What a beautiful weekend!  I hope you all enjoyed the cool fall weather and had some time to relax!  We had a couple football games on Saturday and I took my older two boys to River City Roundup today to help judge a robotics competition.  Speaking of robotics, I hope to take some teams to the UNO Robotics Showcase on February 22, 2014.  I’ll have more information on that later.

This week in EY we talked about the strategy of Guess and Check.  Students were given 10 film canisters (that was a lesson in itself as some of the kids had no idea what a film canister was! ;)) that had 1-10 pennies in them.  The goal was to arrange the canisters from lightest to heaviest without peaking in the canister.  After “guessing” the correct order, they “checked” by opening the canisters to see if they succeeded.

Click here to see a video of the Westbrook students.

During a second round, students could use a scale if they wanted.  As we completed additional rounds, students came up with different strategies in order to speed up their sorting time.  We even took the challenge “on the road” and invited principals to complete the activity.

Click here to watch Mr. Jagels.

We talked about other situations where guess and check is used.  When cooking, sometimes we need to guess on an ingredient (like salt) and then check the taste to see if more needs to be added.  We also talked about picking out clothes in the morning and checking to see how it looks in the mirror.  Can you think of other situations where guess and check is used?

We will be using the last few weeks of the quarter to create some math and vocabulary videos.  Here is one Dylan put together for some friends we’re connecting with in Wisconsin.   We will be exchanging math story problems and then afterwards “Skype”ing with them to check our answers.

Do you know the answer to Dylan’s problem?  Leave your answer and explanation in the comments section.  Also, let us know how you use strategies in your everyday life!

This week 6th graders from Hillside and Westbrook used the app Educreations on the iPad to narrate a problem.  You can watch two sample videos by clicking here and here.  Educreations is a free app in the iTunes store.

We spent some time looking at the strategy of working backwards.  I let the students know that I always have to work backwards when I lose my keys, phone, etc.  Can you think of an everyday situation where you have to work backwards?  Please leave a comment and let us know!

Click here for the problems students used to practice the skill of working backwards.  As you can tell, the problems get really “wordy” so using another strategy (solving a simpler problem) can help us break the problem into smaller pieces.  See if your child can explain one of these problems to you.

We ended the week with an amazing seminar!  Check out some of the pictures here:  https://ey.westside66.org/?p=59

This week we continued working on problem solving strategies.  We looked at writing an equation to solve a problem and while that is not my most favorite way to solve problems, it is a strategy that will help students in future years of math.  Can you think of any real world situations where you use equations to solve problems?  If so, we’d love to hear from you!

Just to give you an example of the types of problems we set up with an equation…

• A number plus 5 is 7.  What is that number?  Even though kids can do this problem in their head, we talked about translating word problems into equations and the proper steps to show when solving equations.   x + 5 = 7  When you subtract 5 from both sides, you get x = 3.  We talked about isolating the variable and performing the opposite operation to both sides of the equation.
• The 6th graders took it a step further and looked at systems of equations.  There are several chickens and rabbits in a cage.  There are 72 heads and 200 feet inside the cage.  How many chickens are there?  How many rabbits?  One equation is:  r + c = 72 since there are a total of 72 heads.  Rabbits have 4 feet and chickens have 2 feet so the other equation is 4r + 2c = 200.  This system of equations can be solved by multiplication and elimination.

In addition to math problem solving strategies, we went over Lesson 1 from Wordly Wise.  Students should all have Lesson 2 now and in addition to working on the different sections in the packet, students were asked to pick one word from the list and illustrate it for a technology activity we’ll do in the next couple weeks.

The EY coordinators are working hard to prepare for next Friday’s Strategy Seminar.  If you haven’t signed the permission form yet, please do so and have your child return it as soon as possible.  I will make sure to take lots of pictures and post them next week. 🙂

Have a great weekend!

Wow!  Even though it was a short week, we were able to accomplish many things in EY.  First of all, I made some changes to my schedule so I can better meet the needs of students in my three buildings, as well as free up some time for administrative tasks. I thank the students and classroom teachers for their flexibility.  Second, we were able to finalize plans for the “Strategy Seminar” on September 20, so please look for that letter to arrive today or tomorrow in the mail.  Third, all students were given their Wordly Wise answer booklets and a copy of Lesson 1.  Each lesson has 5 components and we talked about strategies for completing the work.  If you have the chance, ask your child to show you Lesson 1 so you can become familiar with what they are working on.  Although we didn’t spend time going over it in detail, I reminded students to post to the Discussion Board and Journal area in Blackboard.  Lastly, we continued working on our “Strategy Booklet” highlighting the strategies of “Make an Organized List” and “Act it Out”.

Fourth and Fifth graders at Westbrook and Hillside acted out folding paper to see if there was a maximum number of folds possible.  We tried several different types of paper and “concluded”  that 7 was the maximum number of folds.  We then watch a MythBusters video which you’ll have to watch and see…Was the 7-fold myth busted?

Fourth grade students at Westgate and sixth grade students at Westbrook and Hillside were presented with a job opportunity this week.  They could choose between babysitting, lawn mowing, or creating comic books.  They also chose between 3 different payment options.

Next students made an organized list by entering information into Numbers (a spreadsheet program) and learned about the fill feature and formulas.  We even talked a little about programming.  See if your child can explain the following formulas:

=SUM(B2:B16)

=IF(B2=0,100,0)

Ask your child about which job and payment plan they chose.

I think that’s it for this week!  I’m looking forward to a weekend of football and relaxing!  How about you?  Please leave a comment and tell me about your plans.