Partners for Ten

We have been reviewing several mental math strategies including Count On, Count Back, Doubles, and most recently, the Make Ten (or Partners for Ten) strategy.  Over the last few days we've been doing a variety of activities to help these equations become known facts, as knowing these will assist us when adding and subtracting larger two digit and three digit numbers.

Our activity today was a type of domino game.  Each pair of students received a bunch of cards that had numbers on four sides.  They had to place the top card down so it was face up on the table.  The first player looked through their cards to see if they could add one.  So like dominos, students would find a match and line it up on the matching side.  If a 6 was showing for example, their match would be the partner for 10, or 4.  Then it was the next person's turn. 

Students quickly got the hang of the game and had a lot of fun playing.

Increasing Strength

After our investigations yesterday in how we could make a material stronger, we continued today by looking at how we can make a structure stronger.  We learned about two supports that can be added to a structure to help it support a heavier load.  A strut is a beam or bar that is used to stop two parts of the structure from being pushed together, and a tie is a beam or bar used to stop two parts from being pulled apart.

To help us understand how struts and ties work, we conducted a bit of an experiment.  Students received 12 straws and some pip cleaners to build a basic cube structure.  They were then asked to place a light weight book on top of the cube.  Next they were to place objects one by one onto the book and record what their structure held.  Most students found that their straw structure couldn't even adequately hold the book!

The next step was to alter their cube structure to make it stronger.  Students received 8 more straws and more pipe cleaners.  With these straws they could be used in any way that they wished -unlike with the first set, they could bend them, cut them, etc.  

Students tried adding struts and ties to different parts of their cube.  They then repeated the strength test.  They replaced the book on top of the cube and placed objects one by one.  When the structure failed, they were to record what the reinforced structure held.  Many students were successful in making their structure stronger.

How Can We Make a Material Stronger?

Today in Theme Studies, we looked at a particular material, a piece of white paper.  As a building material, paper isn't very good.  It's not very strong, doesn't hold a lot of weight, and rips easily.  So we brainstormed ways that we thought we could make the paper stronger.  

We came up with two main ways.  We could put several pieces of paper together to make the paper thicker and we could fold the paper.  With these two ways in mind, students tested out our ideas.

Each student received several pieces of paper to use to try out both methods.  They were allowed to choose the type of glue they wanted to use (white glue or glue stick), and they were allowed to cut the paper if they wanted more pieces.  They were instructed to find out two things.  They were to see if doing these two things to the paper did make it stronger, and they were asked to see if they could figure out which method make the strongest paper.  We decided as a class that an easy test to see the strength would be to rip the paper.

After our experiments, we came to three conclusions:

1) Folding paper increased its strength.

2) Layering and gluing paper increased its strength.

3) Folded paper was stronger than layered paper.

Following this activity, we briefly discussed whether we could apply our new knowledge to other materials as well.  For example, would nailing several pieces of wood together be stronger than a single board?  We decided together that this information was useful when working with other materials as well.

Four Kings

Today in Math we learned a new game to practice our skip counting called "4 Kings".

To play, you find the start cards which tell you what you are skip counting by in each row.  There are five of these cards, counting by: 2s, 3s, 4s, 5s, and 10s. These cards get lined up along the side.  All the other cards either contain a number or a picture of a king.  These cards get turned over and organized in rows from the skip counting cards.  The first person chooses one of the turned over cards and puts the number where it should go.  Then the next person goes, etc. There are five kings in the game.  Once you have turned over four of them, the game is over.  

Students had a lot of fun playing, and it was great to hear all the conversations around skip counting and number!

QR Code Scavenger Hunts

We finally have working iPads!  

Over the last two days, we've had a chance to get back into the habit of using them as a tool to enhance our learning.  Our first learning experience with them this year, has been using the QR code reader.  Yesterday we were introduced to a QR code scavenger hunt.  Taped around the room were paper iPhones that had a number in base ten blocks as well as a code.  Students would scan the code to get a number, then they would have to find the iPhone with the corresponding pictures.  They then would scan that code to move onto the next number.  Most of us caught on quickly, and completed the scavenger hunt a couple of times.

Today we used the same idea, but this time to work on our facts to 18.  The idea of the scavenger hunt was the same, as in students would scan the QR code to receive an equation.  So for example, they would receive 3 + 5.  They then would have to look around the room for the paper that had the number 5 on top.  They would then scan that code for their next equation.  This time, the scavenger hunt was more challenging.  There were 25 cards students had to scan, and some of them were quite well hidden.  This time students also had to record both the equation and the answer before they could move on.

Both activities were a lot of fun, and a neat new way to practice our math skills.  

Here are some pictures from our two scavenger hunts.

Increasing Stability

Yesterday during Theme Studies we examined how well objects remain standing.  We began by trying to balance our pencils on our tables.  Some people were successful and some weren't.  After discussing why this might be, we then began examining just how stable even the standing ones were.  Even though some pencils could stand up, none of them were very stable.  We then looked at two different sized paper tubes, a shorter one and a longer one.  Students were asked to decide which tube they thought was more stable.  Almost everyone chose the shorter tube.  Even though they both would tip over easily, the shorter tube took more strength to do so.  

Today we reexamined our tall paper tubes.  Our goal was to do something to them so that they would be more stable.  Students were given supplies to use and were provided with the rule that they could add to the tube, but they could not take away from it.  They were then left to explore how they could make the tube more stable.

Each pair was successful. however some were more successful than others. 

We came up with a list of the strategies that we used, and discovered that most of them were similar.  Most pairs either made some sort of foundation for their tube, or increased the weight or size of the bottom of the tube.  Both two good ways to increase stability.