Math Racks, Testing our Boats, and The Plastic Problem

Reminder: There is no school tomorrow Friday, May 18th due to a professional development day and there is no school Monday, May 21st due to Victoria Day. Enjoy your long weekend!

Math

This week we have been exploring using Math Racks as a way to visualize groups of 10's and 5's.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HgluhL1dVMU

We have been using these math racks to help us subitize and build numbers and to see how a number can be made up of friendly numbers (7 is a 5 and 2 more) and (10 is a 5 and a 5). 

We have been using these tools to help us when we subtract. When we are given a subtraction equation, we then try to solve it using the math racks. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3uhHMLiYiOU

We then solved double-digit subtraction questions using math racks and writing the corresponding equations in our math books. We then shared our solutions with each other to see the different ways we were able to use 5's and 10's and making ten to solve subtraction equations. 

DOUBLES

We have been practicing seeing and building doubles to help us add and subtract. We are able to do this mentally until 5+5=10 but need some practice with the doubles past 10.

If we know our doubles then it is easier to use doubles -1 or doubles -2  or doubles +1  or doubles =2 as a strategy when we add or subtract!

SCIENCE
Testing our Boats
We tested our boats using a rubric the students came up with:

We then had to discuss our results with a partner, thinking about all of the things we have learned about boats and buoyancy. 

After sharing our reflections we then got feedback from a peer about what we might do to improve, add or change our boat if it had areas it needed improvement in.

We then had the opportunity to start building a second prototype. We could use our existing design and just adapt it in some way or we could begin again if we thought we needed to.
Next week we will test or new designs and see if we made any improvements.

The Plastic Problem

We have been talking about the Plastic Problem, specifically the garbage patches in our Oceans and specifically the Atlantic Ocean. We have looked at how this plastic is affecting the sea life and ourselves. We will continue to look at this issue and its impacts over the next few weeks. We will also be exploring ways to solve the problems and what we can do to help.