Professor Product Sets a Challenge

     Wednesday morning the classroom was abuzz because Barry Warner from the Rockland County Times had arrived to see "21st Century Skills" in action.  It is a good thing that a Math Challenge was set after the class received a letter from Professor Product.  The letter challenged the class to solve some multiplication math puzzles and to get the codes that would open the locked boxes they found in our room.

      First, the class had to skip count and decode a cryptogram that told them the location of a key.  The key was used to quickly to unlock the first box- the class had only 40 minutes to complete the challenge.  The first box contained bags of nickels, dimes, and $2 bills (yes, $2 bills) where they had to skip count and then add the whole numbers that resulted.  This produced the combination to the locked pencil box.

     Inside the pencil box were card sets that had numbers on one side and arrows on the opposite side and mirrors. Skip counting by 6's helped them find the code for the slide direction lock.  What did that contain?  Well, another puzzle, of course!

     After unlocking the last box, the students saw a weird-looking URL.  The class was not stumped though and they swiftly figured out that they should use the mirrors to read the URL.  There was a scramble for Chromebooks as they entered the URL.

    A Google Form with repeated addition and multiplication arrays was the next challenge.  In order to complete the whole challenge, though, the students needed to create an array based on a specific multiplication expression with Google Drawing... and submit the URL for this file within the Google Form.

    Each table in the classroom is named for a continent and students worked with their table as a team throughout the challenge.  This time "South America" completed the challenge first.  The best part?  They then went on to help their classmates complete the challenge without being asked!

The article written by Mr. Warren about his experiences in our classroom will be published in a few weeks! Stay tuned!

To create this challenge, 'Professor Product' utilized most of the materials that came with the BreakoutEDU kit.  If you have not heard of Breakout EDU- you should definitely check it out!

Data Data Data

The class has been busy wrapping up a unit on fractions while also working on graphing.  We learned how to create pencil and paper bar graphs and picture graphs and then we moved on exploring all of the capabilities of Google Apps.

First we learned how to create picture graphs using Google Draw.

Next, students learned how to create a simple survey using Google Forms.

The class took their classmates' surveys and then looked at their own survey's data that was collected in a Google spreadsheet.

Here is my survey... and the class learned how to use conditional formatting so that they could visually see the response differences for counting.

Even though Google Forms shows a Summary of Responses (why not learn another cool trick?).

After the class found out how many people chose each choice, they made a bar graph with the insert chart function of Google spreadsheets.

Here is a graph from the survey form shown at the top of this post. It was embedded into a Google Doc so it can be easily put on a Google Site page.

Coding Valentine's With Tynker

Even though our computational thinking unit is over, we are still working on our coding skills.  Using Tynker, it was easy to create our very own digital Valentine's Day cards.  Here are two students' cards.  They even learned how to copy the embed code and emailed the codes to me.

Watering two plants with one Hose: Accomplishing much with GAFE

Never heard of the idiom above?  Well, it is a nicer alternative to the idiom about birds.

The class has been learning about figurative language and each was challenged to make a digital book (using Google Presentations).  The book had to include original similes or metaphors, or explain commonly heard similes and metaphors.

The class creatively found ways to express themselves using Google image search, creative commons websites, and Google Drawings.  We had discussions on digital citizenship and how to access pictures that are allowed to be reused freely.  There are some great websites that feature images that can be used freely for non-commercial purposes.  Searching for images within a Google Doc (using the insert image function or research tools) automatically returns pictures that are free to use.  Greater care must be taken when searching generally.

When creating this book, students honed their skills with creating their own Google Presentation.   They learned from me and learned from each other how to change the back ground color, insert an image as the background of the slide, create a Google Drawing and then import into their presentation, and add transitions between slides.

Each student made their own book and we made a compilation of their work to make a class "book" seen below.  Their book  in their entirety are available for viewing on our website. Please note that you need to be logged into Google using your @ramapocentral.net account first before being able to see the books.

Mondrian Art for Introducing Area

Our recent unit on multiplication and division started with creating arrays to represent equal groups.  Now we are transitioning to learning about area (which the students will discover is really the same thing).  Last year's class really enjoyed connecting Math with Art so I decided that learning about Piet Mondrian would make a repeat performance.   Composition in Red, Blue, and Yellow was our inspiration.

After learning about Piet Mondrian and his work above, students turned blank grid paper into artistic and mathematical masterpieces.

The final result:

Illustrating Figurative Language

The beauty of using figurative language is the visuals they create in the reader's mind as they encounter new ways of viewing situations.  Today we had the opportunity to read poems by Valerie Worth and look at her use of metaphors and similes.  

After reading each poem we created our mental images using the A Web Whiteboard website. You can check out our creations on our class website.

First Blogger of the Week: KS

KS is our first blogger of the week for the 2014-2015 school year.  Here is her entry.

In Spanish we have been making paper book bags and writing in stuff that would be in them. Then we are writing what the word is in Spanish next to the word. Like lapiz is pencil but we would draw a picture. Then we colored the book bag in. In Spanish it is mochila.

In our classroom in math, we have been doing multiplication and skip counting problems.

Today we had the laser light show! It was cool! There were characters from shows and superheroes from movies in lasers!!! It was awesome! There were lasers all over the place.They played songs and showed laser pictures to go with the song! It was so fun! It was on Halloween, October 31, 2014. It was in the gym. We were sitting on the ground.The teachers were sitting on chairs. We saw the lasers on the board in the gym. It was amazing.