Oct 04 2012
Today was a huge success! A big thank you to our parent volunteers and volunteers from Dow who came to support us. And most importantly, thank you to the kids who made it all possible! More pictures and stories to come soon. For now, ask your learner about their experience and enjoy these pictures.
Oct 03 2012
This morning, Regan and Messi came in and began looking at the light table area together. At this area, we have a provocation that says, “Where does food come from?” and various seeds, bones, dried herbs, and books about food preparation. Its a neat place that the kids are naturally drawn to throughout the day. Unique to their exploration this morning, Messi and Regan came up with an idea- “Lets write a story here- together!” Messi and Regan each grabbed books and writing materials and began crafting a story together. They negotiated what would happen in their story and took turns acting it out on the light table with the materials. They worked in complete harmony. We used their example as a teaching point today during story workshop. Messi and Regan shared their process of working together and friends were encouraged to work with a friend to tell their stories. We had some really great partnerships and some really fun stories come out of this collaborative experience. It is my goal that eventually, the children begin to collaborate during Reader’s Workshop and Math Workshop as well.
Sep 07 2012
Friends work togther to build half meter long cube sticks.
I have some awesome learning to share from Wednesday. Wednesday morning, our class resumed our conversation on how to figure out how big our T-Rex was in real life. Several friends showed us how they had figured out how to mark a half meter by creating sticks of unifix cubes that were 50 cm long. We knew it was important to have this measurement, but we weren’t sure what to do next. We decided to take a closer look at our picture we were working from with the scale. We re-read that 1cm = .5 meters. Lucas asked, “Well how many centimeters is the picture?” Beatrice and Ayden knew, “21!” Then Lucas suggested, “Let’s make 21 sticks and lay them out. That’s how big!” Friends agreed that this would be the best way to represent our T- Rex. They demonstrated teamwork as the entire class enthusiastically began building sticks of equal lengths. Friends problem solved on how to check to make sure the sticks were equal. Some chose to re-measure them with a ruler, some compared them to others, some insisted on counting them each time and made sure they each had the same amount. When we finally had 21, we had a decesion to make. “What now?”
Teamwork!
Addie looks down the row, its getting longer!
Going off of Lucas’ suggestion, friends began taking turns connecting each of the pieces to create one, long line. The kids were paitient as we fixed breaks and troubleshooted directional problems. The cubes began to extend beyond our carpet area, past our word wall, and beyond. Miles enthusiastically predicted, “Its going to go out of the room! Its so big!” And Miles was right, our T-Rex ended up being SO big that it extended out of the classroom. WOW! After admiring our work in the morning, we decided to switch out the breakable cubes for something a little more permanent- tape. We laid down tape in place of the cubes to mark how long the T-Rex was and had fun decorating it with T-Rex-es and dinosaur words. Make sure you come check it out next time you are at school!
Longer!
BreAnna adds a half meter to the dinosaur.
Right out the door!
Sep 04 2012
Lucas and Jackson explore Dino World.
Dylan, Ayden, Jackson, and Hutton enjoy playing with the dinosaurs in Dino World.
Beatrice and Maria use watercolor to represent dinosaurs.
Addie paints a water dinosaur.
Today, our class looked an 8.5 x 11 picture of a T-Rex from the Children’s Museum. We talked about how the picture was just a representation of how big the actual dinosaur was- we knew he was much bigger than the size of the paper! Mr. Henderson and I challenged the kids with a simple question- how could you show us how big a T-Rex really was? We pointed out there was a scale on the picture of 1centimeters = .5 meters and allowed the children to explore various measurement tools in our classroom. Some friends went straight to the rulers and yardsticks, some went for more non-conventional forms of measurement: using bears, unifix cubes, and looking closely at our dinosaur toys. One of the most exciting things about an inquiry like this is the conversation that happens while we are wrestling with new ideas. Many of our friends chose to work in pairs or small groups and talk through their thinking with one another. While we didn’t quite solve the mystery today, we will resume our work tomorrow and pick up where our thinking left off!
Here are a few snippets of insight from our friends.
I’m trying to see how many bones he has to measure him. 20 bones! He has 20 bones! Beatrice
If a T-Rex is a meter, that means he would be 100 centimeters. Lucas
I think he would have 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 14, 15 centimeters. Because that’s half of this stick. Makenzi (talking about half of the ruler’s 30 centimeters AND making the connection that we need half of something- incredible!)
We have to see how close it can be to the cubes. Dylan
Its very interesting! Jackson
J’Den measures our picture.
Maria and Amiah use the plastic dinosaur figurines to get a measurement.
Beatrice checks her measurements.
Jackson, Dylan, and Regan are on to something… they line up the yard sticks along the floor…
More friends work together to line the sticks along the floor.
Aug 28 2012
This week, we have been in charge of taking care of the chickens- we’re the chicken stewards! Today, we were able to collect 3 eggs from the “girls”. When we came inside for math workshop, we began an impromptu conversation about what to do with the eggs we collected. Messi suggested baking a cake. Regan suggested giving them to Miss Judy, our cafeteria lady. Some friends liked the idea of giving them to Miss Judy but weren’t sure if they wanted to give them all away. We talked about how it might feel good to give to someone else. Regan mentioned that Miss Judy may need all of the eggs to make pancakes for breakfast. Another friend, J’Den, suggested something else.
How about we give her half? J’Den
What is half? Mrs. Argus
Like not all of them, but some. Half! J’Den
If you go, one for me, one for you, one for me, one for you, its half! Messi
But how do we know what half is? We only have three right now. We may get 10 by the end of the week, what would half be? Mrs. Argus
I have an idea, we should do this as like a math workshop problem. J’Den
Going off of J’Den’s suggestion, we grabbed a manipulative (the bears) and closed our eyes and pretended they were eggs. I laid out 6 bears in two rows, 3 and 3. We talked about how half would be one of the rows. We then laid out 8 bears and talked about how one row of 4 would be half. We practiced spotting half in 10 bears. The kids were then challenged with another question…
But what if we only get 9 eggs this week? Mrs. Argus
You give Miss Judy half! See, these for us, these for her… uh oh… J’Den
Its not fair! Beatrice
It doesn’t work. We should probably give Miss Judy more then us. J’Den
When you can’t divide it fairly, its an odd. Fairly is an even. Mrs. Argus
Odds and evens! Odds and evens! Lucas
We then practiced noticing when numbers could be divided fairly, and when they couldn’t, and described them as either odds or evens.
J’Den talks about odds and evens with the egg problem.
Mr. Henderson and I also noticed a new interest in our classroom- dinosaurs! Throughout last week, friends were making dinosaur puppets and using a few small plastic dinosaurs to tell stories during story workshop. We noticed a lot of conversation circulating around this idea too. Today, we put out pictures of dinosaur bones with some clay and asked the kids to explore the clay. Many friends were inspired to create parts of dinosaurs and even eggs! Addie shared a really neat connection during the day as well- both chickens and dinosaurs lay eggs! I wonder if we will find any other connections…
