. We have several students share how they saw the dots. Here are a few examples:

One student saw this as the same configuration of dots on a domino. She knew that this was 8 because this is how 8 appears on a domino.

Another student saw this as a row of 3, a row of 2 and another row of 3. He said that 3 + 3 + 2 = 8.

Another student saw the 6 dots on the sides like they are arranged on a 6 domino. She then added the two dots in the middle to get 8.

The next student saw the 3 + 2 + 3 =8 pattern but she saw it in columns instead of rows.

Another student remembered that we had previously seen a 9 dot arrangement on a previous day and noticed that this was the 9 dot pattern with one dot missing in the middle so it had to be 8.

Why do we do this? I explained to the crew that it is similar to reading - we can "sound out" every word we read but that would not be efficient. We need to have a bank of words that we just know so reading can move along quickly. This is true in math, too. We need to have strategies to deal with numbers so we don't have to count every dot to know how many dots there are in a pattern. We become more efficient using numbers.


This activity also helps us be able to break numbers apart into chunks that are easier to work with in our head. This makes us more flexible when adding and subtracting numbers. We will eventually begin to move on from dot cards and to visualizing numbers and basic addition and subtraction facts. Having the dot patterns in our minds can help us make that transition.

One other reason to do this short, daily activity is that it stimulates our creativity. We begin to look at things in more than one way. This helps us be open to finding more than one solution to our problems.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.

Observing, Comparing and Sorting

Last week we read a book called, The Button Box and took a close look at the buttons in our button box. We looked closely at some of them to notice the special things about them, we compared them to other buttons and we sorted them into different groups. The buttons in our box are fascinating and all of the crew enjoys observing, comparing and sorting them. We also use them in our Wonder and Explore station. We use muffin tins to sort and hold the different groups we make. We learned lots of things about buttons that day. Ask your child to tell you all about the buttons in our button box.

Important Dates
8/28 Fieldwork to Ms. Zina's garden ~ permission slips due today
9/7 Labor Day ~ No School
9/22-9/23 ~ Fall Voyage
9/24 Day of Rest for 1st grade
9/25 No School ~ Professional Development Day for Teachers
10/2 Boot Camp
10/3-10/18 Fall Break
10/19 No School ~ Teacher Work Day

Which One Doesn't Belong?

We tried a new math activity yesterday and we loved it! It was called "Which One Doesn't Belong?" and we had to look at groups of 4 pictures and decide which one didn't belong. We quickly discovered that each group had more than one possible answer for that question. We loved looking carefully at the photos and noticing similarities and differences. I found this activity on Twitter where I follow teachers from all over the world (this is how I met Mrs. Price from Australia). One tweet led to the Which One Doesn't Belong blog where I found the photos that we looked at yesterday (shown below). I am looking forward to creating some of my own photo collections and having the crew try to create some of their own. (If we don't run out of time - there is always so much to do and learn!) Enjoy checking out the photos below and if you like them there are more at the Which One Doesn't Belong blog that are more appropriate for older students and adults. These are great for practicing critical thinking skills.

Coding
 On another note, the crew has recently become fascinated with the coding apps on our iPads. We explored them earlier in the year and a few students enjoyed them but now after another recent coding session, so many students are enjoying playing with them and learning a little more about coding. The crew is really open to new ideas and learning right now. They have grown so much! Below is a screen shot that shows the coding apps that we have on our iPads. They are called Daisy the Dino, Kodable and Scratch, Jr. You might want to check these apps out at home.

IA
Our IA next week is Art.

Homework
No homework for the weekend. Enjoy some great books with your child.


Memorial Day is Monday - No School

Wonder and Explore Stations

We added two new stations to our rotation recently one is the Snap Circuit Electricity set that I mentioned in an earlier post and the other was a large bucket of uncooked beans. We had used the beans for a lesson on volume/capacity and the crew really wanted more time with those beans so we added them to a station. Both stations have been big hits and inspire lots of creativity, collaboration, communication and critical thinking. (Thanks to Ms. Michelle for a donation of AA batteries to keep the circuit station up and running!)

Below is a short, 10 second video of Russell and Brianna sending the fan up into the air using the circuit set (yes, that was supposed to happen). If you get this post by email, you will need to go directly to the blog to view the video.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.
Pack your daypack for tomorrow's Voyage including a sack lunch, a water bottle, 2 snacks, light jacket and other small, lightweight personal items if desired like chapstick, tissues, sunglasses, hat.

Be sure your child brings his or her carseat or booster seat tomorrow!