Getting to Know Rosie

Last week, our math problem solving strategy was “Use Logical Reasoning.”  I have introduced this strategy before, but this time the format was different and very challenging for most of us!  

Here is a challenge problem for your child to try at home with you.  Your child can earn an extra star by bringing in the correct answer next week. 

The SAGE students love to show what they have learned.  One day, 12 students altogether were working on the computer during exploratory.   6 students all together were creating posters during exploratory.  Four students were doing both by creating posters ON the computer.  How many students were in this day's SAGE class?   

This week, we started our day by meeting, Rosie.  Rosie is a Chilean Rose or Rose-hair tarantula, Grammostola rose, donated to our class by the family of a former student, Samantha.  Samantha knew that in the past, I had two tarantulas as class pets.  When her great Uncle decided to reduce his collection, she suggested we might make good caretakers for one of his tarantulas.   I'm glad she thought of us!  Rosie is definitely an exciting addition to our classes.  Ask your child to tell you a little about what he/she learned about tarantulas today.  If you or your child would like to learn more about Rosie, check out this link on tarantulas.

Next, the students worked in the individual Exploratory areas.  One of our basic academic vocabulary terms for second grade is independent.  We have discussed what it means to be an independent worker and learner.  Each week I encourage the students to push themselves to be as independent in their work as possible.  Learning to edit, self-evaluate, self-pace and thoughtfully complete project work are goals of our Exploratory Center time.  It is exciting to watch the students as they are engaged in their own center tasks.  

We ended our day working on our second Creative Problem Solving lesson.  This week, the students were given 20 minutes to complete the "squiggle" below.

In this task, students are asked to create a single, cohesive picture that includes all of the given squiggle figures and lines.  This exercise focuses on the students' flexibility and elaboration.

Flexibility is the ability to change your way of thinking about a problem or situation.  It is the ability to think of alternative ideas and to adapt to different situations  

• You are flexible in your thinking when you approach a complicated math problem you missed in a different way.
• You are flexible in your thinking when you can think of indoor games to play when your birthday swim party is rained out.

Elaboration is the process of expanding an idea by adding detail.  To elaborate, you must understand the original idea and see a way to clarify or improve it by adding specific details.  

• You are elaborating when you add to, enlarge, enrich, or expand descriptions, designs, drawings, explanations, instructions, reports or  stories. 
• You are using elaboration when you edit your stories and add more descriptive vocabulary and more details.

You can see your child's finished squiggle on display during our conferences.

Have a wonderful weekend!

Pushing Our Frustration Levels & Stretching Our Creativity

Let me start by thanking you for attending our Fall Open House Tuesday night.  We had a great turn out and everyone seemed to enjoy and celebrate the students' efforts and work.

This week we discussed my expectations. I shared with the students that SAGE is somewhat like brain aerobics class (minus the sweat- LOL.) The work they do here should challenge them and hopefully, frustrate them from time to time. It is not supposed to be painful, but it is intended to stretch their abilities, take them out of their comfort zone and test the way they handle frustration. The safety net is close, although sometimes camouflaged. I need to know what they can handle and so do they.

Each week, the work they do in our room should be hard enough that they are missing at least one or two problems/questions. If they are getting everything correct, I will bump up the level of difficulty until they are missing some. I want to get them to their individual, instructional levels. All of our work (particularly in math and critical thinking) is done over until it is correct. I give small hints if they ask. If I feel like they are becoming too frustrated, I will set down with them and work through the problem.   I've told them our classroom is a safe place to try something new and a safe place to fail. I try very hard to watch that a student is not getting too stressed, but I sometimes miss the signs. If your child expresses that SAGE is too hard, please contact me so we can talk about it with him or her. 

We were busy all day and somewhere along the line, I forgot to take out our camera and document our day.  So this will have to be my short and sweet, text-only blog post.  The exciting digital media will have to wait for another week.  

We spent part of our morning working on our latest Problem Solver strategy; Use or Make a Table.  We completed one together as a class and then they had an opportunity to try the strategy on a problem, on their own.  Next, they continued their individual work in the TOPS Math program.


The students also worked on their individual Exploratory tasks.  Most of the students have begun the comprehension level task and a few are now working on the level of their choosing.  Ask your child about the project in which they are working.

In the afternoon, the students were introduced to the Components of Creativity:

• Fluency- to brainstorm many ideas
• Flexibility- to redirect and approach a problem from a new angle
• Originality- to generate unique ideas
• Elaboration- expand on ideas by adding details

We divided our class into 2 teams.  Each team brainstormed for seven minutes  to see how many ideas they could come up with for objects that could fit in a 1 inch by 1inch square. 

Maddison recorded ideas for one team and Jasmine recorded ideas for the other.  To make a comparison quantifiable, I told the students I would give the teams one point for each idea on their list.  This would be their fluency score.  I would also give three bonus point for every original idea; an idea for which the other team failed to think.  This is their originality score.

For this casual competition,  
 
Maddison's team brainstormed twenty ideas for a fluency score of 20 points. 
Jasmine's team brainstormed twenty-seven ideas for a fluency score of 27 points.

Maddison's team earned an originality score of 21 points (7 original ideas.)
Jasmine's team earned an originality score of 42 points (14 original ideas.)

This week's winner is Jasmine's team!

Some of the more unique ideas included, a tear drop, ear wax, crumbs, a flower petal, gas, and a Lima bean.  The more we practice this skill, the better they will get!

Have a great weekend!