What's the Chance?

We've had a lot of fun this week exploring probability during math workshop. We started the week throwing wadded-up pieces of paper in the trashcan (you don't get to do that too often in school, do you?). We found you are certain to hit the trashcan from 3 cm away, likely to hit the trashcan from 150 cm away, unlikely to hit the trashcan from 250 or 350 cm away, and it's nearly impossible to hit the trashcan from 6m away with your eyes closed.

Our second activity this week dealt with dice. We posed the question: If you roll two dice and add them together, what sum will you most likely roll? There were a variety of predictions to this exploration, and most of us were surprised by what we found. Partners worked together to roll dice and record their results. We found that 6,7,8 were rolled most often, while 1,2,3,10,11,12 were not rolled as frequently. After we studied our results, Atticus shed some insight into why 6,7,8 may be rolled more often. Atticus proposed that 6,7,8 had more combinations for sums than the other numbers. We tested out his results, and we found out he was right! The sum of 7 has six possible combinations. You're more likely to roll a sum of 7 than any other sum. Isn't that interesting?

Our last probability activity for the week involved pulling colored cubes from a bag. The students already knew that if you put 2 blues and 2 whites into a bag and pulled one, you would have a 50-50 chance. So...we posed a new problem. What if you pulled 2 cubes at once? What combinations and chances would you pull? Most students' predictions followed one of the following:

Blue-Blue - 25%
White-White - 25%
Blue-White -50%

OR...

Blue-Blue - 33%
White-White - 33%
Blue-White - 33%

After conducting the exploration, we found out all our predictions were wrong! Our results were close to this:

Blue-Blue - 15%
White-White - 15%
Blue-White - 70%

We started thinking about the possible combinations, and we found that there was only one combination for Blue-Blue, one combination for White-White, but 4 combinations for Blue-White. Therefore, 4 of the possible 6 combinations would produce a Blue-White - which is 66% of the time. WOW!

But we didn't end there. We posed a new problem...What would happen if we put 3 blues and 1 white in the bag? We quickly predicted that we would be more likely to pull Blue-Blue than Blue-White. That would make sense, right? But our results of the experiment proved our prediction wrong once again! Our results gave us an equally likely chance to pull Blue-Blue as Blue-White. Can you figure out why? (Hint: Think about all the possible combinations.) I challenge you to pose NEW problems to this exploration and see what you can find out. Have fun!

Studycast - Social Studies Chapter 8

Click here to listen to our first ever studycast! This is a podcast that will help you study (hence the name, studycast). Hopefully this studycast will give you some needed tips for studying and understanding the material in Chapter 8. Please leave me some feedback if you used this podcast (just click on the word "Comment" below and you can leave a message). If this is something you'd like me to do for each chapter, I can possibly do that. What parts were helpful? What do I need to do differently? Let me know what you think.

Valentine's Day Party

Here are some pictures from our Valentine's Day party. During the week, the kids made me a scroll for Teacher Appreciation Week. They included poems and messages of thanks - it is a wonderful present. There are several pictures of the scroll presentation at the end of the movie. I hope you and your family had a wonderful Valentine weekend.

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Virginia's Poetry

There were so many wonderful poems that weren't shared at Brownbuck's Bistro - there just wasn't enough time. As I was reading through the rough drafts of our students' poetry this evening, I found two by Virginia that I thought were wonderful. These are two she didn't include in her final project. I thought our blog would be a great place to share these. Click on the "Comments" link at the end of this post to share your thoughts about this poem. I know Virginia would be thrilled to hear what you think.

Book
The world spills out in words
They settle into open minds
When the book closes, silence returns
to the mind
Just reopen the pages


Window
Clear as an untouched pool
Another eye to look out into the world
Out side me.
It brings light and peace
Invisible
Invisible
Invisible
A shortcut to anothe world -
Outside mine.

Brownbucks Bistro

For those of you who weren't able to visit Brownbucks Bistro last week, you missed an incredible event. Twenty-five poets from the area came and shared their writing with a captive crowd of friends and parents. We laughed, cried, and wondered as these poets let their words impact our thoughts. We were moved. Please enjoy the pictures below!

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Road to the Revolution Tableaus

While Challenge was out this week, we reviewed what we had learned about the "Road to the Revolution" by creating tableaus. Whenever we do tableaus, we always deepen our understanding of what we've learned. Each group's tableau brought new perspectives and understandings to our previously held ideas.

George, Emily, Garvin, and Atticus are depicting a scene from the French and Indian War. Do you know why the importance of this event as it relates to the American Revolution? (Your child should!)

Amy, Naomi, Charlie and Kandice have created a tableau that shows the Sons of Liberty. Each of their poses (the three on their knees) represents a way this group protested the taxes imposed by Great Britain.

This tableau created by Jaylin, Kelkcee, Maribeth and Katie illustrates the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act was the first tax imposed by England. Kelkcee and Maribeth's poses show the colonists' reactions to these taxes!

The Relatives Came

We've been learning to "read like a writer." To do this, we first immersed ourselves in Cynthia Rylant's picture book, The Relatives Came. We read it several times together as a class, then read it individually as well. We read it while viewing the illustrations, and we read it with just the text, as well. We then set out to find "striking places" within the text. These are places in the text that make us feel something, make us laugh, create connections to our lives, present a vivid picture, use interesting language, or make our mouths feel good when we say them aloud.

Each student found his or her favorite striking place in the text and narrowed it down to 15 words or less. We read our striking places in our class circle - like a poem. We were amazed by the beautiful language and the interesting position of lines. It was also interesting to see which students picked similar lines. We switched ourselves around and read it again - it was very cool.

After this activity, students got in groups of 4 and created presentations for their striking place "poem." Students were only limited by their creativity. They had to design the order of their poem, as well as the motions and movements. We hope you enjoy our presentations of striking places from The Relatives Came.

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Authors' Circles

I am so impressed with our writers. Today in writer's workshop, we focused on revision. An important part of revision is getting positive and constructive feedback from other writers. We need more than "That was good" or "I liked it." Writers need specific feedback that can help an author improve his or her piece. An important tool we use to accomplish this is an author's circle. In an author's circle, three writers get together and listen to one piece of writing. They usually listen to it several times before giving feedback. When discussing the piece, they usually focus on some questions like these:

What did I like about the writing? (being specific!)

What message or meaning did I take away from the poem?

Were there any parts that confused me?

What tools or techniques could improve the writing?

After demonstrating an author's circle with Atticus and Anna C., the students took off to have their on. Again, I was so impressed. The students were giving incredible feedback to each other. They were taking their work very seriously, and it showed through all of their conversations. Here's some pictures from today's workshop time:

Atticus and Jordan gave Garvin some feedback to one of his poems. I love how they're all reading the poem together, carefully listening to Garvin's words.

This group was incredible. Caroline and Charlie spent almost the entire class period giving Justin feedback on one of his poems. Justin took their suggestions very seriously, adding in new stanzas and lines to his poems. It was amazing to watch this group of writers at work. This is so much more than "I like your poem." This is the work of real writers!

Fraction Games

To gain a deeper understanding of fractions, students created fraction kits (they're the ziploc bag full of cut construction paper your child brought home a few days ago). We've used these kits to play two really fun games so far - Cover Up and Uncover. Through these games, the students have gained a really indepth understanding of how fractions relate to each other. Today in class, the students easily could tell me equivalent fractions for 1, 1/2, 1/4, and 1/8. I was very impressed. I've included some pictures below so you could see the kids playing the games in class.

Our Poem

Today in class, we learned about some "musical" tools of poetry - alliteration, rhyme, repetition, rhythm, and onomatopoeia. After studying several poems, we decided to create a poem of our own using some of theses musical tools. Amy came up with the idea to write a poem about a sunset, and here's what we wrote:

Sunset

Sneaking beneath the earth
Peeking out of the pink clouds
Soothing sun sits lightly in the horizon
Orange, blue, and pink
Swirls and twirls in the sky
Lower and Lower
Sneaking beneath the earth

Can you identify some of the tools we used? Give us some feedback, let us know what you think!