The Great Sunshine State Debate

Florida is "The Sunshine State"...or is it?

My first year teaching, I asked my students to bring in samples of rocks from the ground here in Jacksonville to observe and classify.  I was surprised when most students returned to school the next day empty-handed, and a few brought in landscape rocks.  Growing up outside Florida, I did not realize the earth here is mostly made of sand!

A similar experience occurred recently, nearly twelve years later.  Students have been learning about Earth's movement, specifically observing how its revolution around the sun allows us to observe different parts of the sky as the seasons change.  I thought it would be fun to have students observe constellations on the weekends twice each month, starting in Fall when the temperature and humidity start to decrease, resulting in fewer clouds and a clearer view of the night sky.  Some of my students expressed worry over not being able to complete the assignment, due to it being too cloudy, even this time of year.  This led me to wonder, if Florida is "The Sunshine State", does it really have more sunny days than the other forty-nine states?

Scientists analyze other scientists' data to help them answer their questions (or think of new questions), so I thought I would start there.

The results were surprising!

So, why do you think Florida is called "The Sunshine State"?

Energy Transfer & Food

What do turkey, stuffing, pumpkin pie, and many more delicious foods have in common?  Energy!  Energy is the ability to do work--causing a change in matter or creating motion.  In our quest to observe and wonder about the natural world around us, in Science over the next week and a half we will pause in our study of Earth and Space to investigate energy and its transfer through observing and researching one of my favorite things--food!

Have you ever wondered how wheat goes from growing in the ground to being turned into flour, which is an ingredient in many foods we eat?

Florida does not produce wheat.

Now you know!

Multi-Digit Multiplication Strategies

Currently we are learning to multiply multi-digit numbers using three related strategies.

Area Model:

Partial Products Algorithm:

Distributive Property:

We have been working on two, three, and four digit numbers times one digit numbers, but will also use these strategies to multiply two two-digit numbers.  

All of these strategies are important in helping students develop the place value understanding necessary to comprehend and successfully perform the multiplication standard algorithm.  Problem-solvers are always working toward more efficient strategies, so I will introduce the "traditional" way to multiply multi-digit numbers later this year.