Summer SAVY 2017, Session 1/Day 3- Dive into Design (Rising 1st)
Dear Parents,
Today was a fabulous third day for our Dive into Design class! We began our morning with a review of how to make sure that when we measure something, we measure with accuracy, and why measuring with precision is important. We also read a book called, Length, which gave us more perspectives on real world items such as buildings are measured in height, road distances are measured in miles, and sporting events such as broad jumps and pole vaulting are measured in feet. After that, we warmed up our creative problem solving thinking with a brainstorming problem (the dinner question from yesterday’s Blog, how to dig a hole without a shovel).
Next, we began a discussion about how to compare objects. I asked students to join me by my side in a line as I called out names with great consideration and visual input. After calling the last student, I asked students to tell me what order I called their names to line up in, and they all said, from tallest to smallest. I then proceeded to demonstrate how we could compare measurement by comparing more than just two perspectives. I showed how we can compare one thing to several things, such as she is taller than him, but shorter than her. Students tried their own comparisons. The goal of this activity was to help students understand that we can compare and order three or more objects according to height using direct and indirect comparison. After this activity, students took off their right shoes, traced around their foot, and cut their foot out. We then placed our foot models of a wall and compared the different lengths directly and indirectly.
Then, students were led into a discovery about partitioning whole items into equal parts. We used Unifix cubes to construct a tower of 12 units linked together. Then students explored ways to create equal parts. We names our parts, halves, thirds, fourths, sixths, and twelfths. Next, each student received a strip of paper, We then folded our strip in half, then folded again to make fourths, then another half fold to get eights. This activity was a nice introduction to multiplication, patterns, unknown numbers, and of course, fractions.
Finally, students used the knowledge of portioning to make swimming lanes in their pool models by using the folded paper that we called a measuring tape, to place the lanes an equal distance apart. Students then got to watch a video of the process of building an in ground swimming pool. Tomorrow we will be working more on our swimming pool models, as we dive deeper into standard and non-standard forms of measurement, as well as the concept of perimeter.
If you have time for dinner table discussion tonight, here is a question students will respond to tomorrow. Before the builders pour concrete for the swimming pool, they need to lay pipe. The pipe has lots of twists and turns, but they need to determine the total length to make sure they have enough. How can they decide how long the pipe needs to be?
More diving in tomorrow!
Karen Tyson
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