Fun Algebra with Kids

Well... Halloween is usually the time that I introduce algebra a little bit. I tell the students that one number in our number sentence is wearing his Halloween costume (usually I draw a little ghostie). What we have to figure out is, what is the ghostie number?


For example: 3 + 7 = ghost + 2

This requires a clarification of what "=" actually means (an important prerequisite for algebra later on). A child who thinks = means "put the answer here" will say that the ghostie number is 10. 3 + 7 = 10. They will ignore the + 2 since they have no idea how to process it. One of the teachers in my evening class was saying that they have stopped using the word "equal" at her school and instead they say "is the same as." 3 + 7 IS THE SAME AS 8 + 2.

I wanted this to be a fun project for the kids so I am thinking about using rubber stamps to be the variables and making a book of Halloween math problems that they can take home. We will use a simple sheet of 8 1/2 x 11 card stock, so the book is sturdy. Lie a ruler down at the top edge of your paper (lay it landscape or portrait, whichever you prefer). Draw a line at the bottom edge of the ruler, remove the ruler, and cut the strip of paper you have traced off of your big sheet. You now have a slightly truncated original sheet and a strip of paper. Decide where on your big paper your math problem will go and lay the ruler down again across the paper in that spot. Trace the top edge and the bottom edge of the ruler (this is where the strip of paper will fit later). Now, write your math problem with the correct answers in all parts of the problem. Write it inside the lines you have traced and it's best if you write it big! You can make it as complicated or as simple as you want but there can only be one variable (one number which is hidden by a ghostie). Next, choose which number you are going to hide. Lay the short edge of the ruler on either side of this number and draw a line so that you have put this number in a little box. Fold your paper and cut out the left and right lines on either side of your number. It should have little slits on either side, so that the paper strip can be run through the large piece of paper, first covering and then revealing the hidden number. Thread your strip through the large piece of paper using the slits to align it over the number you wish to hide. Use a rubber stamp, or draw a picture if you prefer, to "hide" the number with his Halloween costume. Quiz a friend -- can they guess the hidden number? Pull aside the paper strip to find the correct answer. Add more problems to the sheet if you wish.

This will be a fun activity for the end of the day on Monday. And then for the rest of the week I can write ghostie problems on the board to start our day. But I want it to be a really concrete concept -- the idea that the variable is a hidden number which you want to figure out, in order to make the statement be true.

P.S. I just tried this concept out on Leah and she loved making it. It's nice that they have to think of a complete equation in advance and then decide what the variable will be -- so they are solving their own problems first before I ask them to solve one of mine. She carefully drew a little witch on her slip of paper to be the costume, but the nice thing about using rubber stamps as variables is that the children who want to keep doing more of this during the year can just get out the box of rubber stamps and make problems for a friend to solve. They can do this ad infinitum.

3 - flower = 0 + 2

flower = ?

Somebody Wanted But So

My daughter is doing her book report this weekend and she needed help figuring out what the "problem" was in her chapter book: Dancing Shoes. I thought back to a workshop I had gone to about reading strategies, and told her about SWBS statements. That's Somebody Wanted But So. It worked! It's a really nifty way to help students identify the problem in a book. Just fill in the blanks:

Somebody (that's the main character)

Wanted (what... what did they want?)

But (but... what was standing in their way?)

So (so... how did they respond? What happened because of the conflict?)





In this case, Rachel had promised her dying mother that she would make sure her adopted sister Hilary went to a proper ballet school. But the guardian who they go to live with runs an exhibition show troupe and, although it is dancing, Rachel doesn't feel like it's the proper sort of dancing. What's worse, Hilary seems to love high kicks and cartwheels and couldn't care less about toe shoes and ballet. So what is Rachel going to do?

Pumpkin Pudding

Our recipe for a Gluten free, Dairy free, Soy free Pumpkin Pudding turned out great. It was a huge success (7/8 children ate it and everyone who ate it came back for seconds) and super easy in the classroom. A whisk and a can opener and some measuring spoons are all you need. Each child can add an ingredient and whisk to his or her little heart's content and you don't have to worry about over mixing.

One tip about cooking with children: I finally discovered that it works best to have extra-long ties on the apron so that they can cross it in back and wrap it around their bellies and tie the bow in front. This way each child can put it on and take it off without help and pass it to the next friend. On cooking day, I write in my planbook what each child contributes as we go through the ingredients. That way I make sure no one is forgotten! Children have preferences, too, like one little boy who always likes to add the spices. He adores very strong smells. This week's recipe, which uses whole nutmeg and a mini grater to grind it fresh on the spot, was perfect for him!

Form Drawing - Autumn Leaves

We have been doing some forms from Form Drawing by Hans Niederhauser and Margaret Frohlich. These have turned out to be too complicated for my students (I teach a combined 1st and 2nd grade) so I am moving to anther resource. But since I found a picture book that was a perfect match for one of the forms (figure 3 on page 3), I just had to share it! And I promise that you will enjoy reading this book on its own, even without the form drawing.

The book is called The Little Yellow Leafby Carin Berger. It is beautiful (the illustrations are exquisite) and simple. My students were completely absorbed by this lovely picture book. When we were done, they all drew a collective breath and asked if they could nominate it for an award.



At the AWSNA conference over the weekend, we did an activity in freehand geometric drawing where we were given golden paper and yellow, red, and orange stick crayons. The participants were asked to draw a freehand circle. Then, without talking, we went from station to station, "greeted the circle that was in front of us," and went over it with our own crayons, trying to smooth out any bumps. Trying to make it better. This continued until we arrived back at our starting circle. It was lovely and very profound. What struck me most was how much the collaborative effort improved the circle AND how much doing a circle over and over helped me get better and I was then able to improve the circles of others. So I brought this activity to my class today. We used the candlelight colors and as a story I talked about the many festivals around the world that use candles as part of their celebration. Our school celebrates Halloween and the Latin American festival of the Day of the Dead (Spanish: Día de los Muertos) so we have been looking at similarities and differences between the two. And a look at candles and light is timely, too, Halloween-pumpkin-carving being our activity for tomorrow afternoon. All around the world, the festivals are about light and also about community -- just like our form. Even a birthday cake is an example of this.

If you want background information on festivals around the world that celebrate light, Celebrations Of Light : A Year of Holidays Around the Worldis a nice resource.

Gnomes

It is gnome time again! We read "Sylvia's Turnip-Lantern" from The Seven-Year-Old Wonder Book.



Now I am setting that book aside until the winter months, when we will do the next group of chapters. At the Sunbridge bookstore this weekend, I got The Little Gnome Tenderroot by Jakob Streit, which we will read next.



We have finished our felt tapestries and are ready to move to a slightly more challenging sewing project: the Simple felt gnome from The Nature Corner: Celebrating the Year's Cycle with a Seasonal Tableau.



Today we will card the wool in our basket and we will trace and cut our patterns and choose our felt colors. This pattern is slightly more difficult because it is 3 dimensional instead of flat. You have to envision this when you are making it. You also have to manage the gathering line, and you have to fold the tracing paper in half and place the fold line at the correct spot on the pattern before tracing the gnome template.

By the way, there are actual directions in The Nature Corner: Celebrating the Year's Cycle with a Seasonal Tableaufor turnip lanterns (also pumpkin, beetroot, or swede). I think the children would enjoy making turnip lanterns this week if I can find enough big turnips. Our recipe is pumpkin, though: Gluten Free and Dairy Free Pumpkin Pudding. I had also considered mashed potato ghosts with black sesame seeds for eyes, but I couldn't find a dairy-free and soy-free mashed potato recipe that I liked.

In Watercolor Painting this week we did the "Mincemeat" poem by Elizabeth Gould (adapted by Kristie Burns). She adds the phrases "golden ladle" and "indigo dish." We painted red fruits all over our paper, then swirled them together with the yellow streak, and then put blue all over. The end result is a lovely brown. As Kristie points out, the children are always dying to see what happens if they mix all the colors together!


Mincemeat
(original version by Elizabeth Gould)


Sing a song of mincemeat,

Currants, raisins, spice,

Apples, sugar, nutmeg,

Everything that's nice,

Stir it with a ladle,

Wish a lovely wish,

Drop it in the middle

Of your well-filled dish,

Stir again for good luck,

Pack it all away,

Tied in little jars and pots,

Until Christmas Day.

Website Fixed

Okay, everything is fixed. Thank God for Google. I had to go to a cached version of my homepage (luckily the spider hadn't crawled through to take a new picture yet), copy that code and then erase all of Google's comments on it -- like "This is a cached version of this page," and then upload it and make it live. All is fixed.

Now, I really need to come up with the correct software so that I can work with my website and update it. I have in mind a more streamlined system, so that it is easier for me to find the links I want (and for everyone else to find the links they want). And I want to do these updates before my grad school classes begin on Wednesday. ha

Website

I have been trying to figure out how to edit my website from a Mac since I switched to a Mac in August. I have had no luck!!!

So I just made a mistake and goofed the front page... bear with me while I figure this thing out.

I miss Crimson Editor and SmartFTP. :-(