Mental Math

We have been learning many mental math strategies for addition (and subtraction).

When adding we can:

• Count all 
• Count on
• Use doubles or near douibles
• Make a ten, then add  - 8+9 is (7+1)+9  which is 7 + (1+9)
• Make a "friendly number" 23+48 is 23+50 then -2 (the friendly number is 50)
• Compensate - manipulatint the numbers to make friendly numbers -- remove from one addend ant then add the same amount to another (48+12 is 50+10)
• Breaking numbers into tens and ones -- then adding the ones, then the tens, and making new tens if necessary

When subtracting we can:

• Count back
• Add to subtract -- 14-7 What do you need to add to 7 to get to 14? then count on.

Let's see if we can put some of these strategies into practice and explain our thinking.

(click on the images to make them larger)

 

We are getting much better at using Mental Math Strategies AND showing our work -- and we can orally explain how we found solutions.!

Mathematical Mindsets

This year, our school is focusing on Growth Mindsets -- especially in math.

Our "mentor text" is Mathematical Mindsets by Jo Boaler.

"With Math I Can…" was born from the sobering realization that more and more kids and adults believe that they aren’t good at math. It is a mentality that is all too common and accepted in our society. It's a mentality that can have a profound and lasting negative impact on an individual. Our mission is to change that mentality and provide support tools to help teachers, educators, and parents deliver the message "With Math I Can…"

Learn much, much more here.

  
The statements below are Jo Boaler's favourite messages to give students (her 7 Positive Norms). Through these, we are trying to help all students have a positive attitude towards math.

 Read more about them HERE.

This is how we are learning the norms in Room 15 :)
 

Math is Awesome!

(encouraging a growth mindset)

Everyone can learn math to the highest levels

Mistakes are valuable - they help our brains grow!

Questions are really important – they mean that you are thinking.

Math is about creativity and making sense – we should be creating solutions that other people can understand and talk about.

Math is about connections and communicating. We can show our thinking in many different ways!

Depth is more important than speed. It is more important to think deeply, make connections and to show your thinking, than to answer something quickly.

Math class is about learning, not about performing. It takes a lot of time to learn and we learn best when we are trying really hard.

Dance -a- Thon

 We danced!

We all danced!

We learned to limbo too!
 

Lets Make Rabbits!

  Leo Lionni is one of my favourite children's authors.

 

Lets Make Rabbits is the story of a pencil and some scissors who make some rabbits -- each in their own style.

We explored the scissors way of making rabbits. We used wallpaper and traced and cut out some rabbit body parts (or cut free hand!), then glued them on to a background. We had a choice of cutting out eyes and a tail or adding googly eyes and pom poms. Then we freehand cut out a carrot, and added some background details with markers. They turned out so well!

(Click on the photos to enlarge them)

Liquids and Solids

These are the "Big Ideas" that we have been exploring when learning about the properties of liquids and solids:

•  Materials that exist as liquids and solids have specific properties

•  Liquids and solids interact in different ways.  

We had many "hands on " learning experiences to investigate the properties of liquids and solids. These are just some of the ways that we investigated liquids and solids:
 
We had a race with a variety of different liquids. We found that thinner liquids moved faster.

We melted some solids and turned them into liquids, and then back into solids again!
(We used a hot air tool to melt crayons)

 

We tried to melt ice using different methods. 

After we melted ice, we discussed why it might be important to know how to melt ice (to keep our roads and sidewalks safe!) 

We learned about buoyancy, and experimented with plasticine to see if we could make it float. Then we tired to put pennies in our "boats" to see how many pennies our boats would hold. (I only got a photo of one boat holding quarters -- I think that someone brought their own quarters out!)

 We will learning more about how some liquids and solids can be harmful to us and the environment in April as we focus more in depth on the environment:

Albanian Celebration of Spring

As you know, one of our students moved here from Albania at the end of last summer. This week, he introduced the tradition of the Celebration of March to us. 

Here is an explanation of the celebration in the words of a student:

 

This is M's bracelet that he wore from home. 

We made ours from heavier yarn. Some students braided, some twisted,, some tied knots and some did even fancier designs! 

We wear the bracelets for good luck!

This is what the trees look like when the bracelets are hung on them. Traditionally they are hung on March 14. March 14 is during our March Break so we will hang them out for the birds on March 11. We hope to see some spring nests in our neighbourhood with red and white yarn! 

(Photo source, Wikipedia)

 
 
 
 

Materials, Objects and Everyday Structures

  We have been busy lately!
In science we have been exploring structures and how they are made.

 First, we learned how to sort objects by the materials that they were made from:

Then we learned how to describe objects and materials:

Then we learned that structures have a framework and they support, contain and / or or span.

(oops, we didn't get our photos up of things that span. Bridges span two places, and so do smaller structures like curtain rods.)

 We read about some Goats who wanted to get to a meadow on the other side of a river. They had to cross a bridge which SPANNED the river.

 We started making our own bridges out of Lego.

We learned about fasteners. Fasteners join two (or more) materials together to make objects.

We planned and made bridges using different materials and fasteners. Our material choices included styrofoam, cardboard, small boxes, cardboard tubes... We joined them using glue, tape, split pins, wire and string. Then we tested our bridges to see if they would cross the "river" (a bin) and also if they were sturdy (could stand on their own) and if they could hold up a small billy goat (10 pennies) ; a medium billy goat (50 pennies) or a large billy goat (100 pennies). Some bridges held up all of the billy goats at once!

Then we made a different kind of structure. We made a geodesic dome!

First we rolled many tubes of newspaper (it took 65 rolls!)

Then we started building our dome. The dome takes a mix of long and short rods. It's really hard to tell the difference between a short rod and a large rod. We colour coded them with pieces of green masking tape, but some still got mixed up, so I had to unbuild our dome a bit one night.
 

Then we rebuilt it the next day. It took a lot of teamwork to get this dome up! Some people held, while others taped. and then we switched. And then we switched again! I am SO PROUD of how well we all worked together. And of how patient we all are.

 Our dome was VERY sturdy! But it still collapsed over the weekend :( But we built it back again. We will sit in it to read. only 4 people at a time or it gets too crowded. And then people lean on the rods. And, as we learned from some pigs, houses of bricks are meant to last! Not houses of paper!