Decimal Work: Part 2, Dance-a-Thon, Social Studies Inquiry & A Tribe Called Red

Bizzaro/Superman as a power of ten

Saya came up with the idea that ten to the power of negative three looks live a backward 1000.  This made me think of Bizzaro, who is known to many as a mirror image of Superman.  I like comics and thought I would use this connection.

https://www.pinterest.com/pin/558305685028681655/

We finally built the decimal numbers, to a thousandths place, today.

some designs:  

a few shots from the Dance-a-Thon

New York Times (from last week):

The image of sheep in the streets from last week's exercise related to transhumance, which is a word I have never heard of before.  It has to do with the moving of livestock from one area to another, as the weather changes.  Further details on this event from the exercise can be found here:  http://time.com/4543025/sheep-madrid-fiesta-de-la-transhumancia/

Wrapping/Rounding up

As we prepare to move on with decimals, before heading into some Algebra, let us use another sport to look at where we may encounter decimals.  In the first example, we see the first "perfect 10" in recorded history in the sport by Romania's Madoa Comaneci.

In this video, we see superstar Simone Biles score to the thousandths place in this stunning floor routine.

https://www.rio2016.com/en/artistic-gymnastics-standings-ga-womens-floor-exercise

We will be doing some rounding, but I will not be using the "who's that knocking at my back door, five or more, raise the score" video.  I will use the Math Antics video on rounding and show you it in smaller sections:

I was doing some reflecting and realized that I haven't been posting enough games to help with the reinforcement of ideas.  Here is a neat game relating to the rounding of decimals:

http://www.math-play.com/baseball-math-rounding-decimals/rounding-decimals.html

Social Studies:  Reviewing and bringing closure to the project

David brought up the idea in class on Monday to check out the Hip Hop group A Tribe Called Red.  I was trying to think of how to mesh this with a timely review of the Inquiry.

From this interview, we can gather some information from the set of questions that is driving the project/Inquiry:

Bear Witness, from A Tribe Called Red, mentions the long history of Indigenous peoples being in urban settings (cities).  So, while he might answer the question about his community being THE FIRST community in Canada, he might specifically get into the fact that his people may have always existed in the area of what we now know as Toronto.  This is an example of the concept of Significance.

As an Artist, Bear Witness might also mention that his life is different than his parents or people from his Cayuga First Nation because of the opportunities he has made for himself to be a creative person blending music and politics.  In terms of the issue of discrimination, there are so many places to look at how Indigenous people in Canada have faced, and continue to face discrimination.   This is an example of the concept of Continuity and Change.

If you consider the issue of Treaties, some dating back to 250+ years ago, you have issues on discrimination.  Consider the following:  https://www.ontario.ca/page/treaties and how significant these issues are to Canada's Indigenous peoples.

Another link I came across was a trailer for the film called Walk a Mile.  In the film, it provides some research and background information on some parts of being Indigenous in Canada:  http://www.thunderbay.ca/City_Government/News_and_Strategic_Initiatives/Aboriginal_Relations/Walk_A_Mile_Film_Project/The_Film_Project/Walk_A_Mile_Film_Trailer.htm?VideoID=28555

Both the trailer and the Ontario government page on treaties would be a part of the Investigating stage of the Inquiry and would be used to help shape the project.

Performing in Studio Q before Jian Ghomeshi left the show.

A Success Criteria for this assignment will be given to you.   The due date has been set for Monday, December 2. 

New additions to the display cabinet for the Book Talks.

Working with decimals

Looking, Constructing, and understanding decimals:

I am going to explain the conceptual link between decimals and the work we have been doing in the Measurement strand.  I will use the King Henry chart to help with this:

Under the Operational Sense section in the Number Sense strand, is the ability to understand decimals to the 3 decimal spot.  This spot is known as the thousandths place.  We first looked at how small this is by checking out some Track and Field sprint videos.

Before we move into some Algebra, we will spend some time working with decimals.  They pop up in a lot of places, or not.

Decimals are important.  Consider how the place value works in determining the winner in some of these races:

Look at how the qualification table worked at the 2016 Olympics for the Women's Gymnastics team:

https://www.rio2016.com/en/artistic-gymnastics-womens-qualification-subdivision-4

If I can find enough Base 10 manipulatives and do some constructing of numbers to 3 decimals spots!
Update:  We have not constructed our numbers yet, but we did find some more Base 10 items.  We will return to this tomorrow.

Think of the whole grid being a whole 1.0 and the other sections having particular values, indicated in the note.  

RPFF journal questions, preparing for next week's Math test, a typing/keyboarding game, and the Green Thumbs of Room 28

RPFF Journal questions:

2 King Henry Word Problems:  

The answers for the word problems for the King Henry Math were posted in class, for the students to check, but it is possible that seeing an answer may not explain the steps involved in completing the question.

Selihom and I worked on this together:

I did this after school.  All of the problem-solving questions from this sheet have been posted on the blog.  The other answers may be from yesterday or the day before.

 Homework:

Time was provided in class to work on the Math Study Sheet.  I encouraged them to work together or ask me for guidance and clarification.

The New York Times exercise is due tomorrow, along with the 2 questions from our visit to the RPFF.

Typing Game:  Alexander's suggestion

A number of students are in need of keyboarding skills.  There are a number of games out there and can be found out by Googling the topic.  Alexander pointed out a really good game to work on typing skills:

http://zty.pe/

Thanks to the plant helpers of Room 28, who have given a couple of the classroom plants a much-needed trim.

http://newyork.thecityatlas.org/lifestyle/new-york-gets-a-green-thumbs-up/attachment/green-thumb/

22 years old!

19 years old!

Updates to Book Talk Art, RPFF, Elementary Teachers of Toronto parent forum, King Henry word problems, Homework, goodnight, Dovercourt

Book Talk Art

RPFF

http://regentparkfilmfestival.com/

This is the film being shown this Saturday at the RPFF, this Saturday morning.  If there are still tickets available, I would encourage you to attend.

Here is a group shot from the Daniels Spectrum lobby, where the screenings took place:

ETT: Parent/Guardian info

Math:  jellybeans and Math problems

We will wrap up this Measurement unit soon and then close out the theme of working with decimals by a refresher on rounding decimals and multiplying by powers of ten.  This will happen after this week's test.  

I had forgotten to post 2 sample questions from the Homework sheet.  I posted them yesterday and walked through the answers.  These particular ones were not assigned.

Here is another homework question, which a number of students found difficult to begin.  It was number 6.  I think the language was tricky, so I broke down the phrase how many times for them.  The main thing to understand is that Milly wanted more than the 100g, which sells for $2.49.  I used this price, based on the licorice question, but thought it would make more sense if we used a "real life" scenario.) 

Cooler weather, food waste, jelly beans, RPFF, New York Times exercise, Social Studies Inquiry...

Photographed, just before the heavier snow started on Sunday.

Please make sure you dress appropriately for the cooler weather!

Food waste:  will be postponed for a few days

http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/food-waste-costs-canada-31b-a-year-report-says-1.2869708

This article relates to an article from What in the World, which was handed out for homework reading on Thursday.  Although I admit I have a bias for the CBC, here is a connection to the preceding news story from YouTube:

Perhaps, after reading through the article, we may watch a longer investigation on this matter:

Jellybean Math

One more note on this.  I managed to rummage around the house to look for some weights that totaled 4646g.  I managed to find a couple of hand weights and put them in a bag and had it passed around the class to see how much 4 and a half kilograms weigh:

On the Walmart website, I found that the cost of jellybeans to be 1 cent/gram, but a Bulk Barn flyer came in my newspaper this weekend and I found out this cost:

I think we will use this statistic for calculating a Math problem.

To be continued.

Regent Park Film Festival (RPFF): 

Pre-screening questions

As a member of the Education Committee for the RPFF, I know there were a lot of volunteers who put in countless hours watching, critiquing and developing lesson plans for the festival.  We will spend a little time looking at some of these questions and then spend some time on Wednesday, looking at the post-viewing questions.

New York Times:  What is going on....

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/21/learning/whats-going-on-in-this-picture-nov-21-2016.html?_r=0

I suggested this format to set up answering the questions.  This may help to organize your thoughts more.  

This is due on Thursday morning if it is not already done.

Social Studies:  moving along in the Inquiry

The students are at different stages of this research process.  All of them should be completed the Exploring stage and received feedback from me.  As we move to the next phase, if sort of adds another layer to what has already been done.

This image has already been posted, but I think it is worth showing again.  The information you pulled from the Exploring stage is still used, but now you are starting -- or should have started -- to find information on your particular community.

The Processing stage is where I will be at, shortly.  I have some information (pictured on the board) and I need to read it and begin to make sense of it.  I will do this by taking down some jot notes, which should help me understand my Inquiry a lot more.

I will not comment on the Creating stage, since I haven;t even started my reading yet!