April 2nd Week Part B

April 10 - Jelly Beans Again!!!

We have been focusing on group cooperation. I have been putting out puzzles for the students to work on together. I have three great students who work very hard as individuals and then boast about being the best/first/the winner. I once read that competition brings our the "beast" in us; cooperation brings out the "best" in us. My goal is to encourage the best in my students. 

One of our struggles has been clothing adjustments that need to be made. This constant need to adjust (pull up) our pants, has been a distraction to our learning. So today we cooperated and got creative in finding a solution to the falling pants problem. It worked great!

 Today we continued the  concept of making estimations. I took three different jars and put the same number of jelly beans in each one. The tall narrow bottle appeared to have the most; whereas, the rounder jar appeared to have fewer jelly beans because they were spread out in a single layer. The students were surprised that each container had the same amount of jelly beans.

We  looked at each bottle and guessed which bottle had the most jelly beans, which one had the least. And then they recorded their guess on their worksheet. Each student took a container and counted out their jelly beans.

The students were surprised and puzzled by the knowledge that all containers had the same number of jelly beans.

After snack we went outside to practice flying frisbees. Like many things we have mastered, I had forgotten how difficult tossing a frisbee could be.

During free play the students decided that they could give service by helping pick up twigs. One student found a branch and the other two rushed over to help. Then they had to call my attention to the fact that they were cooperating and doing service at the same time. They are just great at multi-tasking.

After playing outside we finished by graphing the jelly beans we had in our container.

There was no homework.