Home Practice of Basic Math Facts

We have been practicing our multiplication facts in class by doing timed drills (2's up to 9's). Students should already be proficient at solving 0's, 1's and 10's multiplication facts. Proficiency of basic math facts (addition, subtraction, multiplication and division) is essential for your child. They need to be able to solve facts quickly and accurately so that they can apply their knowledge to more difficult and higher level, problem solving activities in ALL areas of mathematics. I strongly suggest that students practice their basic facts at home in order to improve speed, accuracy and recall! There are many activity sheets that can be easily downloaded from the internet for practice at home.

Math Focus Update

We have launched a new 'Data Management' math unit! The focus of the unit will be on 'Collecting and Organizing Data.' Over the next few weeks this will be our main focus in math. We will also continue to practice multiplication facts, engage in problem solving activities and solve algebraic equations (missing number questions, questions with multiple operations/steps and including solving equations in parenthesis). 

Grade 4 Learning Goals for the Data Management unit are:
-Create and interpret stem and leaf plots
-Create and interpret double bar graphs
-Compare two data displays by making inferences
-Understand how to figure out a median and what a median tells about a set of data

Grade 5 Learning Goals for the Data Management unit are:
-Conduct a survey, organize, display, and analyze results, and consider the
  effectiveness of the methods used.
-Consider data collection methods such as the type of question asked and issues
  related to bias in order to collect representative data in a survey
-Use broke-line graphs to show trends when one variable is discrete
-Use a thermometer to measure temperature and calculate temperature change
  using both primary data and secondary data

Brain Teaser!

If you read yesterday's post, you'd know that we have a bit of a mystery on our hands. Why does our measurement of our combined class paper chain (743cm) not equal the combined measurements of the individual group paper chains (669 cm)?

Here are the AMAZING ideas that we shared today:

Chiara (& 9 other students agreed) - "Maybe it would be longer because there was more space in the hallway to stretch it out."
Lukas - "Maybe when Mrs. Stratford connected them and did repairs, it made it longer."
Giorgio - "It's possible that when we were carrying it out to the hallway, the chain stretched out."
Joseph - "Maybe the loops got squished and flat as we carried it."
Allie - "It's possible that the metre stick we used wasn't accurate."
Jaydee (& Ben) - "It's possible that when we used our fingers as markers, we moved them and therefore we measured incorrectly."
Ryan (& Chiara) - "Maybe the tape was sticking out and made the chain bigger."
Megan - "Perhaps the carpet made the chain wrinkled a bit and then they were shorter."
Ricky - "When we cut the links to connect all the chains, perhaps we made them bigger."
Keenen - "Maybe when we taped them, they got stretched out and longer."
Valentina (& Addison) - "When the chains were measured on the carpet, they looked a bit crooked and not straight."

'The Longest Paper Chain'- Collaborative Activity

We spent this morning talking about collaboration and engaging in a collaborative task. To get things started, we brainstormed ideas about what COLLABORATION means to us. We created a 'Y Chart' about what we think collaboration is...what it LOOKS LIKE, SOUNDS LIKE and FEELS LIKE. The students had many good ideas to share about collaboration and this is what our 'Y Chart' looked like before our collaborative activity:

Next, the students were split into small groups and presented with the challenge of creating the longest paper chain possible with only 1 piece of g.o.o.s. paper, tape and scissors. The activity required them to work collaboratively with their peers by problem solving, devising a plan of action, listening to each other's ideas, etc.,  Here they are working away:

After about 30 minutes working on their challenge, these were their final products:

Our longest chain was 195 cm, second longest was 180 cm, third longest was 142 cm, fourth longest was 77 cm and our fifth longest was 75 cm. During our activity consolidation we discussed what we learned about collaboration and what we needed in order to be successful at the challenge. We talked about errors we made and the things we would do differently if we were to repeat the challenge. 

Here are some of the ideas they came up with:

We also added to our 'Collaboration Y Chart:' 

Finally, we decided it would be fun to connect all the chains together in order to to make one huge paper chain! The students were amazed to see their enormous paper chain laid out down the hallway. They were even more amazed to learn that at the 1968 Summer Olympics, American Long Jumper Bob Beamon, won the Gold Medal with a record breaking 890 cm jump- way LONGER than our 743 cm paper chain! Our final measurement of 743 cm will lead to tomorrow's brain teaser: Why do our measurements of the individual paper chains add up to 669 cm rather than 743 cm?  

Remembrance Day

On Friday morning we celebrated Remembrance Day as a school. It was an extremely moving celebration for everyone and it was nice to see so many of our parents in attendance. This is a picture of the class wreath that we presented:

Earlier in the week, the students wrote postcards of thanks to Canadian soldiers past and present.