Measuring Mania

These past couple of weeks, the students have been doing some measuring using both non-standard units of measure such as dominos, letter tiles, crayons, hands, etc. as well using standard units of measure, such as centimetres, and metres.  They had a lot of fun working with the clock partners to rotate through stations.

This group measured the back table with different sized play cars...
This lead to an interesting discussion!  I asked them to describe what
they discovered.   It didn't seem to concern them that some of the play cars
they used were different lengths... some much longer than others.   I asked
if this made a difference in their results...  they agreed that it did but were
unsure how to measure the long length of the table using units of like size
since they did not have enough cars of equal length ~ one student showed
the others how to line up a car at the edge of the table, make a mark, and
either add a car of similar size or move the previous car to the beginning
of the mark - aligning the car(s) in a straight line without overlapping
gaps ~ an "ah-ha" moment!

It's About Time

Last week I brought a few of my favourite watches in to school to show the class.  I have always loved watches and remember the excitement when I walked into a Swatch Watch store for the first time.

The children liked looking at creative designs and bright colours.   This led us into a discussion about time.  I showed them the chart paper below that had an analog (face) clock and a digital time.  Together we discussed what they knew and I wrote their comments down.   This was a way of conducting an informal assessment for learning.

I was surprised and pleased with the knowledge the students had.  Although no student mentioned 24-hour clock notation, so I believe this will be a new concept for many.

Following the discussion, we looked at the picture book, Tuesday by David Weisner and then the students were asked to respond individually to the question "What would happen if we had no way to measure time?"  

Making teams

Hello Division 5 students,

Once again I need your help!   Matthew's birthday party is fast approaching.   We sent out 12 invitations and all 12 friends have confirmed that they are able to attend the party.   Matthew would like to arrange for a hockey game and needs to make 2 teams.  

Some notes:
- Matthew also wants to play on a team.
- Scott will be the refereee and I cannot play as I will be busy making lunch and taking pictures.
- Megan will not be playing as she plans to go to a friends house.

How many players will each team have?   Please do NOT just give me an answer.   I LOVE to know how you arrived at your answer... what did you do?  Why?

Thanks for helping me out,

Mrs. Barker

Understanding Multiplication

Multiplication is a concept the students in my class have been eager to learn.  In September, they proudly told me that they knew some of their multiplication facts and wondered when we were going to learn more.   Throughout the year, I taught a few games that modelled the concepts of multiplication.

Yesterday the class heard two great books below...

Next the students worked with one of their clock partners (pairs) and did a carousel brainstorm.   Each set of partners was asked to think about items that come in specific numbers (constants of count).   Some examples include: human eyes which come in twos, wheels on a tricycles come in threes, sides on a square come in fours, and so on.   The partners rotated around the classroom 12 times and were asked to add their ideas to t-shirts numbered 1 - 12.   This idea came from one of Kim Sutton's excellent resource books titled, All Aboard The Algebra Express.  This lesson is our pre-cursor to understanding that multiplication can be thought of as repeated addition or groups of equal numbered items.

Today we continued to explore the constants of counts but moved to T charts to examine these relationships.   I was pleased that some of the students instantly recognized patterns and used their knowledge of patterns to fill in the data.

Some students without being taught, determined the multiplier of "n" in the function and another child recognized that "n" = n + n   There mathematical thinking never ceases to amaze me!

Classroom Easter Egg Fun

Thursday Division 5 spent doing "Egg-sellent" activities!   Together the students worked cooperatively in groups to discover how to determine whether an egg was hard-boiled or not.

Smelling

Spinning/Observing

Shaking/Listening

Next, we took our eggs outside and played with the strength of an oval.   I instructed the students to use one hand only, and squeeze the egg as hard as they could ~ but they had to apply equal pressure all around (example: don't just press hard with your thumb).   The students were shocked that they could not break the eggs, as we all know eggshells are pretty fragile little things.   But when you squeeze an egg in your hand (all rings must be off), its' strength is amazing.   The strength of an egg lies in its shape.   If you took a sharp object to the side of an egg, it puts pressure on the thin shell and easily breaks it.  But squeezing it directs pressure into the egg, so that it compresses along, not across the shell.

In our structures unit last term, we learned that architects and engineers have used smooth curves, known as arches, to support the weight of structures for centuries.   An arch directs pressure so that it compresses (squeezes) the building material.  An egg is really and amazing piece of natural engineering.

We ended the day, celebrating Easter with jellybeans.   I decided to let the students demonstrate their understanding of a "fair share" or "fractions of a group".  I gave each small group a handful of jellybeans and asked them to figure out how to share them equally amongst each other.   When the task was completed we discussed how the lesson was related to both fractions and division.  Math with food is always full of enthusiasm!