“Solving the Conundrum” General Update January 24th

Hello Everyone! 

Consensus! We used the consensus flow chart today to explore one tool that can be used for group decision making and/or problem solving. Everyone was given $1,000 (not for real, sorry!) and they had to come to consensus about how to spend all of it for our class. Tonight, everyone was asked to go over the consensus flow chart with someone at home and get it signed. If it is possible, try to use consensus in some way for family decision making. Talk about what it means to block, stand aside, have reservations, or come to an agreement. Here is a copy of the chart from Seeds of Consensus that we used today:

Analyzing a Mystery! We started talking about mystery stories and their structure today. To better understand them, we took some time to analyze a quick Scooby Doo episode, looking for story structure, setting, characters and their alibis, clues, distractions, red herrings, suspects, and other elements that make a story specifically a mystery. We will finish this in class tomorrow.

Fingerprinting! Today we talked about how fingerprints can be used for identification, looking at whether the prints have arches, loops, or whorls. By putting an ink fingerprint of our own on a partially-filled, white balloon, and then blowing it up to full size, we were able to look at our fingerprints as if they were under a microscope. Everyone was asked to analyze their fingerprint for specific characteristics and to solve the case provided in the handout.

Math: While grade four students took the Online Language Arts FSA, the rest of us worked on math. Students are working on a combination of independent and applied math. Almost everyone has taken a first unit test, and some people have even moved on to number three or four. If you have taken two unit tests already, then you did not have homework tonight; otherwise, please do 15-30 minutes of math to keep on track.

French: We have made flashcards for our body words, and there will be a quiz on Friday that has MATCHING and FILL IN THE BLANK questions. The matching part will be all the vocabulary in English matched with the vocabulary in French. The fill in the blank will allow students to put the correct French possessive in the blank with each word. We will practice as a group again tomorrow.

Tomorrow! More fingerprinting, more mystery writing discussion, and a guest from UBC Math will be coming in to do a short workshop in the afternoon! This is a free workshop provided by the UBC Math Department as well as the Pacific Institute for the Mathematical Sciences. They will present a set of interesting and challenging problems to students in groups, of varying difficulty, to students in groups of 3-4 people each. Along with the workshop leader they will work collaboratively to find solutions. 

Have a great night!