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 piñata!

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!

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. 

 

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!

The Global Math Project: An Exploding Dots Puzzle

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?

 

Global Math Week Part 1: A Magical Moment with Humongous Numbers

Big numbers in first grade? Of course! Especially since gifted students LOVE THEM!

So, after we gained a solid understanding of place value, we took the opportunity to make very big numbers. 

Each student started with the digits 0-9 

and attempted to make the greatest number. 

We found a partner and put our numbers together. 

1 - 2 - 3 comma, 1 - 2 - 3 comma...

This pair turned their 6's upside down 

to make an even greater number. 

Clever!

Someone exclaimed, "Let's put all our digits together!"

We ran out of teacher generated digits and made our own!

We added lots of "Zero the Heroes!"

Some used big sheets of paper.

One student started to make more commas and announced, 

"Commas for sale! Commas for sale!"

The number twisted and twirled all around our classroom 

and so did the Navigators!

You would have thought that we had just won 

a championship  game and everyone had gone out on the field 

and was jumping up and down in celebration. 

It was a magical moment! 

And here is our number (approximately)

39,999,999,998,888,777,755,544,433,332,211,100,052,943,

108,432,985,710,674,322,100,310,528,431,975,866,547,998,

958,129,740,901,299,596,849,068,948,887,727,753,565,355,999,997,971,998,352,101,622,483,099,599,134,214,091,030,713,131,411,995,142,214,849,110,314,113,213,313,991,199,

999,119,893,086,917,633,711,999,299,399,999,994,381,999,

999,999 (not including all the extra 0's)

We then entered the digits, three at a time, into a website called Mathcat and discovered that our number was:

thirty-nine quattuoroctogintillion,

nine hundred ninety-nine treoctogintillion,

nine hundred ninety-nine duooctogintillion,

nine hundred ninety-eight unoctogintillion,

eight hundred eighty-eight octogintillion,

seven hundred seventy-seven novemseptuagintillion,

seven hundred fifty-five octoseptuagintillion,

five hundred forty-four septseptuagintillion,

four hundred thirty-three sexseptuagintillion,

three hundred thirty-two quinseptuagintillion......

and so on and so on for pages and pages!

(BTW, the first grade common core standard is place value up to 120.)

"Each digit has a place and that place has a value. That's why we call it...everyone? PLACE VALUE!"