During math this week students had an opportunity to create pictures by using pattern blocks to fill in an outline of an object.  Once they had covered the object with blocks they used pattern block pictures to make a permanent representation.  Lots of rich math is hidden in this super fun and engaging activity.

Filling in the outlines gives practice comparing different shapes and exploring different ways of composing a larger shape using smaller shapes (e.g. a hexagon can be made with two trapezoids or 1 trapezoid and 3 triangles).  It's interesting to compare the different ways children fill in the same outline.

When students were done they completed a simple table, recording how many of each shape they used as well as the total number of shapes. This provides practice classifying objects into categories and recording data.  Depending on how many shapes were used it also gave a great opportunity to count and record larger sets.

During math we have also been working on solving simple story problems on white boards.  After our math stations each day we spend about 10 minutes solving several problems.  This gives children a great opportunity to hear a problem and consider what they need to do to find a solution using simple pictures and numbers.  Once students have an answer they have been practicing using the +, -, and = symbols to represent the problems with equations.

Last week on Wednesday morning Carrie and Zac joined us for a session of ECO at school.  Our focus was animal tracks and gaits.  We began the morning inside looking at different tracks and thinking about the story they might tell, especially as they intersected each other.  We also learned about various animal gaits (hopping, bounding, waddling, and walking), animal body types that lend themselves to each of these, and the different track patterns left by different gaits.  Children then had a chance to try out each one by following foot print patterns on a yoga mat.  Most found hopping to be the trickiest as your feet are supposed to land in front of your hands.

Then we went outside to look for tracks around the school, considering the stories they might tell.  We found many, many tracks, including hoppers, walkers, and waddlers.  We found that squirrels are having lots of fun in the side yard outside Mr. Hubbard and Mr. Young's rooms, going inside the beehive and even climbing on it.  They seem to be drawn to the oak tree right next to the parking lot, where we found many acorn tops.  We followed a mouse track along the bank by the playground, down around the apple tree and then back to the edge of the building where we saw a little hole.  An interesting story to imagine!  We also walked along the edge of the lower field where we saw fox tracks and some kind of waddler, perhaps a porcupine.

Finally, we wrapped up our morning by creating our own track story backgrounds and nature name puppets.  Each student dictated a short story about their animal and I read these while they performed shadow puppet shows.  We will continue to explore animals in winter in the coming weeks.

We have begun a social studies unit exploring similarities and differences among people.  We have focused particularly on children, with emphasis placed on similarities among children all over the world.  We began by reading the book This is How We Do It:  One Day in the lives of Seven Kids from around the World, by Matt Lamothe.  This book follows seven children from morning through evening as they go through a day, describing where they live, who they live with, what they eat, and how they spend their time on a typical day.  As we read each section we compared ourselves to the children portrayed.  We also read the book One World, One Day by Barbara Kenley, which takes the reader through a day on Earth, moving from place to place as time passes.  While the children in these books can have vastly different lives depending on what part of the world they live in, with the focus on simple routines that are common to most people (waking up, eating breakfast, going to school, playing) it is easy to see commonalities and make connections to our own lives. Next, pairs of children were given similar books and a pack of sticky notes (which are extremely motivating!) with the task of finding at least five connections between children in the book and themselves.  Some of the connections students noticed were children playing with pets, children helping with chores, a family having a celebration, a child playing in the snow, and children jumping rope.

We also read the book Shades of People, by Shelley Rotner and Sheila M. Kelly, which makes the point that "our skin is just a covering, like wrapping paper" and doesn't reveal much about the kind of person we are. We discussed the idea that if a new child came into our classroom we would know nothing about that child based on the shade of their skin, but would need to spend time getting to know them as a person to know if they were kind, funny, quiet, etc.  After reading this book we observed and drew eggs, trying to be as precise as possible, noting the different shades and unique features from speckles to stripes.  After children drew their eggs we cracked them open and noticed that while each egg is quite different on the outside, inside they were all much the same, like people.  With the coming day off from school, we connected this to Martin Luther King Jr.  When I asked if anyone knew who he was someone offered that "he was a man who believed you shouldn't treat people differently because of the color of their skin," which was a perfect, succinct connection to our lesson.

Last week we began a geometry unit in math.  Our focus thus far has been observing and describing 2-dimensional shapes, noting each shape's distinguishing features, such as number of sides and corners or vertices.  Children have had an opportunity to make shapes and designs on geo-boards and they also had an opportunity to think about shapes in the world by turning single shapes into pictures of real world objects.