Summer SAVY, Session 1 Day 2, Cryptology (3rd-4th)
Greetings, Parents!
It was an amazing day of learning and growing for my young cryptologists, finding patterns and structure at every turn! Those sneaky costumed animals kept us on our toes! We are learning more and more with each page we decode. The multiple-meaning words, puns, and idioms are adding so much to our understanding of the language of the book. There were quite a few surprises today; students began to discover that some of our clues may, in fact, be red herrings! Our predictions keep changing, so we are encouraging learners to defend their choices with evidence from the text rather than just hunches.
During the history minute, we looked at how codes were used in the Revolutionary War to protect secrets and communicate through spies like Nathan Hale and Lydia Darragh. We learned about the Culper Spy Ring and used a Roman Numeral Code to decipher a quote by Julius Caesar.
Today’s math focus was Roman Numerals, and we discovered that, similar to the Egyptians, this number system does not use place value. It does, however, matter where you PLACE the numerals. We played several whiteboard games to stay engaged in the lesson. We practiced with two games: Roman Numeral Bingo (whole group) and War (with a partner). Can you think of some current uses and examples of where we still see and need to know how to decipher the Roman Numeral system? Talk to your child about where this is used in daily life. It was a great day of learning! The kids reported that Roman Numerals, the book codes, and the quote from Julius Caesar really challenged their thinking the most.
For extra enrichment, students can go on a scavenger hunt in a store or in their home to find Roman Numerals and decode them! Many of the kids have been asking about sequels to this book, so I encourage you to check out “The Jewel Fish of Karnak” also by Graeme Base and “Puzzle Island” by Paul Adshead.