From the Desk of Mrs. Anderson
PACT and Prime Time News - November 2015
Students have been very busy in PACT and Prime Time classes at Johnson STEAM Academy, Nixon Elementary and Truman Elementary. I know this is a very busy time of year with Thanksgiving break and the Holiday season upon us. So take a few minutes to sit back, relax, and see what your student(s) have been learning!
Prime Time Mindful Math 2nd & 3rd Grade
Problem Solving Skills
Students learned problem solving skills with Chapter 2 - Don't Let It Break.
For example:
Chicken Little had an acorn fall on her head and she went down the road telling everyone the sky was falling. While she did that, her sister collected acorns and put them in her backpack. If each acorn weighs 2 ounces, and the backpack will only hold 2 pounds, how many acorns can Chicken Little's sister put in her backpack? (We talked about how 16 ounces make up 1 pound, of course.)
This was a challenging problem because of 1st of all having to figure out what the problem was asking them to do then figuring out where to start and coming up with all the steps necessary to complete the problem.
- One strategy was to divide 16 by 2, but that was difficult because, not realizing they really needed to divide 32 by 2, students were almost always confident the final answer was 8.
- Another strategy was to do repeated addition with 2's by listing or using tallies.
- Yet another strategy was making a chart to find out how many 2's fit into a pound then asking, "If 8 acorns make 1 pound then what would get me to 2 pounds."
Students discovered the final strategy made it easier to figure out harder problems like, "How many acorns can fit into a backpack that holds 48 ounces?" Students solved this problem by looking for a pattern (adding 8) to get the answer.
STEAM CHALLENGE
To finish chapter 2, students were given the challenge of creating a bridge out of only four sheets of paper and a foot of tape. The bridge had to cross a gap between two books, could not be attached to the books and could not be touching the floor. The ultimate bridge was to design the bridge so it could hold weight.
Using the engineering design process (Ask, Imagine, Plan, Create, Improve), students eventually were successful in creating bridges that could hold much more weight than originally anticipated. Many students were then able to create their own "Don't Let It Break" Problems based on their bridge.
Problem Solving with Money
Next, the students worked on Chapter 3 - How Much Does It Cost? & Chapter 4 - How Much Change Will I Get? To review coin values, we started with problem solving cards and plastic coins. With these cards, students had to figure out problems like "Use 8 coins to make 51cents."
These 2 chapters reinforced the problem solving skills we worked on before, such as making charts, looking for patterns, and repeated addition. Some other skills were addeed such as breaking money down into groups, adding and subtracting money and counting money back.
Here is a tricky problem from Level 3 of How Much Does it Cost?
- A pencil and a pen together cost $1.20. If the pen cost twice as much as the pencil, how much does the pencil cost?
And here is one from Level 2 of How Much Change Will I Get?
- Shirley bought a pencil and eraser that cost $1.77. She paid for it with a $2 bill plus 2 pennies. What would be Shirley's change?
Math Project
Design a Carousel is a math project most classes have started. Those who have had time in class have worked on it with me, otherwise they have brought, or will be bringing it home.
If students have not had time to start one of the extension projects in class, they may do so at home. The extension page is located on the back of the packet and is optional. If your student does complete this project, please have them bring it to school to share.
Carousel Profit
How Many Seats?
Carousel Model
Math Olympiads
We have continued to work on past Math Olympiads contests on a regular basis, working on concepts and vocabulary as we go. This is a great way to learn problem solving strategies as well as math concepts. Even though these are absolutely necessary and valuable, the thing I like best about this class is seeing students stick with a hard problem until they reach the solution. To go along with this, I've overheard other students encouraging peers who are stuck saying things like "you don't have it yet, just keep working", "you almost have it", "you can do it", etc. I'm so proud of the progress the math students are making with their mindsets!
We had our first Math Olympiads contest this month. Each contest has five problems, each worth 1 point. It is very difficult to get all of them correct and I only expect students to do their personal best on this challenge. I would like to go ahead and give a shout out to Kate C. from Truman for getting all five problems correct for the November Math Olympiads contest!
The remainder of the Math Olympiads contest dates fall within the week of the following:
- December 15th
- January 12th
- February 9th
- March 8th
For more information on Math Olympiads click here.
We recently began geometry with folding circles. Did you know you can make all sorts of different geometric shapes from a circle? We didn't either until we tried it! To see the website we used to see how to fold the paper visit this website.
After break we will begin geometry with building and exploring the 5 Platonic Solids: tetrahedron, cube, octahedron, dodecahedron, icosahedron.
Awesome Math
Students have been solving multi-step problems in the Primary Challenge Math Zaccaro math book using fractions, percentages and decimals.
Up Next . . .
How Tall Is It? ~ratios and proportion
Problem Based Learning - Mystery River
Students continue to receive information about their problem. Recently they received a town map and will be receiving charts of information about the wildlife of the community they are researching. Students should be going back to re-read information, compare information, and make connections.
This is a learning process, as it is common for students new to Problem Based Learning to experience difficulty with having the responsibility to decide what to with the information given on their own and to not rely on explicit instructions from the teacher. Students are still having a hard time with the concept of getting the "right" answer not being the goal here and that there could be several answers that could work, depending on what information they find to back up their claim.
After Thanksgiving break groups will need to decide on what their group thinks is the cause and come up with a solution, create a presentation and present to a small panel of judges.
Cedar Rapids Elementary Model United Nations (CREMUN)
On December 16th, students from seven elementary schools will be assembling for the second annual Cedar Rapids Elementary Model United Nations (CREMUN) at the ELSC. Students will be presenting position statements, working on resolutions, caucusing, making amendments, and voting to accept final resolutions. Students will have their country boards on display.
Students will need to bring a food from their country to share with approximately 50 people (based on SAMPLE size portions). This will be the student luncheon. Drinks and table service will be provided. Hot food should be sent in crockpots.
Students will leave school at 9:00 and return by 2:00. Students will need to be dressed appropriately in his or her country’s professional attire. Parents are needed to transport students, food, and boards to and from the ELSC. A formal guest list will be generated and tickets issued. Each student may have no more than two guests in attendance. Guests may be allowed to sample food after students have finished eating.
A permission slip has been sent home with your student. Please sign and return to school after Thanksgiving break.
We only have four PACT classes left before the CREMUN event:
December 1st, 4th, 9th, and 14th. I will bring in display boards on the 1st for students to take home. The display board will be presenting cultural information and interesting facts. The boards will most likely need to be homework, as we still need to decide on a position as a class and work on a resolution paper. If students have access to Canvas and Office 365 at home, they can log in any time to work on this assignment.
Young Writers
The month of November has been spent writing, writing, and writing some more! Writers have all put their inner editors away and will get them back out in December when they can finally edit their work. Not being able to edit has been a hard lesson to learn, but they are coming to see that it pays off in the end because they are actually getting to near completion of their stories.
As part of NaNoWriMo- YWP each student needed to set a word count goal for the month of November. As of today, Sophia and Kylee have met their goal. Congratulations!
All students who are working on a computer (I have two writing in notebooks, which is a big WOW for me) have shared their work on Office 365 with me. What I have seen is that this group is very self-motivated and has done a great job writing on a continuous basis, not just when they are in PACT class. I'm really excited to read their finished products.
Video Chat with an Author
On November 23rd, the 4th grade writing class at Truman had the opportunity to video chat with young adult author of the Geneva Project, Christina Benjamin. Christina shared why she chose to become an author and gave a lot of examples of different types of jobs in the writing field.
The best part for the students was that she addressed each and every one of the questions they had asked ahead of time. Christina commented to me that the students had "such great questions" and after the chat said "wow. What great kiddos."
Great job Truman students on doing your very best!
Truth
Truth, the award-winning first book in The Geneva Project series is now free on all ebook platforms. Get your story today and start you epic adventure into the magical world of magic, myths and legends. Download Truth.
The Christmas Gift
The first Short Story of The Geneva Project: Prequel series is finally here!!! And it’s FREE for a limited time. (11/24-11/28).
“Sometimes finding true friendship is the greatest gift of all.” Download The Christmas Gift.
The Geneva Project
To find out more about Christina Benjamin and her books, visit http://www.thegenevaprojectbook.com/
If you missed my October Newsletter you can view it by clicking below.
Contact ME
Email: CaAnderson@cr.k12.ia.us
Website: https://sites.google.com/site/andersonpact/
Phone: 3195881421
Twitter: @AndersonGTeach