Countdown to FCAT: Sleep

 

Did you know that for children to grow properly and perform well in school, they need 10 hours of sleep each night?  Now is the time to make sure you start going to bed early enough, so your body can fall asleep, rise on time, and feel well-rested for FCAT next week.

Other things can also affect sleep quality:

• Stop consuming caffeine after lunch.  Remember, most sodas, some teas, and chocolate contain caffeine, which can make it more difficult to fall asleep.
• Eat dinner at least three hours before bedtime (digestion keeps your body awake).  What time do you need to finish eating?
• Turn off all electronic screens (phone, computer, tablet, TV) two hours before bedtime.  What time do you need to shut down your electronics?

What time do you wake up?  Count back ten hours.  This is what time you need to be asleep.  If you like to read before bedtime, plan on getting in bed a little earlier, so you can get a full ten hours of sleep.

I learned something today too!

In Math Workshop, we've been studying angles and how to measure them.  As I've taught lessons this week, I thought, I wonder why we use 360 as the number of degrees in a whole circle.  It's not a common number.  I was preparing a chart after school today, and while searching for an image of a 360 degree circle, found the answer:

Why 360 degrees? Probably because old calendars (such as the Persian Calendar) used 360 days for a year - when they watched the stars they saw them revolve around the North Star one degree per day.

Also 360 can be divided evenly by 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 8, 9, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 24, 30, 36, 40, 45, 60, 72, 90, 120 and 180, which makes a lot of basic geometry easier.

Just another example that we are all life-long learners!  :-)

Brain Break: Sudoku and KenKen Puzzles

We have been working SO hard to finish third quarter in Math Workshop.  With CGA 3 behind us and FCAT ahead, who needs a little brain break?  In December, I taught the students how to do Sudoku puzzles (we started with "light and easy" 4x4 puzzles).  These puzzles are excellent for developing logic skills, which are essential for critical thinking in problem solving (and they are fun!).

Light and Easy 4x4 Sukoku puzzle

 

Traditional 9x9 Sudoku puzzle

These addictive puzzles are great for rainy days and long rides!

This weekend, I discovered KenKen puzzles, which are related to Sudoku puzzles.   

Today I showed the students how these puzzles work.  There are also free KenKen apps (I use Ken Ken II).

As a math teacher, KenKen puzzles interest me because they are a fun way to practice basic fact operations.  Be forewarned, they are very addictive (there's a timer you can turn on or off), especially if you are competitive like me!  My best time on a 3x3 KenKen puzzle was 14 seconds.  Can you beat my time?  :-)

Area & A Mathematical Milestone

This week, we started our first geometry unit, Area.

We've learned that area is the number of units needed to cover a shape.  Since square units are easiest to cover most shapes and count,  we usually use these to measure a shape's area.

Today we broke out the GeoBoards and learned how to use them as tools for modeling area and other two-dimensional shapes.

(First, we had 5 minutes to "explore" our new tools, be creative, and use them as toys.  Naturally, this lead to a nice review/discussion about symmetry!)

Next, we made a grid on the GeoBoards and found out each board has an area of 16 square units.

From their work with arrays in third and fourth grades, the students have realized they don't need to count squares for rectangles one by one. (Yes, a square is a rectangle!)  Instead, we can multiply the dimensions (number of rows times number of squares in each row).  Knowing this, the students learned their first mathematical formula:

Area of a rectangle = Length x Width

Then we practiced making shapes with a given area--2 square units, 3 square units, and 6 square units.

Some students remembered from third/fourth grade fractions that two triangles are equivalent to one square unit of area and used them in their designs.

I don't even think some of the students realized it was raining outside and recess time.  :-)

Math & Science

I love it when what we're studying in math and science overlap!  In math, we recently finished our unit on fractions and decimals, which included some time learning about percents.  Our students came up with some great examples of where they have seen percents--shopping (sales and sales tax), clothing (50% cotton), and food (2% milk, 100% juice).

In science, we've been studying minerals, and a few of our students brought up taking vitamins, which often contain minerals too.  What exactly is the difference between a vitamin and a mineral?  We've learned that minerals are formed in the earth and are non-living (have never been alive).  Vitamins, on the other hand, are produced by living things.  (Thanks, students, for challenging me to research this.  I learned something new too!  :-))  This being said, minerals such as calcium, potassium, iron, and zinc are extremely important for our bodies to grow, develop, and repair themselves.  Our bodies absorb minerals better from whole, natural foods than supplements such as vitamins (plus eating good, nutritious foods satisfies hunger and can be an enjoyable experience!)  Here is an article our students might enjoy to learn more about the importance of eating minerals every day.

 

 

 

All of these foods come from living things, but contain minerals, which are non-living and produced in the earth.  How do you think that happens?

It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like...

Both classes joined together for our Holiday Party on Tuesday.  We started the morning making a healthy holiday snack and decorating (brown paper grocery bag/yarn) stockings while watching The Polar Express.

Snowmen on a (Skewer) Stick

Then we spent some time working on loom knitting projects.

After that, Ms. Kirkham read aloud The Night Before Christmas Left Right Passing Game for our $1 gift exchange.

 

While this took place, our wonderful volunteers set up for lunch in the classroom.  We had clementines, cheese sticks, crock pot hotdogs, baby carrots, chips, Capri Suns, and a treat.

Several older siblings,

parents,

and grandparents

were able to join us for lunch!

After lunch, we split into two teams.  Everyone crumbled up six pieces of paper from the recycle bin, 

and we went over the rules for our Florida Snowball Fight on the tennis courts:

• Stay in the boundaries (outer white line) of your team's side of the court at all times.
• If snowballs go out of boundaries and you can reach them without stepping over the line, you may get them.  Otherwise, your teachers will throw them back in.  If you step out of boundaries, you sit out a round.
• Keep your hands off the net.  If you touch the net, you sit out a round.
• Your goal is to keep as many snowballs as possible off your team's side, so don't waste time trying to aim at specific people.
• There are three rounds, five minutes each round.  When the whistle blows, freeze.  Your teachers will make an official count of how many snowballs are on each side and declare a winner for the round.
• At the end, there will be a bonus (clean up) round to see which team can pile up the most snowballs on their side.

We wrapped up a fun day with a cute snowman craft (using Mentos gum containers and colorful socks) similar to these

discovered our stockings had been stuffed with goodies, participated in Minute to Win It mini marshmallow challenges,

and learned to play the card game Spoons.

Yesterday, in Math Workshop, we did several activities to help us develop logic, which helps us to be better mathematicians/problem solvers:

• Brain Teasers/Logic Problems
• Sudoku Puzzles
• 12 Days of Christmas Tangram Puzzles

Happy Holidays from Team Kirkham-Remley!

We hope our students enjoyed the s'mores trail mix we made yesterday and look forward to spending s'more time with everyone in 2014!

Celebrating (Winter in) Florida

Anyone else feel like songs about snow are out of place here on a day that was nearly 80 degrees?  Today Ms. Kirkham read

to introduce our Florida Christmas Tree holiday project.  Your student is bringing home a letter with more details today, so make sure you see it.

Ornaments are due Tuesday, December 10.  We can't wait to see our students' creations!