100th Day of School!

Greetings!

So many neat things have happened in our class, it's hard to keep up!

Starting with our 100th Day of School celebration on Tuesday, the students came in to see all of their 100's hanging from the ceiling.  They couldn't believe their eyes!

Thank you to all the families who were able to bring in tools for our special day and come in to support the students in their hard work!  We had painting, puzzles, origami, counting, and inflating balloons!

In the painting area, the students used a four-circle Venn diagram to document the new colors that they found.  Two circles were dedicated the any two primary colors (red, yellow, blue) and the other two circles were for black and white.  Where the circles met, they were able to see how the colors changed after being mixed.  Here are a few notes from their discussion while working:

Lincoln- Blue and white makes light blue.
Nyala- Oooh! [blue + red] Purple!  That is definitely a violet color.
Fiona- [yellow + blac]  Looks green...
Abbie- White and red makes pink.
Fiona- [red + black] It looks like dark red.
Ivanna- Yellow and blue makes green.
Chelsea- I wonder what black would turn when you mix it with blue?... It makes kind of a "ocean storm gray" color.

Friends also worked on a 100 piece puzzle of a beautiful under water scene.  Friends discussed what strategies they felt would work best to finish this big job.

Brooklyn- Flip over all the pieces
Lainey- Sort the edge pieces/
Nyala- We need to find the pieces with the same colors.
Jack- Look for a piece with bubbles.
Chelsea- I built a lot of edges!
Lincoln- I dit it!  I'm good at puzzles!
Fiona- It hurts my tummy to reach [across the table].

The "Counting to 100"  area proved to be a tricky for some friends who are still practicing counting by grouping, but they noticed many patterns in the number chart.  For example, Brooklyb saw that many columns ended in the same number, like, 1, 11, 21, 31, ect.  Many friends were familiar with counting by 1's, 2's, 5's and 10's.  What other ways can you find to count to 100 at home?

In the Origami area, many students felt challenged by the various folds they were asked to make in order to make a pinwheel.  After reviewing the steps it takes to make one, some friends noticed that the first five steps were easier to do, but the last two more intricate steps stumped them.  One friend commented that they were able to do the folds, but they were coming out crooked, so next time, they would slow down in their work.

The students really enjoyed inflating the balloons with all the different kinds of air pumps that the friends brought it from home!  So many different strategies were used to move towards completing this task, such as using the foot pump with your foot, hand, and sitting on it to put your whole weight on it.  When it came to tying the balloons, some friends tried using two fingers to give them more room to push the opening through, but many times, it would blow out of their fingers and they would have to try again.  After checking our work, the students agreed that we still did not have 100 balloons inflated because of the fact that some did pop during the process and because we still had some extra new balloons in the bag.  The students will be working on figuring out exactly how many more balloons we need to have 100 inflated.

The students have been torn about the reason why these balloons are not the kind that float into the air.  Some felt that the balloons were not floating because they were not tied to a string, and only balloons tied to a string are the ones that float up in the air.  Others felt that it was because we were inside the classroom and there was not enough air circulating through the room to push the balloons up.  The kids were asked to think about this at home and I'm excited to see what their theories are!

Love, Gaby