This week in our math block, the students practiced skip-counting forward and backward by twos with bouncy balls and through hopping on a number line on the pavement. We also continued the saga of the Bolovan family.
In our story, the neighbors of the Bolovans decided to go on a vacation. The couple packed twelve eggs and twelve strawberries to have breakfast and dessert every day on their journey. Using pebbles as manipulatives, each student divided the eggs and strawberries into groups of 2, 3, and 4 and figured out how many days the food would last. The students recorded the results as division equations in our main lesson book.
On Friday, we used large popsicle sticks to divide the 24 children of the Bolovan family into groups. This time, the students had to solve a series of math challenges as a team. The students were asked to work independently of teacher support for this experience. It was interesting to watch them grapple with the challenges and figure out how to work together:
First, the students received 30 popsicle sticks total, and then they were asked to take 24 popsicle sticks, one for each child of the Bolovan family. Each student grabbed a handful of popsicle sticks and counted them. Of course, none of the children had 24 popsicle sticks. What were they supposed to do now? It took them a few minutes to realize that they had to organize the sticks on the table and count them together. Once they had separated 24 popsicle sticks, they had to divide the Bolovan children into groups of 2, 3, and 4. Each time, the students became more efficient working as a team. When they tried to divide the children into groups of 5, they were baffled and believed they had lost one of the popsicle sticks. Only after searching under the table and then counting all the sticks one by one, they figured that no popsicle stick was missing and that 24 cannot be divided by 5. Lastly, they divided the children into groups of 6. When writing the corresponding equation, they sensed that dividing by 6 was very similar to dividing by 4. All in all, this student-driven activity kept the students engaged and confident in their abilities, and they proudly worked together until they had found the answer to their challenge.
This week, the class had fun singing. We are learning the song The Cuckoo and the Donkey. In this song, two animals compete in a singing contest. Of course, the class was grouped into cuckoos and donkeys during our practice. Once we had learned the lyrics, we took our song to the garden and performed it for the animals. You should have seen the animals draw nearer to the fence and straighten their ears when they listened to the lovely melody!
On Friday, we had our first creekcess. The students were busy building a new dam and looking for different colored clays in the creek bed. They had so much fun! Since it is getting warmer each week, we will use the creek whenever the weather permits. Please make sure to pack extra creek-wear and water shoes. To protect our feet, we will not be able to go into the creek with flip-flops. Sandal-type shoes that go all the way around the heels with a thick rubber bottom are required.
