Happy 100 day of School!

Today we celebrated the 100th day of school.  To honor the day, the students came up with ways to make $1.00 with coins, divided 100 cubes different ways, wrote about spending $100, made a list of 100 animals, make a 100 item snack, and drew themselves as 100 years old.  Here's how one student would spend $100:
If I had $100 to spend, I would buy wood and a factory, and a VIP room, and a car and house with a garage, chimney, basement, backyard, a yard, and a balcony, with a front porch.  An ipad, a TV, an ipod and a fountain.

Would I LOVE to find a house at that price!!  Here are some other things we did below...

Young Authors

We have read some great stories during snack time over the past few weeks...The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, and The Tale of Despereaux, both by Kate DiCamillo.  Both stories have amazing characters that experience many adventures through their interactions with others and their environment.  This has sparked our interests to write our own adventure stories. 
I had the students first begin with a storyboard for a prewrite, much like they do in the movies.  They broke down the story with a beginning, middle and end, and drew a picture to go with each event.  Then , they cut out their board, and began drafting each section, adding details to bring their story to life.  Currently, we are sharing with each other, and revising them by adding more details for clarification or interest.  They will be published soon and hope to invite all of you to be their audience. 
During their rest time, many of the students have been constructing a second story and/or continue to work on their original work.  I love when students are intrinsically movtivated to not only complete an assigned task, but to carry the work beyond my expectations as they see the value and personal fulfillment in the work!

Problem Solving Strategies

I have been focusing on problem solving strategies in math over the past few weeks.  The students are using the skills we have learned in a real world setting, and having to think about the best way to communicate their answer to others.  The strategies I focus on are drawing a picture, writing a number sentence, drawing a table, and looking for a pattern.  Some problems lend themselves to a variety of strategies possible, while others have only 1 option.  It is interesting to see how the students begin to decide on their strategy, and then show their thinking.  In addition, tools, such as clocks, counters, etc. are used for additional support.

AS and VK are needing to understand fractions to solve their problem

AM uses a clock to count elapsed time for her problem