Our class is playing a game of Guess My Number with a class in Milan, Italy. Because we can’t use Skype (they are finished school for the day before we start), we are asking questions and answering them on Twitter. If you are on Twitter, can watch our game by searching for the hashtag #guessmynumber.
We are getting better at asking “fat” or “juicy” questions that help us to cross off several numbers at once.
Yesterday we had fun playing with measurement while we connected with Ms Lirenman’s class in Surrey, who are learning the same things we are. The emphasis in both of our curriculums is on comparing items using words such as longer, shorter, heavier etc.
First, someone in our class and someone in Ms Lirenman’s class each picked an item which we showed to the other class via Skype. Then, we randomly picked a card to see whether the winning item would be longer or shorter. The students decided which class had the longest or shortest item. (Sometimes each class had to measure with a ruler to know for sure.) We kept score and fortunately, our classes were tied at the end of this game!
Then, each class moved a balance scale in front of the camera, and the children took turns showing two items. Everyone in both classes predicted which item would be heavier by putting both hands on their head for one item or in their lap for the other. Those who were unsure could put one hand in each place. Some of the items were surprising!
In the next while, posts about what the children are learning about measurement will begin to appear on their blogs. Today, the students were busy taking pictures and annotating them using an app called Skitch to show what they knew about length.
This week we had yet another mystery number call, this time with a class in Camrose, Alberta. We also found out that it is winter there, just like it is in Moose Jaw!
In math, we have begun a unit about adding and subtracting numbers up to ten. This lesson involved a bag of bingo chips and separating them into two groups using the line on the bag.
Ms. Lirenman’s class in Surrey, British Columbia, is also learning about numbers up to twenty, so my class challenged hers to a mystery number Skype. We chose a number between one and twenty and they tried to guess what our number was by asking questions that could be answered with a “yes” or a “no”.
Their first question was, “Is it nine?” They were right!
Then we tried to guess their secret number. We had previously played the mystery number game in our class, so we knew some “fat” questions to ask such as “Does it have two digits?” but sometimes the temptation to ask “Is it four?” was just too much to resist. Finally, after lots of work eliminating numbers, we guessed it. We also let them have another turn because they were finished their turn so quickly the first time.
We had fun learning with your class, Ms. Lirenman! We hope we can do it again soon.
We think no one knows more about patterns than kids in grade three and four.
Today some eight and nine year old students in Ms. Cordy’s class in London, Ontario helped us practice patterns via a Google Hangout. They showed us some pictures that were patterns and some that were not patterns. We had to figure out which ones were real patterns and which were not. Because we are getting so good at patterns, we got every one right!
Thanks, Ms. Cordy’s class, for helping us to learn!
This week we have been busy in the school yard looking for 2D shapes such as triangles, circles, rectangles and squares and 3D shapes such as cylinders, cubes, pyramids, spheres and cones. We know our geometric shapes!
This week we have been documenting the 2D and 3D shapes we have found in our classroom and around the school. You can find a record of each child’s learning about shapes on his or her blog. The student’s blog are all linked on the right hand side.
Monday will be our 100th day of school. It is a day we have been anticipating all year. The students have made a list of things they wonder about the number one hundred.
When we talked about our list today, it occurred to us that we could answer the last question using the other things we had thought of (or most of them–I don’t think the Slurpie thing will happen).
Here is our plan. We are all going to bring one hundred of something to school. We’ll compare the things we bring and take pictures of them. Then, we’ll tweet each of the the pictures with the hashtag #100storiesof100. As we work our way through the big list we made, each thing we count, each activity and each number sentence we write about 100 will become a “story of 100” and we will tweet it out using the #100storiesof100 hashtag. Later, I’ll grab all of the tweets with that hashtag together in a Storify.
We don’t think we can make one hundred stories by ourselves, so we hope others will join us on February 11th and tweet some “stories” about 100. There are an infinite number of things that could be a story of 100. We wonder what your stories of 100 would be. We can’t wait to see.