Penny Jar Situations

In math, we've been studying constant rate of change (grown up language only) by thinking about penny jar situations.  A penny jar situation might sound like this: I start with 4 pennies in a jar.  Each round, I add 5 more pennies to the jar, so after round 1, there are 9 pennies in the jar, and after round 2, there are 14 pennies in the jar.  We've been talking about how you can figure out how many pennies are in the jar after any round without having to know how many pennies were in the jar in the previous rounds.  There are a bunch of ways to think about this.  For example, Charlie noticed, 

"If you know the 5th round and want to know what the 8th round is, you have to find out how much is in there, or how much rounds is in between the 5th and 8th rounds.  I add the number you're supposed to add (5, in this situation) three times.  I add three times because that's what's in between five and eight."

Here's Charlie's explanation of his work for the penny jar situation start with 4, add 5:

Poetry Study

Welcome back!   I hope everyone had a lovely break.

We began studying poetry in writing this week!  We've read lots of poems and made observations about the writing.  We've also do some writing of our own, inspired by the good writing we notice in our mentor poems.  The focus question is, "What can this poem teach us about writing poetry?"  To get the ball rolling, we notice what we like about each poem and try to name it.  Here are the notes from Monday's conversation about Foul Shot by Edwin A. Hoey.  The Notes in color coordinate with a mark in the poem itself, and the notes in black stand alone.

Maya Study Celebration

Save the date!

Our Maya Study Celebration will be Friday, February 18^th from 8:50-9:30.  We’re looking forward to seeing you there!

Missing Winter Gear

Hey Team,


We have a missing mitten (black with white trim and the word "Auclair" on it) and a missing black headband.  Can everyone please take a look in their backpacks tonight to make sure you didn't accidentally mittennap or headbandnap those things?


Thanks!


LEB

AMNH

Well families, 9,738 cups of tea later, I'm glad to proclaim that I'm finished writing reports (hence the hush that fell over the blog).  They'll go home on February 3rd.  Here are some photos from our trip to the Museum of Natural History.  I'll post updates from school as usual, but I'm also taking requests.  If there's something you'd like to see on the blog, please either post a comment or send me an email.  The pictures are after the jump.

Reading Reactions: Big Idea

Oh my gosh, I just figured out how to include "reactions" in the blog!  Even Blogger knows readers react to what they've read!  Although you're options are prefab...  Check them out at the bottom of each post.


Here's another example of a reading reaction.  We've been talking about big ideas, and how part of being a reader is thinking about what we can learn about people and the world from texts.  A big idea is one that transcends the book itself.  It's an idea that's true almost everywhere almost all the time, like the idea you'll see in Frey's reaction to Walk Two Moons by Sharon Creech ("Don't judge people if you don't know them.").  Don't worry if you don't see evidence of this kind of thinking in the reactions your child is doing independently at this point.  We're exploring big ideas as part of our read aloud, which is a highly scaffolded setting.  Thanks for reading.

The Teachers' Lounge

Dear Families,

The Teachers’ Lounge is a problem that pushes students to think deeply and carefully about division situations.  It highlights the two types of division situations, quotative and partitive, or grouping and sharing.

In a quotative, or grouping division situation, the number in each group is known and the number of groups is unknown:  24 fourth graders are playing soccer.  The coaches want to make teams of 6.  How many teams can they make?  6 is the number in each group, and the unknown is how many groups will be made with 24 kids.

In  a partitive, or sharing division situation, the number of groups is known and the number in each group is unknown:  I have 24 cookies to share with 6 friends.  How many cookies can I give to each friend?  6 is the number of groups, and the unknown is how many cookies will be in each group.

In the classroom, we talk about whether a division situation is asking “How many groups?” or “How many in each group?”  When you look at the student work below, that is one place your conversation might go.  When you read the juice and water machine situations, think about which problem is a quotative situation and which problem is a partitive situation.

Please start by reading the problem, and involve your child in viewing his or her work.  You'll find some questions below that will guide your conversation.

Please bear in mind that each pair of students saw these problems differently and therefore solved them differently.  Each partnership’s work is valid.  There was no “right way” to go about this.

We started working on this problem last week.  Working with their math partners, students solved the problem and showed their thinking on a poster using equations, pictures and words.  They worked hard to make their work both accurate and clear.  Today, math teams switched posters and left notes for each other about what could make the posters better.  Revisions were made, and then we had a math meeting on the rug where several students shared their work.  After the meeting, each student wrote about how he or she felt The Teachers’ Lounge problem helped them grow as mathematicians (That might be a good way to begin your conversations.).

I love this problem.  As I told the class today, it's like a washing machine.  They go in grass-stained 3rd grade mathematicians and come out clean and shiny 4th grade mathematicians.  This work sets the bar for the level of deep mathematical thinking they'll be doing all year.  I hope you are as moved by the sophisticated thinking you'll see in their work as I was.

Happy thinking,

Lauren