Math Question of the Day

Okay so here is the math question of the day:  How long will it take eighteen fifth graders to get on each other's nerves in a 93 degree classroom during the first week of school?  Exactly five days.  By the end of today, they had all pretty much had it with each other.  However, the day was brightened with cupcakes for a birthday girl... they were YUMMY by the way... popsicles for those students who were willing to pay $5 VCB's for them, and a mini-auction where the students got to see first-hand what kinds of goodies they were in store for.

Here's another math question for today:  How many fifth graders were willing to part with five hard earned dollars in exchange for an ice cold popsicle?  Eight.  Eight out of the seventeen in attendance.  Just to make the economics connection, we talked about what they were giving up in order to buy the popsicle (their opportunity cost), and after we discussed if it was worth it.  We also discussed why some items began at a higher price in the auction than others.  Hmmmm... supply and demand???

Here are a few more photos from the first few days.  In these, we are beginning to explore the heart of the first math unit, patterns and arrangements.  It looks like we're playing with blocks, but really we are exploring patterns, a key step in understanding algebra later on.  The visual, hands-on aspect makes the kids really see the patterns.  Being able to physically manipulate the blocks helps with their understanding of the patterns.

Those little cubes are hard to stack!

Despite the difficulty, arrangements 4 and 5 were built.

We even used 1" cubes, which made the rest jealous!