Today we had fun with all 11001 students in our classroom.
We spent our morning talking about addition, subtraction, and then back to our main focus of multi-digit multiplication. We talked about how addition is commutative, but subtraction is not. Tomorrow we’ll talk about multiplication and division, and which of those is commutative, although the students were already shouting that out as we finished up.
Tonight students have a simple multiplication worksheet to finish. They should do each problem using an area model, and also write out the steps as they do them. The first problem is done for them as an example, but honestly everyone is pretty solid on this at this point, and I expect no problems.
We read a really neat book called Math Curse, where a little girl starts seeing math problems everywhere (because, let’s face it, math IS everywhere) and the students didn’t quite get some of the wordplay especially when they talked about binary. This led us on a tangent where we talked about and learned some binary. Hence, the 11001 students in our classroom. Ask your student if they can count in binary tonight!
The Goldilocks stories everyone turned in were very entertaining. However, many students lacked realistic motivation for their own character of Goldilocks. I was hoping they might explore their own reasons for going into a strange house, eating strangers’ food, and for breaking their things. Some took some liberties and explained things like they really secretly hated bears, or that they were going into a house of people they thought they knew. To get everyone really thinking about why they would do these things, tonight students should write a simple “Why I did it” piece, where they explain their motivations for going into the house, and generally trashing the place.
We also talked about those wonderful explorers of old again, and the early days of the United States. Students have a short piece on the revolutionary war to read tonight in their motivation reading books on pages 119-122.
Finally, we talked in small groups about the function of bones and muscles in the body. We learned that bones are there to protect, support, and move our bodies, and that there are three main types of muscles: skeletal, smooth, and cardiac. We will be exploring human body systems for the remainder of the quarter, one little bit at a time.
so, tldr;
multiplication worksheet
read pages 119-122 in motivation reading
Why I did it! – explanation of their motivations as Goldilocks
have a good one!
-Mr. Potter