Wednesday, November 24, 2021

Meet the Knights of the Square Table

 Our projects made our play feel real.

This is our table in the Great Hall of our castle. 
Note the Navigator's Tapestry (in the style of the Bayeux Tapestry), the chandelier, the self-portraits, the table set with bread trenchers and knives, and the variety of delectable food including a peacock.

We dressed up one of our friends as a knight. 

Ta da!

His suit was stored in the armory of our castle.

We read the Magic Tree House book
The Knight at Dawn to get a feel 
for what it was like to be a knight. 

We can't wait to read the recently published Graphic Novel!

We had a "book club" study. 

We talked about the characters and compared Jack and Annie. 
We were quite sure which character we were most like. 

Jack is always ready for each adventure. 

We came up with a Code of Chivalry 
for our classroom and all signed it
with a real quill pen.

We all became knighted (or "ladied" - student choice) by Lady Towne in a solemn ceremony.
(Notice the knighting of King Arthur on the smart board.)










We each made a personal Coat of Arms that depicted who we are.
A lot of thought, effort, and grit went into the shield, the banner, the supporters, the colors, the mantling, the helmet, the crest, and the motto.  

His "supporters" were cats.

His "supporters" were ants. 

~~~

Look at the variety!











The purpose of a Coat of Arms was to make the identity of the knight known to others when wearing a suit of armor. 

I'd said these Navigator Knights were successful!

Each Coat clearly showed the personalities, the passions, the interests, the styles, the details of each Navigator.

Well done, Sirs and Ladies!



Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Where's All the Candy? A Halloween Extravaganza

Look! Our parents joined us for our Halloween Party.
One of them led us through a series of 
crafts, stories, package opening, and more. 

We made pumpkins, spiders, and wands. 
We even received glow in the dark goblin stones!

Then it was time to open the last package. 
It was a knight's glove with chain mail on it. 
And it was FULL of candy.

...

But wait, THERE WAS NO CANDY!
Isn't that what Halloween is all about??
Where could have it gone?!

Aha. Here was a clue. 
There were candy wrappers inside this dragon's mouth. 
But they were empty.

Could it be possible that this DRAGON 
in the middle of our classroom had eaten all of our candy?

Time to find out.
In practically no time at all, 
we discovered that this huge dragon 
was actually a huge dragon piƱata!
And it was FULL OF CANDY!

HALLOWEEN HAD BEEN SAVED!
LET THE EATING OF CANDY BEGIN!


Here are the unique, creative, costumes of the Navigators:

Mary Poppins with her feet pointed out

Princess Raya with a shining gem

Minecraft Ghast and Minecraft Creeper


Princess with MakerSpace wand

 Ninja Warrior

Spin the Spider

Frida Kahlo

More of her costume that she put together all by herself, 
except for help with the glue gun

The real Frida

An inflatable snowman
plus Ms Angela as "All Eyes on Me"

Ms Wollum, our superhero head of school

WHO IS THAT!?
Ms. Jackie, of course!

A big thank you to parents for joining us 
and a huge thank you to our room mom
for creating this super fun party!


Monday, November 1, 2021

Pumpkins! From Farm to Table

Who says we can't do field trips in 2021?
Just a hop, skip, and a jump from our school, 
the Navigators walked to their teacher's 
backyard pumpkin patch.

FROM FARM: Mrs. T's raised garden beds

The only rule? Stay on the grass!

Come on in and sit a spell.
Look at their smiling eyes!

She found the perfect pumpkin.

We got to pick a carrot and take home 
some marigold and green bean seeds. 

Some even got three-in-one carrots. 

Future book characters.

TO TABLE: Our classroom's display tables

Each student was given a homework project 
to take the pumpkin home 
and make it into a book character.  
Here are a few of the designs:

Hello Kitty

Mo Willems' Gerald, Piggy, and Pigeon. 
Her goal was to put all three on her pumpkin
and she did it!

A bunny from a book about a bunny 
that this student wrote herself. 
She wants to be a bunny doctor.

Mary Poppins

Garfield

A Porcupine Named Fluffy

And on the back, a trap jaw ant, 
something he is very passionate about. 
He desires to be an entomologist someday. 
Or a paleontologist. 

Big ideas. Big dreams. Big little kids. 

 

Sunday, October 24, 2021

Global Math Week Part 3: "Race to a Flat" with Different Bases

"Each digit has a place and each place has a value. That's why we call it place value."

This is such a foundational concept to understand in math. To better understand this important concept, the Navigators engaged in a game called Race to a Flat. 

Starting with base 10 using digits 0-9

Supplies:
Base ten blocks
    Units (1s)
    Longs (10s)
    Flats (100s)
Two dice
Place Value mat.

Rule: Only one digit can be in the "place". 

Roll dice, add together, and add that amount of units to your place value mat. 
Regroup (or KABOOM) if you have more than 9 units in the "place". 
Keep playing until you have reached a flat. (10 longs regrouped into 100)

Student playing Race to a Flat base 10
He has 4 "longs" (4 tens) and 0 "units" (ones)

We put the 1s, 10s, and 100s blocks into our "bank" at the top of the page, ready to regroup or KABOOM. 

We played this game until we had gained a foundational understanding of place value. 

After having played base 10 Race to a Flat, and having watched "Exploding Dots", we were ready to try Race to a Flat in different bases!

Even base 2! She played beyond a "flat" and needed lots more "places".

Base 2 (We flipped a coin marked 0 and 1)

Base 6 (We used a regular die with the number 6 covered.)

Base 4 (This die had digits 0-3)

Base 5 (this die had the digits 0-4)

Base 7 (This die is a regular die with digits 1-6)

Amazing, right?!



Global Math Week Part 2: Exploding Dots

The Navigators participated in Global Math Week by investigating different bases and these first graders GOT IT!

We talked about powers of ten and watched Cosmic Eye. Lots of conversation was generated by this video. 

Inquiry based learning: We watched the video "Exploding Dots" several times and just talked about what we noticed. 

At first we noticed:

  • It was funny when it exploded. Kaboom!
  • There were lots of dots. 
  • The numbers changed.

Then we went a bit deeper:

  • 12 is not 1100. It's wrong!
  • It keeps on exploding when more dots are added.
  • It explodes whenever there are two dots.

And even deeper:

  • Two dots turn into one dot and goes into the next place over.
  • It's like regrouping!  

Ding ding ding! We're getting it!



Do YOU get it?

We then went on to take the tutorials/online experience at Explodingdots.org

Do you see the light bulbs hovering above their heads?

 






First Grade-isms

A first grader recites 200+ digits of pi!