The first major problem solving strategy we’ve focused on is using manipulatives.  First we had to learn, though, that “manipulatives” is a big ol’ teacher word for “little things to use to solve math problems”.  In this lesson, students used copies of elf and snowman clothing (a little out of season, I know) [...]

Today we explored a watermelon.  Did you know that there are more seeds in the inside slices than the end slices?  Do you know if you cut every piece in half, you get a doubling pattern?  We’re working on line plots to organize our seed data, then we will figure the most common number of [...]

We learned so much from our bubble extravaganza last week.  We found out that: you can’t blow a bubble on a dry desk, you can stick things THROUGH a bubble if the thing is wet with bubble solution, popping a bubble leaves a ring on the desk, which you can measure to get the diameter [...]

Yesterday, we spent a half hour wandering around the outdoor classroom.  Students paired up to find 4 or more examples of one attribute – green, nonliving, smelly, rough, pointy, etc.  Some of them were pretty tough! Today, everyone arranged their finds on a large piece of paper in the hallway.  We went from paper to [...]