Update

Hello everyone!

What a great week we all had!

On Monday students enjoyed a historical tour of Maynard to learn more about the significance of places we pass by each day. It was very educational. 

Today, we met a contestant from American Idol.  She performed as a singer and then spoke about self-confidence, bullying, and respect for others. Her program was simply amazing! What a positive role model for young people to listen and relate to for over an hour. I'm inspired!

Math: 
This past Wednesday students participated in a Math Carnival in which 4th graders were invited to play their project math games. The event was quite a success.

This week students estimated the number of apples in a bushel by scanning an apple orchard diagram and used a square grid transparency to count how many trees are in 6 of the 42 squares to calculate an average to be multiplied by 2200 apples per tree. After calculating the total number of apples, we then multiplied the total by 75% representing the total number anticipated to be sold and then multiplied that total by $0.50 per apple to find the total gross income. We then multiplied that amount by 6 if the company owned 6 orchards. Students also completed a table of trees per area and discovered that the more dense an area of trees, the fewer the total yield. Students contributed reasoning for this that included the trees having to share the nutrients from the soil, the water, and the sunlight due to shade.

In my other lesson students selected a celebrity athlete, singer, or actress and his/her personal calories burned per minute per activity. Students had to select an exercise or sport and calculate how long he or she would have to exercise to burn the number of calories in a McDonald's Extra Value Meal. As it turned out Lebron James would have to play 86 minutes of basketball which is close to 2 full games. 

Students flipped a coin 50 times and we recorded the data to see if we could get within 1% of 50%. 1 class had 49.6% percent heads representing a difference of 3 coin flips out of 975 - Amazing!

We also simulated 2 experiments considering theoretical probability in which students drew colored chips from a bag and charted them. We then predicted how many of each of the 3 colors were in the bag to match the experimental to the theoretical probability. It came very close in one of the experiments. 

Science:
Students planned and created a comic strip in which a type of species was transferred to a new climate. My example featured a snake having to learn how to adapt from the desert to the arctic. Here, the snake grew fur and developed different defense mechanisms to live in a new population.
Students enjoyed combining their knowledge of such animal species with their imagination to develop reasoning for an animal species transformation.

1 more update to go!

Cheers,

Chris
 
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