Today's video blog post is brought to you by Sam Walker and Abby Clay from Ms. Earhart's 4th grade class.
Monday, January 31, 2011
Comic Relief
Just thought I would share a quick video of my daughter Leland showing off her dance "skills".
4C Math Races
The video is cut short, but it did capture the majority of the math race explanations for the day. I have challenged the 4E students to do more difficult and interesting problems tomorrow so that their math races may be posted. Enjoy!
Happy Almost February
Hello all,
I hope that everyone had the chance to enjoy the wonderful weather this past weekend. I know my family and I did. As you can see from several of my previous posts, I am utilizing video quite a bit in my classroom. Not only is it a great way to communicate what is going on in our classroom, but it is also a wonderful way to provide opportunities for remediation when students need it. I have focused mainly on math, but will be including science activities in the coming weeks. I am also planning on having a video blog post with updates about the class. The students will actually help to create these video blogs so be sure to check them out. Have a great day!
Mr. C
I hope that everyone had the chance to enjoy the wonderful weather this past weekend. I know my family and I did. As you can see from several of my previous posts, I am utilizing video quite a bit in my classroom. Not only is it a great way to communicate what is going on in our classroom, but it is also a wonderful way to provide opportunities for remediation when students need it. I have focused mainly on math, but will be including science activities in the coming weeks. I am also planning on having a video blog post with updates about the class. The students will actually help to create these video blogs so be sure to check them out. Have a great day!
Mr. C
Data Analysis
Hello all,
Over the next few days I am planning on showcasing some videos from our class. I will be focusing specifically on Math Races. I would like you all to see just what it involves and how it is a great tool for learning. The video below is only of the data analysis portion of today's math races with my homeroom students. Unfortunately,there were some technical difficulties and I wasn't able to tape the checking portion. Have a great day.
Over the next few days I am planning on showcasing some videos from our class. I will be focusing specifically on Math Races. I would like you all to see just what it involves and how it is a great tool for learning. The video below is only of the data analysis portion of today's math races with my homeroom students. Unfortunately,there were some technical difficulties and I wasn't able to tape the checking portion. Have a great day.
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Calculating Possessions for Basketball Math
Well, you collected the stats last night and tonight I am asking you to calculate your team's average number of possessions. Check out the video below to remind yourself how to do it.
Wednesday, January 26, 2011
Collecting Basketball Math Stats
Hello there,
Tonight's homework asked you to collect the necessary basketball math stats for your team. Please watch this video in order to be able to correctly collect your stats. Have a good day!
Tonight's homework asked you to collect the necessary basketball math stats for your team. Please watch this video in order to be able to correctly collect your stats. Have a good day!
Thursday, January 20, 2011
KenKen
We have been doing some really fun math puzzles called KenKen (similar to Suduko, but with mathematical operations) at school. I promised the kids that I would put a link to some sites that offer them. So here they are:
Dynamath Site
KenKen Site
I have also ordered some books for the class that I will be sharing with the students as soon as they come in.
Dynamath Site
KenKen Site
I have also ordered some books for the class that I will be sharing with the students as soon as they come in.
Wednesday, January 12, 2011
Monday, January 10, 2011
Snow Day
Hello everyone,
I am pretty sure most of you won't check this, but as it is my New Year's resolution, I thought I would post something. I was thinking about an idea to continue our discussion of pH. It would be great if the kids could collect some snow and let it melt and then bring it to school on Tuesday, or the next day we come to school. I would love to test the pH. My prediction is that they would be somewhat similar, but you never know. Today would also be a great day, between the sledding, snowball fights, and hot chocolate, to do some snow related science experiments. I am sure there are experiments that your kids could set up using snow and other readily available items. I hope everyone enjoys the snow. Take care and see you soon.
Mr. C
P.S. Here are just a few ideas that I found on the web. Happy Snow Day!
How clean is snow? Collect a few cups of snow. Put it in a saucepan and heat it to melt. Cover a bowl or jar with a layer of paper towels or porous cloth, held in place with tape or a rubber band. When the water is cool enough to pour safely, pour it slowly through the paper towel layers or white cloth. Examine the paper or cloth to see if any specks of dirt or sediment were in the snow. Find any? Still think snow is clean enough to eat?
Make ice castles. Gather up some plastic bowls, cups, small tubs or basins, and plastic drink glasses, etc. Take these outside and fill them with water. (The temperature must drop below the freezing point of 32 degrees. ) Overnight, the containers will freeze and the next day you can warm the containers and tump the ice forms out. Make these into castles as you would play with sand on the beach. With water you can "glue" the shapes together. Adorn the tops with small icicles.
Colored snow lights. Kids in Germany make these lights in the winter. You will need to fill three containers with water. Add food coloring to the water containers to make blue, green, and red water. Now make up a batch of snowballs, about ten for each color. Dip each in a colored water. Mound the colored snowballs in little mounds like igloos with one side left open. Place a small candle in the center of each snowball mound. Light will glow out through the colored snowballs and make lights along your sidewalk or garden path.
Snow Blindness Goggles. Snow reflects so much light that explorers and travelers in snowy regions many times found themselves blinded by the brightness. Make a pair of snow glasses by cutting a section of cardboard about six inches long and about three inches tall. Hold the cardboard up to your face and ask someone to help you by marking where your eyes are with tape or stickers. Cut narrow slits to see through across the tape marks and a "V" shape to fit over your nose. Punch a hole in each end and tie a long rubber band section to each hole. Tie the bands together to fit your head. Try going outside without the glasses and then putting them on. Can you see better with them? Do you still have to squint?
How strong is ice? For this experiment you will need a plastic jug like milk or juice comes in. It must have a screw on lid. Fill the jug to the top with water and screw the cap on firmly. Now set the jug outside. The water will expand as it freezes and burst the side of the milk jug
I am pretty sure most of you won't check this, but as it is my New Year's resolution, I thought I would post something. I was thinking about an idea to continue our discussion of pH. It would be great if the kids could collect some snow and let it melt and then bring it to school on Tuesday, or the next day we come to school. I would love to test the pH. My prediction is that they would be somewhat similar, but you never know. Today would also be a great day, between the sledding, snowball fights, and hot chocolate, to do some snow related science experiments. I am sure there are experiments that your kids could set up using snow and other readily available items. I hope everyone enjoys the snow. Take care and see you soon.
Mr. C
P.S. Here are just a few ideas that I found on the web. Happy Snow Day!
How clean is snow? Collect a few cups of snow. Put it in a saucepan and heat it to melt. Cover a bowl or jar with a layer of paper towels or porous cloth, held in place with tape or a rubber band. When the water is cool enough to pour safely, pour it slowly through the paper towel layers or white cloth. Examine the paper or cloth to see if any specks of dirt or sediment were in the snow. Find any? Still think snow is clean enough to eat?
Make ice castles. Gather up some plastic bowls, cups, small tubs or basins, and plastic drink glasses, etc. Take these outside and fill them with water. (The temperature must drop below the freezing point of 32 degrees. ) Overnight, the containers will freeze and the next day you can warm the containers and tump the ice forms out. Make these into castles as you would play with sand on the beach. With water you can "glue" the shapes together. Adorn the tops with small icicles.
Colored snow lights. Kids in Germany make these lights in the winter. You will need to fill three containers with water. Add food coloring to the water containers to make blue, green, and red water. Now make up a batch of snowballs, about ten for each color. Dip each in a colored water. Mound the colored snowballs in little mounds like igloos with one side left open. Place a small candle in the center of each snowball mound. Light will glow out through the colored snowballs and make lights along your sidewalk or garden path.
Snow Blindness Goggles. Snow reflects so much light that explorers and travelers in snowy regions many times found themselves blinded by the brightness. Make a pair of snow glasses by cutting a section of cardboard about six inches long and about three inches tall. Hold the cardboard up to your face and ask someone to help you by marking where your eyes are with tape or stickers. Cut narrow slits to see through across the tape marks and a "V" shape to fit over your nose. Punch a hole in each end and tie a long rubber band section to each hole. Tie the bands together to fit your head. Try going outside without the glasses and then putting them on. Can you see better with them? Do you still have to squint?
How strong is ice? For this experiment you will need a plastic jug like milk or juice comes in. It must have a screw on lid. Fill the jug to the top with water and screw the cap on firmly. Now set the jug outside. The water will expand as it freezes and burst the side of the milk jug
Friday, January 7, 2011
Welcome Back!!!
It has been a great first week back from our holiday break. The kids did a wonderful job getting back to work. We were able to cover a lot of ground. Here are some of the highlights of the week:
MATH
We spent the week reviewing how to do lattice multiplication. This method is just another tool that the students may use to solve more difficult multiplication problems. I created a video tutorial to explain the process and how it connects to partial products. This week also brought the start of our basketball math season. Building on the skills learned during football math, the students will again use real life statistics to simulate basketball games. Each student will play one game against each of the other students in the class. We will then have our own version of March Madness. It should be a lot of fun. All the students should continue to work on their basic facts. I have seen excellent progress, but there is still some room for improvement.
SCIENCE
This week we had some interesting discussions about the causes and effects of acid rain. We will continue our discussion of pollution next week when we talk about farm and salt run-off. I think the favorite part of the week for most of the kids was the pH activity we did today. The students brought in a variety of household substances so that we could test the pH in each of them. Lots of truly investigable questions were generated from this activity. Here are some examples:
* What would happen to the pH if you mixed some of the substances?
* How do you measure the pH of thick substances (i.e. jello, chocolate syrup)
* Would different flavors of soda have different pH levels?
Be sure to check out a few of the pictures from today's activity.
Have a wonderful weekend!!!!!!
MATH
We spent the week reviewing how to do lattice multiplication. This method is just another tool that the students may use to solve more difficult multiplication problems. I created a video tutorial to explain the process and how it connects to partial products. This week also brought the start of our basketball math season. Building on the skills learned during football math, the students will again use real life statistics to simulate basketball games. Each student will play one game against each of the other students in the class. We will then have our own version of March Madness. It should be a lot of fun. All the students should continue to work on their basic facts. I have seen excellent progress, but there is still some room for improvement.
SCIENCE
This week we had some interesting discussions about the causes and effects of acid rain. We will continue our discussion of pollution next week when we talk about farm and salt run-off. I think the favorite part of the week for most of the kids was the pH activity we did today. The students brought in a variety of household substances so that we could test the pH in each of them. Lots of truly investigable questions were generated from this activity. Here are some examples:
* What would happen to the pH if you mixed some of the substances?
* How do you measure the pH of thick substances (i.e. jello, chocolate syrup)
* Would different flavors of soda have different pH levels?
Be sure to check out a few of the pictures from today's activity.
Have a wonderful weekend!!!!!!
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