YAY Division I is going to the tournament this weekend! Not every Math Pentathlete will be able to go, but every member of Math Pentathlon practiced good gamesmanship and showed up each week to learn and have fun learning new strategies and games.
We LOVE Math Pentathlon!
Where in the World?!
This week was full of fabulous guest speakers who educated Alpha students on our bordering countries – Mexico and Canada! First, we explored Mexican tradition by making cascarones (confetti eggs) with Ms. Emma’s step mom and assistance from dad.
Step 1: Hollow out our shells….
Step 2: Add some color…
Step 3: Get them dry…
Step 4: Add your filling! Bird seed provided a wonderful environmentally conscious alternative to confetti and made for an easier clean up.
Step 5: Seal them with a flour paste and tissue paper…
Step 6: Crack them on each other’s head!!!
Feeling the warmth of a wool poncho…
We learned about two beautiful folk art traditions of Mexico: Alebrijes and Hojalata tin art.
We made armature for our Alebrijes…
And we created the outline for our Q4 Hojalata inspired portraits…
We also got the chance to ask Jon’s dad questions about his summers in Mexico. Jonathan, thank you so much for visiting us and letting us examine some Pesos!
Max’s dad brought many compelling Canadian artifacts and shed light on the harsh winters where he grew up. Thank you Eric for sharing your Canadian expertise!
Finally, our cooking groups made corn tortillas! They had so much fun mixing the masa, rolling the dough into balls, and pressing them into flat circles. While Ms. Emma handled the frying, these chefs topped the warm tortillas with butter and prepared them for serving. We followed this simple recipe in case your student wants to make their own batch at home.
Mostly thumbs up from Alpha!
Before we head away from North America, it’s important to note again that the first people to inhabit it did not speak the language we speak. Nor did they speak the languages, according to Max’s dad, of Canadians, French and English, or Jon’s dad, Spanish. North Americans speak different languages from the original people, because the Spanish, the French, and the English explorers came over, and liked what they saw here, so they started moving over here in great numbers. We will talk more about this as we move down to South America. The thing is, most North Americans can trace our families back to a time when some of us didn’t live here. Already, some of our students know they have or had family from India, China, and Germany! We worked on our “Family Roots” project that shows that we grow by virtue of their lives…they are the roots beneath our feet.
Math
Ms. Emma’s Math Wizards…
Tackled SO many word problems! We practiced many strategies for solving, like drawing pictures, writing equations, and identifying common words.
Working with 100’s place…
Finally, creating our own word problems and challenging each other to solve…
Ms. Kim’s Mathletes…
This group is on fire with their place value skills! We are having fun applying our knowledge of tens and ones when we use deductive reasoning, addition, and counting by tens while we play games like “Connect Five,” “Guess My Number,” and “Two-Digit Domino Hunt.”
We built half of our 99-chart this week. What do you think, Alphas, now that you know the pattern, do you believe we can knock this chart out on Monday before lunchtime?!
“Two dimes, plus 6 pennies equal 26 cents…” Three dimes and 4 pennies equals 34 cents…”
The last time we played “Guess My Number” as a class, the first question eliminated an entire row of numbers. The second question eliminated half of the board! For 5 and 6-year-olds, this is pretty cool stuff… if I do say so myself!
You decide which side will be “tens” or “ones.”
ELA
Ms.Kim’s group…
In addition to fixing and copying out mixed-up sentences, encoding words, and playing spell-it, keep-it with our Q4 words, we explored a vibrant flavor of the folktale genre: FAIRYTALES. We started the week with Puss in Boots. Next, we read a story from Japan called Issun Boshi, about a one-inch baby that never grows any larger until he defeats an ogre. The last story we heard was Jack and the Beanstalk. Fairy tales are a type of folktale, in that they’ve been passed down from generation to generation; no one knows who the actual author of the original story was. You can spot a fairy tale in the wild by its magical elements, such as witches, dragons, giants, ogres, shapeshifting, fairies, elves, etc.
Alpha Wolf Pack…
Ms. Emma’s group…
Are in the thick of it creating and sharing their memories with one another. Their handwriting stamina has grown so much and a handful of students can write an entire paragraph in one sitting! That’s beta level ELA coursework and I could not be more proud.
Sharing our earliest memory from P&P…
Writing opinion pieces in our journals…Is anger bad?
Writing…writing…and some more writing
Spelling check ins…
We studied homophones and found it rather silly that two words sound the same but have different meanings and spellings.
A much requested recipe for Thundercake from a wonderful story by Patrica Polacco…
Reading our library books…
In Other News…
A boy and his bucket…
Monday morning gym is the best!
Ms. Kim and Leo demonstrate how someone on a moving train might use a railroad order hoop to deliver written notes without having to stop the train. Thanks Willow for bringing in this cool artifact!
Many creations!
