We started some new math
units on multiplication and fractions. To make it fun, we are pretending we are
on Fear Factor (thanks to my grade partner for the great idea).
As a hook, I showed the
kids this video (click to play):
The reaction included a
lot of shrieking. Some of the kids shrieked too.
Our math problems have
been similar to:
“[Student A] had to eat 7
plates of 4 African Cave Spiders and [Student B] had to eat 3 plates of 9
African Cave Spiders. Who ate more? How many more?”
It’s a multi-step problem
that requires them to not only multiply, but to also add or subtract to find a
difference. They’re so good at it, I had to teach them how to stack multiply to
work with multiplying 2 digit by 1 digit problems to add to the challenge.
Some of the games and
puzzles I’ve introduced for this unit have been Around the World and Square
Numbers.
Around the World involves two students facing off and whoever answers my multiplication problem correctly
first, moves onto the next opponent. Whoever is the last person to win the last
face off wins.
Square numbers looks
something like this:
They have to figure out which
numbers fit so that they multiply horizontally and vertically to produce the
numbers at the ends.
We also started our unit
on fractions, which can be a really hard concept for kids to grasp. The first
day was a fun fractions day where I gave them each a bag of 10 Smarties and had
them represent their Smarties colours as fractions.
Today, we learned about
equivalent fractions. We started off by colouring in fraction strips to help us
visualize fractions that are equivalent to 1/2.
Equivalent fractions is an
expectation for the Grade Fours, so we worked in a small group on understanding
this concept.
Meanwhile, the Grade Threes have to be able to divide a whole
group into equal parts and define it as a fraction, so they worked on a problem
where they had fake Smarties (black dots) and had to divide them evenly into
different groups. Then they had to define (using fraction language) each group.
And because the Ontario
curriculum requires the students to use tools and manipulatives to help them
work with fractions, we have these up on our front white board as a tool in
addition to our own fraction strips.
Now onto Literacy…
I wanted our new unit to
involve a read aloud so I chose Book One from the And Then It
Happened series.
Each chapter is an
isolated story involving the same three mischievous boys. The stories are silly
and hilarious and the kids love them. Today, we read a chapter from Book Two,
actually called “The Fart Chart”.
Basically, the three boys
keep track of the students in their class who breaks wind and allot them points
when it happens. Whoever gets 100 points first is crowned the Farting Champion.
Their poor teacher doesn’t address the issue but endures daily headaches and
feels so nauseous that she has to take her sick days.
My class thought this
story was hilarious.
Backtrack for a moment:
yesterday, my friend and teaching partner combined our classes to talk about a
strategy called I Statements. They are used to help students calmly talk
through challenging situations.
After we read “The Fart
Chart”, I had the students write a letter to the class from the point of view
from the teacher (point of view is one of our learning goals) using I Statements. Some of their
letters were hilarious. Here’s a great example:
Before we ended our
language block, the kids promised me that they would create no such contest
while in our classroom hahaha.
Sometimes you just have to have some crazy, silly fun.
We ended the week with a
fun Valentine’s Day celebration. Of course, I baked them all cupcakes and loaded
them up on sugar and other sorts of junk food before sending them home. We also
watched Honey I Shrunk the Kids…they thought it was a very retro choice.
And they spoiled me right
back.
And now it’s a long
weekend. Enjoy your Family Day!
