Summer SAVY, Session 1 Day 3, Cryptology (3rd-4th)
Happy Hump Day, Parents!
Our little cryptologists made it over the “hump” today and finished strong! I’m excited to add so many new codes to our toolkit. Gifted learners are often challenged by working in partnerships or teams. Our group is doing an excellent job of capitalizing on one another’s strengths to find the clues and decode the pages of our story. We know that the time the feast was stolen is a crucial piece of evidence, so we are looking more and more closely at the time on each page. Today, they had to do some writing about their evidence and justify their argument to a partner. I was so proud of the depth of their writing, the evidence they elaborated on, and the strength of their arguments. Great work!
In our History Minute, we learned about Morse code in both World Wars and the Vietnam War, since it was one of the codes in our story pages today. We also reviewed both the Roman and Egyptian Number Systems, connecting them and seeing patterns across them both. Students went all the way up to level ten on the online Roman Numeral game this morning! We ended the day solving Morse Code riddles and a reverse alphabet coded quote about perseverance. It was a fun and productive day. What a pleasure and joy it is to work with your students and watch them grow!
Extension Idea: Play a game of red herrings at home! Your students know and understand the rules. Watch out for multiple-meaning words, setting clues, and have fun asking yes or no questions to decode the meaning. Each of the “mysteries” is part of a longer untold story, which is “behind the scenes.” It is up to the students to deduce the rest of the story from clues derived from answers to their Yes/No questions. Your amazing kiddos LOVE these!
Here’s a new one for you to try with your child at the dinner table:
A man lives on the twelfth floor of a building. Each morning, he gets up, showers, gets dressed, takes the elevator to the first floor, and goes to work. Each evening, he comes home, takes the elevator to the sixth floor, runs up to the twelfth floor, and he’s home. Why doesn’t he take the elevator to the twelfth floor when he comes home?
Answer: The man is too short to reach the button for the twelfth floor. He can reach the bottom buttons, so he can go down in the morning, but he can only reach as high as the sixth button, which is why he walks the rest of the way up.
Here’s the one we did in class today, and you’ll have to play with your children to get the answer:
A woman put on a heavy coat and left home for the rest of the day. It was neither raining nor cold outside. Why?