Band-Aids

Some of them finally figured out what the lone Band-aid was doing way up on the wall beside the clock. I had many guesses like; it's holding the wall together, there is a crack and the Band-aid is holding it together and it has a sore. The students have been WONDERING since day one why it was up there and I couldn't tell them. I just left them guessing. 

Well, when we started the Band-aid Investigation, I heard this loud cheer from one boy in particular, it went something like this, "YES!!! Now we get to find out why the band-aid is on the wall." Inside, I had to laugh because of how important that thing was to them. To be honest the real reason it was up there, wasn't to capture their attention but because I'm too lazy to take it off. Now I know they will be interested and wondering why it's there next year. 

Here are some photos of us measuring the height of a giant in our classroom. If you look back to the beginning of this blog you'll see use trying to solve the height of the giant. He is 6 cubits and 1 span tall and the students have to show how tall he is at the beginning of the year. 

Today they had to measure the giants height with the measuring tool they'd made with only one band-aid. You could have heard a pin drop in the room with how engaged they were. 

If you're interested in seeing what they produced go to the class blog page. 

Here are some photos of the work we've done. 

How Many Band-Aids Tall is Your Giant?

The kids worked on trying to figure out how tall the giant was in Band-aids? Here's some of the work they do during math and problem solving. 

Second Try

Today the students got a second try at building another ruler. I had a sub do this and to be honest I wasn't sure what I was going to find when I returned to school. I was pleasantly surprised by the results. The students used the feedback they got from each other based on the criteria they came up with to modify and build a better looking ruler. Here is a photo of the final rulers displayed on the bulletin board.

Band-Aids!

You might be wondering what we're doing with Band-Aids in the classroom. It's a very fun investigation into measurement and problem solving. This last week we read the poem Band-Aids by Shel Silverstein. If you've never read I highly recommend you do. It's sooo cute. The task was to figure out how many Band-Aids the boy put on his body. They could use anything to help them but most used paper and pencil. The point was to get them thinking about personal strategies. Here are a couple who really represented their thinking well. I know that some of them have added incorrectly and they've got the wrong answer. I'm more concerned that they've got a strategy than the correct answer. Let me know what you think about some of the strategies the kids are using. Do your kids use some of the same ones?

I'm not sure how to get my pictures side by side. They keep shifting on me. I'll figure it out.  I'm always trying to get teachers to work from a problem solving approach. So I want you to really notice how much work these kids have done. They are using a lot of mental math and practicing basic facts at the same time. Yes there are some number reversals but I'm not really worried about that because they are thinking. 

Today we talked about the criteria a ruler had to have. The kids decided that a ruler needed to have:

1. Numbers and they needed to be either below the line or beside it. You couldn't have the numbers in both places on the same ruler. 
2. The units needed to be the same throughout the ruler.
3. The units couldn't be overlapping or far apart. They had to be close together. 
4. It needs to have a straight edge. 
5. The lines need to be the same distance apart. 

Here are some of the rulers they created today. Tomorrow they are going to evaluated each others rulers and give some feedback then recreate another ruler using a different size Band-Aid. (I know some of them are incorrect but don't we always say we can learn from a mistake?)

Following most of the criteria.

Had a discussion of why 0 - 10. He let me know that there were 10 cm between each of the numbers. Hmmm!

Great problem solving of how to keep the adding machine tape from curling up.

Really like his strategy of iterating.

I wonder where they are thinking zero is?

Some misunderstandings...we'll get it cleared up soon.

Band-Aids are side by side.

Actually measuring. Is the Kleenex box really 25 Band-Aids long?

I think our work with an open number line is transferring into this activity. Does it make sense that this box is 40 Band-Aids long? Again some misunderstandings. 

It's all a learning process. It's unbelievable how their thinking and learning will develop the more time they build a measuring tool/ruler.

Hope you enjoyed and learned something new.