Math Opportunities are Everywhere!

Here is a drawing created by S.P., an SK student.

                 

You might think this is just a nice picture of our school with a LOT of windows, but allow me to tell you the incredible math learning story that helped create this picture.

Our curriculum's mathematics big idea is "young children have a conceptual understanding of mathematics and of mathematical thinking and reasoning". With directed support, "math can be seamlessly integrated into children’s ongoing play and activities" (Capacitiy Building Series, 2011).

During Thinking and Learning time, S.P asked me, "how many windows are in the school?" Together we pulled out the building plan of our school and talked about ways to determine the number of windows. Through discussion, she decided to use a marker to cross out each window as she counted it. She used counters to represent each window. As she marked off a window with the marker, she placed a counter in the bin.

While working she exclaimed, "this is a big number Ms. Tompkins, you're going to help me!" I decided to bring her problem to the other students. As a class, we decided she should put the counters into groups of 10 because that would make it easier to count. The class found the number of windows on the main floor was 35. She then counted the number of windows on the second floor, using the strategy the class decided on. She grouped the counters and found out there were 75 windows in the school! She then drew the picture you saw at the beginning of this post, the school with 75 windows.

Here is the story in pictures:

                  

Remember, children have an incredible capacity for learning, thinking and representing their understanding.

Reptile Visitor

There was a bearded dragon visiting Ms. Durant's class, and so the lizard came over to our class for a visit too!

S.J. was an in class expert so he shared his books and knowledge with the class

Thank You!

Wow! What an amazing turn out for our 'Making Waves with Inquiry' evening! We are very grateful for your support of our program and are so happy you were able to join us tonight! If you were unable to attend, we highlighted our rainbow inquiry, as well as other inquiries we have done throughout the year! Our students have been doing incredible work and it was great being able to share that work with you all! 

Thank you again!!

Exploring Colour

Wondering what this is about? 

Talk to your child about our experiment today and please share any wonders you or they have.

There will be a follow up post to give you more details soon!

Our New Inquiry- Rainbows!

“Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.” ― John Dewey

Our rainbow inquiry is in the beginning stages. We are continuing to listen to the students' wonders in order to determine the direction of our investigations and provocations. We read a story called 'Colors: The Rainbow of the Natural World' (published by Scholastic) and this inspired the students to look for colours around our classroom and school. Ms. Tompkins suggested we think about making a rainbow for our classroom.

We wanted to get the students actively involved in the creation of the rainbow so we gave them the camera! The following photos tell the story of the 'Rainbow of Room 122'.

Taking pictures.

Cutting out the pictures and sorting the colours.

Adding the pictures to the rainbow...figuring out what to do with the colours that don't fit in.

The students had many discussions about photos that included colours such as brown, black, white and multicoloured. Some students wanted them included in the rainbow while others said they didn't fit. Through facilitated discussions and reading books together, they created separate papers that held these colours instead of putting them on the rainbow.

Here is what the rainbow looks like right now...

Make sure you stay tuned! We have lots of wonders to explore...we are excited to see where this inquiry will lead.