Summer SAVY 2016 (Session 1, Day 4) – Puzzles and Problem Solving

Posted by hallep on Thursday, June 16, 2016 in Grade 3, Grade 4, SAVY.

I was so impressed with the students’ work on the Pirate Problem this morning! This is a problem that my (much!) older students often struggle with, and this class just tackled the issues head on and found a solution. As I have said many times, the answer to the original problem often just raises more questions, and we began investigating what would happen if we added more pirates to the picture. The original problem had 5 pirates, and one group had found the solution for an 8-pirate problem before lunch.

After lunch, we spent some time looking at rebus puzzles. An example of a rebus puzzle would be “STA4NCE,” where students noticed the four inside the word stance and were able to translate that to the phrase “for instance” (four in stance). Some of these were much more challenging, and many students took the opportunity to create their own. Several were very clever!!

It is hard to believe that class is almost over! There are so many things that I want to do tomorrow, and I wish we would have time for them all. There are also a few loose ends to tie up from our previously investigated problems, and we will study at least one new problem. I look forward to meeting many parents and guardians tomorrow at Open House, and I am excited to share some of the awesome things these students have done this week!