Monthly Archives: January 2012

Geometry Video

Ok, so the other day I posted about our first lesson in our new geometry unit.  I was a little frustrated by not being able to post videos, because I caught a great conversation about rotational symmetry that one group had.

After some smart thinking by my brother-in-law, I am attempting it again, using our newly created YouTube channel.  Let’s see if it works:

But anyhow, I hope you caught what was happening in that conversation.  The boys were working to put their geometry terms into groups and label them, and got to talking about rotational symmetry related to triangles.  Evan was trying to explain to Harry about how all triangles have rotational symmetry and was showing him with the picture on the post-it.  Harry–and then Dom, who you only hear but not see–help him with the idea that regular triangles, but not all triangles have rotational symmetry.

I love how you ask kids to do one thing, and then they take the conversation to other (and many times deeper) levels.  Great job, kiddos!

(And sorry to those of you who were annoyed by the quality of that video.  I’m still new to this part of blogging and uploading!  I’ll get better, I promise. 🙂 )

The World of Geometry

Today was the first day back after Winter Break.  In math we went back to a unit we had briefly started before we left–2D geometry and measurement.  You just never know how kids will be the first day back into the routine of school after being gone for so long, but my kiddos totally rocked it!

We started a unit from the book Differentiation in Practice by Carol Ann Tomlinson and Caroline Cunningham Eidson, which I have used before with other classes.  I love the way it’s tiered so that everyone can engage at the level they need, and the lessons are written in such a clear way that I can just jump right in!

We started with the first lesson today, which began with a rating scale to get them thinking about how well they know geometry.  We made a class chart that looked like this:

Obviously we already feel like we know a lot about geometry! That will mean we can go to great places and expand our learning to topics we might not otherwise have been ready for!  What fun we will have!

After we completed our rating scale, we went ahead with a List-Group-Label activity related to geometry terms.  In small groups at their tables, they first listed words they thought of that were related to geometry.  Remember when we made Wordles in math last month? Well they used those to help get their thinking started.

Lauren references her Wordle to help with geometry terms for her list today.

Taylor and Abigail work together on their list.

Harry and Evan have a variety of polygons on their list of geometry terms.

After their groups listed terms, then their job was to group these terms into categories.   They did this on paper first, and then we started a class web that we’ll finish up tomorrow:

While what we were doing today was not hard, and was based on prior knowledge, they really dug in and did some great work.  If only you could see the videos I took of a conversation on rotational symmetry from Harry and Evan’s group!  I will have to find a way to be able to upload it–such an amazing example of students building on each others’ learning and working with misconceptions together.  I just got stand by and watch.

More to come as we dig deeper into this unit.  Cannot wait to share what happens next! 🙂

Often It’s the 4th Time That’s the Charm…

…or “What I Learned From Mini-Muffins and 4 Tries at Allie’s Birthday Cupcakes.”  Either way, this is worth a read, I’d say.

So first a little back story: my daughter’s 1st birthday was right before Winter Break, and so I thought I’d kill two birds with one stone and try out a muffin/cupcake recipe on my students to see if it would pass for Allie’s birthday treats.  I set out to find the right recipe; a first birthday is a big deal, after all.  (I actually hate to admit it, but I started noticing yummy things I might use last winter.  Yep, right after she was born.  I know–that’s weird.  But that’s how my brain works.) I found a recipe that I wanted to try, and made my mini-muffins on Sunday night before school.  And as I was baking, I was scripting a post in my head all about things I’d learned about how baking relates to learning, and life in general.  But I couldn’t get the words just right.  I drafted and revised and didn’t like how it sounded.

Then came Friday.  Allie’s birthday party was Saturday, and so I got out all the ingredients I needed to make A’s treats (and, by the way, I found what I thought would be an even yummier cupcake–sweet potato with cinnamon cream cheese icing!).  I had made a trial batch on Thursday, and aside from being a little hard to get out of the wrappers, they were pretty good.  Especially the icing.  They even looked good:

So I did some research after the last batch and figured out that probably the batter was not blended enough, and that I had under baked them too, so they were dense and hard to unwrap.  I had that info in my head as I got started tonight, and so tried to make sure I didn’t make the same mistake again.  But alas, the second batch was the same as the first, maybe even worse.  So I tried again, and these were awful, too.  So I scrapped that whole idea and started over on something else that looked a little more promising.  In the end, the new recipe wasn’t promising–it was amazing!

So here’s a short list of things I learned (or was at least reminded of) while I was baking. Enjoy!

1. Follow the directions–all the directions.  I realized as I was making the 3rd batch of cupcakes that I had left out the egg.  Made sense then, that they wouldn’t come out like they were supposed to.  Any time you’re working with a step-by-step process, doing all the steps–in order–is an important thing.

2. If it doesn’t look right at first, then it probably isn’t. The whole time I was making the first (and second and third) cupcakes, I kept thinking that the batter just didn’t look like it was supposed to.  That lead me to the next one:

3. Trust your gut. This lesson was related to something simple like cupcakes, but in all things, you usually get a feeling about whether or not something is right or good.  I should have listened to that little voice instead of having to make the same cupcakes 3 times in a row!

4. If at first you don’t succeed, try, try again! In this case, if I had quit, my baby girl would have been cupcakeless at her first birthday party!

5. If all else fails, try something else. Like I mentioned before, after those three failed attempts at Sweet Potato Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing, I chucked the whole thing and instead made Pumpkin Cupcakes with Cinnamon Cream Cheese Icing (the icing part from the first part was definitely worth saving!).  They turned out so great and were so yummy!

    

Happy Birthday, Allie Bearden!

Are you connected?

Today I was at school all by myself.  Ok, not all by myself, but without any students there.  It was a work day for teachers before students return tomorrow.  And it’s definitely a nice way to ease back into the school routine slowly.

I had a couple of goals today, one of them being this new bulletin board:

It’s right at the front of the room, behind the rocking chair I sit in for read aloud and much of our carpet time.  I hope it becomes a place where we can have daily conversations about the world, specifically about the people and places we’re connecting with via our blogs.  The plan is to mark the places where visitors (and those who leave comments) to our site are from.  I anticipate some really rich conversations around culture and geography will spark from this map–thanks to you, our readers.  Can’t wait to see how full the board becomes as the year goes on.

Will you help us?  We’d love to set the goal of getting as many different pins as possible on our map! Be sure to leave us a comment after you read and tell us a little about your town and yourself.  My kids would love it if you did the same on their blogs, as well, which can be found at www.kidblog.org/MrsBeardensClass2.

Can’t wait to see who we will meet this year!

New Year, New Theme

So if you’re here as a returning reader, then WELCOME BACK and HAPPY NEW YEAR! If you’re here for the first time, WELCOME and HAPPY NEW YEAR to you, too!

Just wanted to take a minute to say hope your 2012 is off to a great start! I wanted to officially start off a new blogging year with a new theme. Ok, I really just can’t decide which theme I like best and so I decided this would be a good time to try out another one that looked good.

But whatever the reason, I hope for you your best year yet. Did you make any New Year’s Resolutions? My kids will be blogging about that very topic this week, but until you read theirs, tell us about yours. 🙂