April/ May

Exploration:
For the last part of the year, students looked at the use of models in discovery. We read the article, "Everyday Mysteries" highlighting black boxes as the term for systems that are hard to see and explain. Models are tools used to show explanations of these mysterious inner workings. Students also read The Dinosaurs of Waterhouse Hawkins and learned how models develop over time and change with new information. Students were then introduced to their own black boxes. They worked to observe these hidden systems and created their own conceptual and physical models to explain what was happening inside the box. Just like scientists don't have a cheat sheet that can be checked at the end of the day, students had to prove or disprove their hypothesis just from comparing models and never actually got to open the box!
After completing the black box investigation, students looked at using the design process in the development of the automobile. Students read the article " Early Autos" to learn the history of their development. They then began the design of their own free rolling go carts that they were able to revise and test for distance. We also did research on "What Makes Things Move?" and tried tweaking our designs to include a self-propelled factor. We celebrated our last day together by competed in a QuizetLive review game to earn first pick at supplies for the edible car challenge.

Math:
For math, we took a look at the Chinese expanded notation system. This system brought us back to the mysterious writing on the Moli Stone that we were finally able to crack! I will certainly miss this wonderful group! I am so proud of all they have accomplished, their love of learning, and the community they have built with each other.

 

Discovery Place

We had an amazing day at Discovery Place!  Students took an advanced robotics class and programmed their rovers, learned about force and motion in the energetic contraptions lab where they built and competed in a catapult launching contest.  They explored the simple machines, insect, aquarium, and rain forest exhibits, watched Backyard Wilderness in the IMAX dome, and saw an after-hours show about light!  They also made everyone proud with their excellent manners on a long and fun-filled day!

 

 

March

Exploration:

This month we got to dive in to part two of our exploration unit, Exploring through Problem Solving. We began by looking at the scientific method as a problem solving tool. We went through the steps and conducted a class test to see how many random numbers a third grader could hold in their brain without forgetting. We also experimented to see how many drops of water could fit on a penny. We also read one of my favorite books, Ada Twist: Scientist by Andrea Beaty and used a dancing raisin activity to distinguish between observations and inferences.
Our next topic took us on an investigation of simple machines. We were able to use a student paced Simple Machines Nearpod to brush up on our understanding, take some good notes, and play several online quizzes and activities reinforcing the concepts. As a fun way to show off their learning, groups used information from the previous lesson to complete a lock box break out challenge. Students loved solving puzzles and cracking codes to discover what simple machine had been taken from our classroom!

M^3 (Mentoring Mathematical Minds) Unraveling the Mystery of the Moli Stone:
This month we visited ancient Egypt and its’ number system to look at their use of symbols and lack place value and zero digit. Students decoded, wrote, and even added and subtracted with hieroglyphics.

Critical and Creative Thinking:

I loved seeing students present their inventor and invention projects! I learned a lot and it was a wonderful way to engage and build enthusiasm for our new unit! I was proud to see a lot of our research skills at use and loved the creative products!

January/February

Exploration:
Students have worked so hard in the research process to complete their museum placards and artifacts for our ancient civilizations projects. We researched, took notes, drafted, signed, edited and made some amazing final products for our museum display.

As a culminating adventure, students were called on to help me with a slight dilemma where they used their learning to come through with flying colors! Our ancient civilization time travel mystery was enjoyed by all and we look forward to starting on exploring through problem solving next week!

M^3 (Mentoring Mathematical Minds) Unraveling the Mystery of the Moli Stone: 
For our second unit, we looked at regrouping to develop a greater understanding of why it occurs in computation. In exploring groupings they visit the Land of Treble and explore the base 3 number system. If you heard your child talking about gickles, bickles, and rickles, they haven’t gone mad, they have just been making trades in base 3. They practiced both adding and subtracting and then enjoyed the game “A Race in Base” where they used both base 10 and base 3 in order to make comparisons between the two number systems.

Critical and Creative Thinking:
Sudoku puzzles have been our focus as of late. We have been using the process of elimination and 2-step logic to complete our number grids.

 

November/ December

Exploration:
The bulk of our labor recently has been on our Ancient Civilization research projects which focus on a student selected cultural universal of one of our four ancient civilizations. As we follow the FINDS research process, students have learned about primary and secondary sources, how to identify and cite appropriate sources that are readable, reliable, and relevant. They have also become effective note takers by locating important ideas and details and rephrasing and organizing them in their digital notebooks. From their study, they will be creating an artifact model that they will be able to display along with a museum style placard. The placard will show off their research and highlight the archaeological find and what it reveals about the culture from which it came.

FINDS Research Checklist

Focus

_____ Civilization you will research ______________

_____ Topic (Cultural Universal ) you will research ________________


Investigate and choose resources

_____ Explore Symbaloo web site and choose web sites

_____ Explore books and choose books to use for research

_____ Site the sources that were used in taking notes


Notes

_____ Type notes in the digital notebook about your cultural universal from the resources chosen

_____ Describe at least 3 artifacts that are part of your cultural universal


Develop notes into project

_____ Write a research paragraph on your topic from your notes

_____ Create an artifact, model or visual about your topic


Score work

_____ Complete checklist

_____ Rubric

_____ Reflection


M^3 (Mentoring Mathematical Minds) Unraveling the Mystery of the Moli Stone:

In math, we have continued to practice translating our inner problem solving strategies into clear written explanations. In our latest game, Some Sum, students drew 4 numbers and considered strategies to place them in two addends and build the biggest sum to win. We got to consider place value, the commutative property, and look at how many different ways we could build the largest sum. We also completed our first math check-up assessment.

Critical and Creative Thinking:

Stemming from our research project, we looked at an exemplar project on Ancient Rome's Art. The example used research to describe the role of the mosaic in Roman culture. Students then got to create their own mosaic highlighting a scene or pattern from their daily life.

We have also been enjoying shaping our critical thinking skills with practice and discussion from our new brain stretcher packets.

October

Morphic Thinking: We have really gotten into the groove with our morning warm-ups. I am loving the creative answers to our Spontaneous Problems. I think our favorite so far is “Your feet have become triangles...what now?!?!” I am also impressed with the deep thinking and elaboration I am seeing with the boundary breaker prompts. It is certainly a nice time for the group to enjoy sharing and hearing the ideas of their peers.

Exploration: Our work thus far has lead us through the exploration of our own past, the exploration of South Carolina's past, and now to the exploration of the ancient past- all through the lens of archaeology. We kicked-off our study of ancient civilizations by looking at cultural universals in our game, Shipwrecked. Students had to decide on the most important things for survival in a new society, and saw how nine basic elements become evident in every culture. They saw the progress from meeting the basic need of food, water, and shelter, to creating laws, division of labor, and even recreation. We also read the book Westlandia, by Paul Fleischman, which is the story of a boy named Wesley and his summer project of creating his own civilization. We were able to observe the nine cultural universals in his society as well: geography, family, economics, communication, government, recreation, beliefs, education, and resources (food. clothing, shelter).

Springing from the cultural universals, students were able to act as time travelers stopping off at Ancient Egypt for a view of the pyramids, and then on to Ancient China to see the making of the terracotta warriors. Our next stop was Ancient Greece to walk through the columns of the Parthenon, and finally to Rome for a contest of gladiators in the Colosseum. Students rotated through our civilization stations to get a glimpse of each culture. They collected facts and stamped their passports as they selected the civilization that they would like to dig deeper into for their upcoming research project. As a class we looked at the where and when of each civilization and added their period in history to our timeline.



M^3 (Mentoring Mathematical Minds) Unraveling the Mystery of the Moli Stone: In math, students got their feet wet with their first problem solving prompt. They were asked to consider the change in a Maneki Neko bank and explore the different combinations they could use to total 47 cents, using only dimes and pennies. Ask your student about the rule they discovered. Next, students competed to build the largest two digit number in our game Card Capers. Students had a tens space and ones space to fill as well as a discard space. When a 0-9 card was turned, they placed the digits one at a time in the space of their choice. without being able to switch and not knowing what the next flip would reveal. We talked about strategies and the place value of digits affecting their magnitude. Students were tasked with finding out how many two digit numbers could be created, considering there was only one of each number and zero could not be used in the tens place without resulting in a single digit number. There was lots of great idea sharing and discussion! We are continuing to work on expressing our thinking and problem solving in writing that is clear and uses mathematical language.

Critical and Creative Thinking: This month students practiced reasoning strategies by using clues to complete matrix logic puzzles. They used the given information to make one and two step deductions in order to find or eliminate matches between the puzzle categories. These were a good test of growth mindset and a class favorite! Students have also gotten started on their "Where I'm From" poems. These pieces will share their personal family histories. Students are modeling their writing off the poem of the same name by George Ella Lyon.

Archaeological Adventure

We hit the road to Charleston to check out what history we could discover at Colonial Dorchester and Charlestowne Landing.

Colonial Dorchester gave us a peek into colonial life in South Carolina as far back as 1697! Students were able to tour and participate in the excavation still happening on the site today.

Charlestowne Landing is the preserved site of the first English settlement in South Carolina, founded in 1670! Students were able to tour the property and see how archaeologists have used their discoveries to recreate structures present in the original town.  They also had fun simulating how different people groups supported each other's societies with the trade game.