Tag Archives: math

5th Grade Shows Off Their Manifestos

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Some of the 5th graders got their manifesto t-shirts and wore them to class today.  It’s so great to see them so committed to their beliefs that they want to wear them!  (Mine had a glitch, so I am ordering a new one.)

We did some challenging math today by trying to work out these Frog Jumper problems.  The last challenge was very perplexing, and we think that we’ve decided it is impossible for the number 11.  However, it does work for 12, so our next job is to find out if it works for any odd numbers.

The students also continued to work on Genius Hour projects, which are close to being completed.

4th Grade Creates Tessellations

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After working on Genius Hour projects today, the 4th graders learned more about tessellations – how to make them, where they can be found in nature, and how mankind finds them useful and beautiful.

They aren’t quite finished with their tessellation art work, but I will share a few pieces of their products so far below.

In addition to studying tessellations, the students also did some challenging math called, “Algebra Antics,” where they learned more about the x and y axis and the order of operations.

4th Grade Works on Math Scavenger Hunt

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The 4th graders looked around for mathematical masterpieces in nature this week.  Unfortunately, though the weather has been recently warm, not much is blooming other than grass!  They are also still learning some of the vocabulary, so not every picture in the Pic Collages below is correctly identified.  It was certainly good practice, though!

The students also: got a glimpse at the events going on during our Saturday field trip, worked on Design Thinking, and played a little of the Prodigy math game.

4th Grade Looks at the Math of the 12 Days of Christmas

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The 4th graders did some heavy mathematical thinking this week as they figured out the true cost of the 12 days of Christmas in 2016.  With the help of a website that estimates the cost of each gift with the current market rates, they were able to find out the total cost of all of the gifts given during the 12 days of the song.  (They also calculated the true cost of the “Straight No Chaser” version of the song!)  They learned that swans are extremely expensive, and looked at some trends over time as costs rose and fell.

The students also finished discussing the “Wheels of Life” they designed for the Tuck Everlasting characters and talked about how their own traits would compare to the book characters.  Most of the students felt like they were more intelligent, but not very helpful.  However, when asked if they would rather have a friend who was intelligent or one who was helpful, they almost all agreed on helpful! Interesting!

1st Grade Works More on Frames

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The first graders worked really hard on some more GT frames this week, but we can’t share them yet!  They are for their moms, and we don’t want to spoil the surprise!

The students also worked on some more “Find the X Tile” activities, and they are finding that the problems are the perfect level to challenge them without being too frustrating or too easy.  We will try to have some pictures for you next week!

4th Grade Adds Spirograph to their Mathematical Masterpieces

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I had purchased an old Spirograph kit from eBay a few years ago and thought I would give the students the option to add some Spirograph art to their mathematical masterpieces.  Little did I know that most of them have never used Spirograph!  Keely became our class tutor as she showed the students how to use the different sized gears to make multiple designs.  The students continued to work on their rough drafts and some of them were able to start programming the Sphero for painting next week.  Four of the students synergized to try to create a “draw-bot” out of the Sphero, making several iterations before they finally found something that might work.  It was a classic example of Design Thinking!  Then the students played a math game on our Osmo to finish up the day.

4th Grade Starts a Mathematical Art Project

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The 4th graders made some improvements to their mandala projects so we can finally get them all printed.  They also had time to work on their 3d designs for new playground equipment.  Then they started a new project, which will be a math-inspired work of art.  In order to do they project they will be using our Sphero robots, so they first had to learn how to program the Spheros to “draw” different shapes.  Once they have that mastered and a sketch approved, the Spheros will be dipped in paint and used to create their geometric designs on poster board.

1st Grade Works to “Find X”

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The first graders worked on some tough math challenges this week.  They used convergent thinking to look at math clues in order to discover the value of “x.”  By using removable stickers with a graphic organizer, they were able to gradually digits from 0-9 as they applied each of the clues they were given.  It was a challenge for them, and they learned some new math vocabulary (like “sum”), but they all tried their best to succeed!

We also talked about food around the world and some of the reasons it may be different, such as living in cities or the country, availability of electricity for refrigerators, and what animals and plants grow well in that region.  In addition, they played a game on the iPad to help refresh their memories of the continents.

From 3rd Grade – Mission 3 Complete!

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Pascal’s triangle has been an amazing tool for helping the students to have a Growth Mindset for math.  This week, they used the triangle to do some math calculations centered around “The Twelve Days of Christmas.”  Exactly how many gifts would have been received by the 12th day according to this famous song?  After solving that, the students came up with their own questions that could be solved using the pattern they discovered.

Also, the students spent a lot of time synergizing and problem solving this week to program Dash to complete Mission 3 of the Wonder League Robotics Competition.  There are 7 missions total, so we are working hard to get them all done before the December 10th deadline!

4th Grade Learns How to Program Sphero

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Twin brothers, Trent and Nathan, were this week’s blogger and photographer for 4th grade.

Hello readers, I am here to tell you about the wonders of fourth grade G/T. The first thing that happened was that we all wrote comments about teachers we have met. The next thing we did was that we read about two chapters of Chasing Vermeer a mathematical masterpiece. Then we got the laptops and started to work on our virtual math museums. After we worked on our math museums we all watched a 25 minute video about patterns, symmetry, and beauty. Last and certainly not least we were divided into groups of three to work with SPHERO. We programed him to do a triangle a square and a pentagon. My group called our SPHERO Einstein the not so bright one. Anyway that pretty much wraps it up. Thanks for reading.