Class blog
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The state tests may be over, but we have one more math question for you: What happens when a student brings in a Costco-sized tub of jelly beans to share? (Thanks, Angela!) A. Students get an inquiry-based lesson on estimation B. Students get to collaborate, discuss/justify their answers using logic/math C. Students get to eat the jelly beans D. All of the above The students took all the initiative and wrote down their guesses. We are trying to see whose guess is the closest to the actual amount of jellybeans in the container. Stay tuned... we wouldn't want to count (read: eat) all those jelly beans at once! Here are the jelly beans (yum!) and here is the book Great Estimations by Bruce Goldstone. It helped us hone in on our estimating techniques. Students are counting/serving/distributing jellybeans. We justified our answers by explaining our logic in writing. We also ate as we worked! Some of us approached the problem by using spatial/visual clues such as counting the amount of jellybeans per side of the container, then multiplying based on the assumed relative volume of the container. Some of us used whatever clues we had available. For example, Luca knew the serving size was 27 beans and there were 60 servings in the container. He then determined 3/4 of that number, since about 3/4 of the container had already been eaten. Meanwhile, Shehrin made a very logical assumption about Jelly Belly's advertised 49 flavors. Like Gavin, Grace used visual-spatial clues to estimate. This was the strategy provided by the book Great Estimations! Whatever the strategy, the point of the lesson was to use math to back up our conjectures.
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Sorry for the very belated post- last month, we were lucky to be able to experience Federal Hall, the birthplace of our nation! It was where George Washington was inaugurated as President of the United States and where the Bill of Rights was composed! Since Federal Hall is a National Park, we got a (free) tour from a park ranger and we got some cool National Park badges at the end and we all became Junior Park Rangers. Here are a few pictures of us with captions about what we learned/did. This field trip was the perfect complement to our social studies unit on the Revolutionary Era. Learning about journalism and the Peter Zenger trial (which ultimately led to our Freedom of the Press!) We got to see the Bible that George Washington used to swear in as President of the United States. He was sworn in in 1789 right here in Federal Hall! At the time, this atrium cost 1 million dollars to build (hey, that was a lot of money back then!) It was gorgeous to look at. The cracks in the foundation are the result of the September 11th attacks. Here we are getting a briefing from our own personal Park Ranger before getting to explore. Investigating a vault. Federal Hall served as America's treasury until 1920 and so millions of dollars worth of gold and silver were kept here. At the last Family Friday, students were engaged in creating fraction strips in order to answer the question "What possible combinations of fractions add up to one whole?" Students worked in partnerships (some parents joined in too!) and now we have a beautiful display in the back wall of our classroom.
This past month, we have trekked to the Upper West Side to visit two iconic museums: the Museum of Natural History and the New York Historical Society. Both field trips were a supplement to our social studies and literacy curricula. At the Museum of Natural History, we were exposed to geographical/natural disasters exhibits, which was nice for our literacy unit on nonfiction reading/writing. We also were able to see the Hall of the Eastern Woodland Indians, which helped us gain more persepctive about this aspect of the 4th grade social studies curriculum.
At the New York Historical Society, we went on a guided tour and saw artifacts from the Revolutionary War, including George Washington's cot! We also snuck in some pictures from their late Harry Potter exhibit. Through a residency program with Alvin Ailey, our 4th grade students were able to receive dance lessons once a week for seven weeks. We learned some Afro-Caribbean dance, had a culminating performance, and were also lucky enough to go to City Center and watch Ailey dancers perform! Our walk to City Center involved passing by the Alvin Ailey dance studio. What a great cultural resource to have walking distance from our school! In fact, one of our students takes dance lessons here. We are performing our Afro-Caribbean dance on stage. Next stop, Broadway! We are posing with Jeriah, our Ailey dance instructor, and our drummer, Jackson. Did you know that Washington Square Park was found to be a Native American burial site? This was one of the many facts we learned when we went on an architectural tour there. It might have been foggy and raining, but we had a great time (and on the plus side, due to the weather, we nearly had the park all to ourselves!) Here we are, standing next to that famous arch! We also got to see a very old street with cobblestones and what used to be horse stables! (Currently NYU faculty housing.)
Two field trips in one week? It must be the end of the year! On Monday, we went to Central Park to learn about where NYC drinking water comes from. We got to see a reservoir, build our own little aqueducts, and look at a map of the NYC-Westchester watersheds. Incidentally, we also bumped into some wildlife rehabilitators, who were kind enough to give us an impromptu pigeon information session. On Wednesday, we got a guided tour of the Intrepid Museum. We got to learn about different artifacts from WWII, see a lego replica of the ship, see the different types of living quarters provided to the Navy, and learn about the ship's history. Combining our aqueducts and testing to see how effective it is at recycling water. |
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June 2019
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