Spring Indoor Climbing 2015

Wow...isn't always so amazing to see 6 and 7 year olds take on such amazing personal challenges?
Enjoy these photos of our climbing week.  I tried to get everyone in a picture! Thanks to all of our parents who were able to come and belay.

Becoming Mathematicians....Amazing Ribbon Worms!

As we study earthworms in the garden system, we came across the fact that there are many species of worms. One that amazed us was the 115 foot green ribbon worm that lives on the ocean floor.  Here is a video that I found to show the children.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Kj0JkkdAM4

So I decided this was a great opportunity to work out a math problem.  

We measured the average student in our class and and found out that most first graders are around 4 feet tall.  I asked them to use this as a measurement.  They would not be given any other measuring tools. (non-standard measurement:  Common Core standard:)

 Next I gave them time to talk at their table groups about how we could work this out using our bodies.
(Communication, Critical Thinking, Collaboration!) 
We came together and debriefed as a whole group and 3 students came up with the idea of laying our bodies end to end to see how long a ribbon worm might be.

So the kids laid down on the carpet end to end...and they were shocked that they wrapped around the room with a bit of overlap! 

Then we had the task of figuring out how to solve how long we were as a crew and were we as long as a ribbon worm?

 Here is the thinking of one of my students...she broke the 4's down into 2's because she knows how to count by 2's.  Wow.  She came up with 96 ft.

Then I showed the work of another child's thinking which looked like this.  He also got 96 feet long.
We were giddy by this time...the room buzzing with learning.  We were so energized by doing math together!

We ran out of time but tomorrow we will finish by figuring out the difference between 115 ft and 96 ft. to determine how much longer we needed to be to be as long as a ribbon worm.  How many more kids would we need in the room to reach this length?

Winter Voyage 2015

"I just love outdoor ed"...
This is something I heard today from one of my students.
"I noticed what kind hearts you all have...you really took care of each other today".

This is something I heard from the director of the Outdoor Ed center as she spoke to our crews at the end of the day. So proud of all of first grade!

Taking on outdoor challenges and collaborating and problem solving together is such a wonderful gift to all of us. 
For me, the best part was watching them play, laugh, and love each other in the process...sigh...I love my kids!

When We Grow Up

Our current Expedition is Financial Literacy.
We are learning about earning, spending, saving, and donating.
As we learn about earning, it's fun for us to think about what we want to be when we grow up and how much money we think we will make.  

Below is a 30 Hands presentation that includes each crew member's future job and salary!  This would be fun to look at with your child.

My Valentines

Every year I look forward to watching the crew pass out Valentines.  So precious! Check out the mustaches at the bottom!

Practicing being Math-ish

In a past post I wrote about teaching my children about being "math-ish".  This is highly important for them as they learn how to work out story problems.  I encourage them only to use tools and give it a go...not worrying about the "right answer" as much as at the process.

So I presented with this problem to work out.  I wanted them to be able to draw a picture and to be able to show their thinking.  

Wow.  I was impressed and so I decided to bump it up to something a bit more difficult.
I told them we were off to the animal shelter.  Inside were 10 cages and 2 dogs in each cage...how many dirty paws now?

Pretty awesome, don't you agree! 
This shows how we are becoming mathematicians who can figure out real life problems!  It was a thrilling lesson for me as their teacher!