This week 5th grade students worked with a partner to describe shapes and decide what different shapes should look like. They had some very interesting answers, which is going to give us a lot to work with in the coming weeks as we continue to learn about shape properties. They also received their World Peace Game dossier, the red folder in the pictures, along with their crisis list. They will be responsible for solving the 24 crises, as well as helping each country grow their nation budget over the next 8 class days. The fourth graders worked with shapes as well, but they used models to solve area and perimeter problems. Some of the problems had students working backwards, by giving them the area, then having them find the side measures. Most of the kids said that doing it backwards was much harder, especially when they actually had to build a matching shape. This idea is going to be really important as we go towards designing and building houses later in the architecture unit. Wednesday's fourth graders explored area and perimeter of quadrilaterals in math. They quickly discovered that while they knew the mathematical formulas and calculations necessary to find the area and perimeter when given the sides, it was not nearly as easy to go backwards and find the side measures when given the area and perimeter.
Over the next few weeks we will be exploring these concepts more with unifix cubes creating shapes as well as graph paper. All of this will become extremely important as they eventually use math and scaling to start sketching and building their architecture project. We got so busy I didn't take any pictures, check back next week for some visuals of their work. 5th graders at North Springs completed their 2nd build challenge, building a shelter for a character. Students attempted a variety of architectural designs that will provide excellent points of instruction later in the year. They also completed their first Morphic Thinking exercise through the Proverb and Boundary Breaker. You can see an excellent example by one of the students in the slideshow below. Monday's first unit is Sustainability, where they will learn about how humans interact with the earth in many ways. The main way we will work through this unit is through a learning experience called the World Peace Game. If you were wondering what the pictures of the 4 layer board with the miniature figures, buildings, and clouds were; this is our board for the game. The students will be working through 24 crises to help save the world over the next 9 weeks. 5th graders had Monday off due to Labor Day this week. The North Springs 4th graders began developing strategies and applying mathematical knowledge and reasoning to solve algebraic equations with variables. Students also created their first major architectural sketch by designing a treehouse. Eventually students will be sketching scaled drawings of real buildings as well as sketch 3 dimensional designs and structures. They also build structures to provide shelter to their given animal. We had a variety of construction strategies being applied; from fences and lean to's, to reinforced walls and pyramids the students applied things they already knew about construction. As we go through our architecture unit we will use these experiences to teach them about principles of architecture they already know (giving them the vocabulary and mathematical backgrounds to go with what they know from building experience) and add new procedures and strategies to their toolbelt. In a creativity exercise 4th and 5th graders at North Springs made visual name tags, replacing the letters in their names with shapes and objects. The classes also completed a build challenge where the goal was to build the tallest free-standing structure possible with only a piece of construction paper and some tape. Wednesday's class realized that while technology is wonderful in many ways, they found it harder to communicate and organize their ideas about "change" while collaborating on a digital jamboard than if they had been able to use a big piece of chart paper to set up their notes. |