4th Grade Photographs Mathematical Art

This week’s 4th grade blog post is brought to you by Trent with photographs from his brother, Nathan, as well as some of their classmates.

Hello readers, today like the others I am here to tell of the wonders of fourth grade G/T. Well, the first thing that happened was that we all took pictures of tessellations, fractals, and fibonacci art around the school for a virtual museum. Next, Timothy showed us some word problems. After that, we all read a chapter of Chasing Vermeer and decoded a message from Tommy and Calder. Then, Mrs.Eichholz announced a field trip on the 16th to the Hill Country Science Mill!!! Fun!! Finally, we researched more on our genius hour project. That sums up our fun day in G/T.  Have a great week.

 

2nd Grade Tackles Tough Math

The 2nd graders reviewed the Thinking Hats today, and really seem to have caught on to identifying the different types of thinking.  They applied what they learned to an activity about choosing a Halloween costume, and did very well!

During our last class, the students did so well on the “Find the X-Tile” activity, I decided that it wasn’t quite challenging enough.  So, I decided to give them some activities that I usually reserve for my 3rd graders.  They are called, “Venn Perplexers,” and use Venn Diagrams to solve math problems.  These problems can be quite tricky, but I was excited to see that most of the students really seemed to understand the concept.  I think that, with a little more practice, they will definitely be pros!

2nd Grade Finds the “X-Tile”

Today the 2nd graders reflected on their Cardboard Arcade Experiences. They did some of their reflecting on paper, and then used the iPads to answer a question on Padlet. I’ve embedded their responses to that question below.

They also used the iPads to play a game called, “Find the X-Tile.” This is an algebraic game in which the students are given clues and have to deduce the mystery number. They used the whiteboard app on the iPads, and I taught them how to use Reflector so they could share their answers with the rest of the class on our projector screen. After practicing a few problems, the students were then able to write their own problems to try to stump their classmates. They did a great job!

Finally, I introduced “6 Hats Thinking” to the students using our interactive board. One of the students even remember the word, “metacognition” for “thinking about your thinking” from last year! They took turns putting different types of Thinking Hats on Alfred, the Skeleton, and then tried to identify sentences as certain kinds of thinking.

After a 2-week break from GT, we got a lot accomplished!

3rd Grade Considers Different Perspectives

Now that the 3rd graders have gotten information from many sources about possible solutions for the problems with noise and trash in the cafeteria, they are narrowing down their suggestions.  Because they learned from their Systems Thinking lessons that it’s important to see the ideas from other perspectives, they did an activity called, “Framing” this Tuesday to consider how other people might be effected by each idea.  These perspectives included: the school principal, the custodians, teachers, other students, parents, and staff who work in the cafeteria.  They showed surprising insight on some of the issues that might come up!

The 3rd graders also worked on another collaborative math problem, but we mixed it up this time and did mixed-gender teams.  One team did great, while the other had a difficult time communicating with each other.  However, they both were able to solve the challenge through perseverance.

Another activity 3rd grade did was to add their creative products to the “Squiggle Challenge” all of my GT students are participating in.  The challenge comes from a school in Minnesota, and it will be interesting to see all of the different ways students can find to transform the same squiggle!

Photo Apr 29, 11 58 48 AM Photo Apr 29, 11 58 54 AM

2nd Grade Super Thinkers!

It was so great to come back from the break to a group of super-enthusiastic 2nd graders!  They all seemed well-rested and ready to get back to work.  That is great, because we have lots to do!

We are finishing up learning about animal structures, and each student is completing a cartoon about starring him or her self as a superhero with a particular animal’s adaptation. They are also making Trading Cards about their superheroes.

I wanted to get in some more problem-solving before GT report cards go out (next week), and found a neat activity online called, “Mystery Math Superheroes.”  The students had to solve some math equations to determine how to color in a grid.  If colored in correctly, they would reveal a superhero. What I liked about this activity was that the students could choose what level of math they wanted to tackle.  Several of them chose the multiplication.  Next week, I might throw in some division for the students that found the multiplication too easy!

In addition, the students got to do some visual thinking with a Tangrams app that our class is beta testing for a company called Tangible Play.  The company sent us a free stand for the iPad, plus tangram shapes, letters, and a special mirror that goes on the iPad camera.  When you set up the iPad on the stand, you can do the tangrams in front of it on the table, and the app lets you know if you have the shapes in the right place.  The students gave great feedback that I will share with the developers for improving the app.  What’s more important is that every pair of students seemed to  enjoy the challenge, and worked through the tough parts.  Great way to show perseverance!

4th Grade Math Museums

4th Grade GT has been studying mathematical masterpieces.  Inspired by the recent opening of the Museum of Mathematics in New York, I asked the students to design their own math museums using their imagination and what we have learned so far this year.  Here are some photos of the students working on this assignment.  You can also view an example of one student’s map, although they have not finished them, yet.