Field Day!

Field Day was a blast!  Thanks to Erica and Tina for orchestrating water and popsicles, thanks to all who attended, and thanks to Rob Gross for letting me school him at runners and pullers (Rob, I never would have guessed that pirouetting across the field would be your strategy of choice).  Thanks, too, to my glorious students for being so much fun!  Lots of pictures after the jump.

Runners & Pullers

I love that parents played--look at that form (although I don't think these are our dads)!

The California Frog-Jumping Contest: Frog Jumping

Today, we started working on a math situation that will keep us busy for a few days.  The problem is based on a frog jumping contest that takes place annually in Calaveras County in California.  Frogs are lined up on a starting line, and then they jump.  The frog with the longest jump is the winner.  The problem is that frogs generally take a few jumps and then a few steps, which makes it difficult to figure out how long one of the jumps was.  To address this issue, we have the referee's frog-jumping rule: Whenever a frog jumps in an event, if the frog takes more than one jump, all jumps are assumed to be equal in length and all steps are assumed to be equal in length.  This is an algebra exploration--more on that later.  Here's how we began:

Multiplication Dice Roll

Hi!  This is Alexa and Janeva.  We are math partners.  We invented this game called Multiplication Dice Roll.  This is a good game to play because it can help you with your multiplication facts and it can also challenge you to multiply bigger numbers mentally.  There are three levels of the game: easy, medium and hard.  Easy is played with 3 dice, medium is played with 4 or 5 dice, and hard is played with 6 dice.  The rules for each level are the same. It can be competitive or not.


The Rules


1. Player 1 (there can be anywhere between 1 and 4 players) rolls all of the dice.


2. The player who rolled multiplies the numbers rolled, then it's the next person's turn.


3. If you want to play competitively, the player with highest product in each round scores a point.  Whoever has the most points wins.


Here's an example from a medium game:

6 x 6 x 4 x 1 = 144

We hope you enjoy this game we created!

Sincerely,

Alexa & Janeva

The ELA is...

After the ELA today, we sat in a circle and each student said two, three or four words to add on to our thoughts about the ELA.  Here's the result:

The ELA is gone.  I feel good.  The ELA was very frightening for some, and there were weird stories in there.  They were cheesy.  We were relieved when it was over.  I sorta hated it because there were boring stories in it.  Now that it's done, it should burn in the underworld.  Yay, it's gone!  Hip hip hooray!  It was very fair.  I'm glad it's over for good.  Murdering the sign was fun, especially when we punched it.  It won't be missed.  It's over, hooray!

("Murdering the sign" refers to the "Testing: Do Not Enter" sign that gets posted on our door while we're testing each day.  Since today was the last day, we passed it around the circle and each student tore a piece off.  We then beat the pieces up for 10 seconds, and then we forgave the ELA.  As an act of closure, each student ceremoniously put his or her piece of the sign into the recycle bin.  It was beautiful.)

Day 1 is Over!

We are alive and well!  Happy, even.  Today's test was totally fair, and the only thing that was unexpected was that it did NOT include one of those absurd questions that makes my head explode.  Let's hear from the test-takers themselves:

"It was annoying, but it was really easy.  Aced it!" Max

"I thought about it as test prep, and it made it easy.  I felt relaxed." Rose

"The test was okay, but I know it was for a good reason.  I feel like I did great." Chris

"I hate the test, but it was easy!" Sasha A.

"It was really easy, kind of like a practice test." Darien

"It was boring, but it was really easy.  I felt fine because it was easy." Eleanor

"I was nervous my last test, but for this test I felt better.  I had more experience this time.  I think test prep really helped me get ready for the test, too." Alexa

"I felt relaxed and thought of what my mom told me this morning--'You control the test.  Don't let the test control you.'  I must admit, test prep was pretty annoying, but it came in handy." Sascha L.

"I felt pretty good and confident about taking the test.  Test prep really helped me." Scott

After the test, we had a nice long snack and then took a stroll in the park.  Here we are, all piled up outside of school: