This project is based off the celebrations that happen in the book the Phantom Tollbooth. It's a neat art project to do, and very visually appealing. We just used marker and pencil for ours, but it could definitely rock some watercolors.
The Objective: Students will explore fractions, by creating a visual depiction of fractions relations to one another.
The project:
1. Students all start with the number one. This is drawn as a rocket on the bottom of the page, and then is drawn blasting off to a point in the middle of their paper.
2. When the students rocket "explodes" it breaks into pieces. If it breaks into two pieces, one out of two 1/2 goes one way, the other one out of two 1/2 goes the other way in a symmetrical fashion. Be sure to emphasize symmetry.
3, When the one half gets to the end of its rope, it then explodes again, into another 2 pieces. Explain to students how when one half is divided in two, it become two 1/4 pieces. (You can of course have them choose different numbers for instance if 1/2 breaks into 3 pieces, each piece becomes 1/6th)
4. Continue this process until the numbers get to difficult to multiply! Have fun and hang up afterward.
I really love this book. I really can't stand how well it integrates into teaching. If you haven't read it
(you should) Milo the main character (a young boy) is bored one day when he finds a toy tollbooth has been delivered to his house. After he goes through the tollbooth, he is taken to a wild new world that functions based on rules of literacy, and mathematics.
I would like to talk about math now. I am not good at math. I admit fully to this. Consequently, I'm much better at teaching math than I would be otherwise (sometimes it takes struggle to understand struggle).
When Milo reaches the land of math the first person he meets is the Dodecahedron. This is a guy with a twelve sided dice for a head. This brings me to our first project, dealing in 3-dimensional shapes.
The Dodecahedron
Objective: Students will experiment and utilize their knowledge of 3 dimensional shapes to create a 3D model of a character.
I like letting my kids explore how to make 3D shapes first. We checked out nets and made number cubes before hand to get ourselves warmed up.
The project:
1. Students choose a three dimensional shape (Everyone does something different preferably.)
Examples: Cone, Cylinder, Cube, Pyramid etc.
2. Students design their character on scratch paper (create an outline)
3. Students create their model (it's good to have a parent or helper in classroom to help with this part)
They should first draw a net, using ruler for precise measurements.
Note: you may want to provide students with net examples, we had ipads so students could look up nets for their shapes.
4. Before students tape or glue shapes together they draw a face on each side of their shape.
5. Students then create a one-dimensional body to attach to their characters "head" (their 3D shape)
6. Students present their characters and come up with a name. They can decorate them as well.
7. While students present, other students take notes on a provided table.
Who made it? What is it? How many sides does the shape have? etc.
This is the dodecahedron project, I'll be doing it with my sixth graders more in depth with a volume study in a few weeks. Hopefully it will be a great example of independence on their part!
This is a project I did first while teaching 3rd/4th grade. We were reading The Phantom Tollbooth, and at some point Milo eats a synonym bun while visiting Dictionopolis. I love doing this book with all kinds of grades, and it is a perfect read aloud because it is clever, funny and has a great vocabulary. My 3/4 graders will always know what it means to be stuck in the Doldrums now.
I really enjoyed this project specifically because the kids got into it, it helped with following directions, was a good independent activity and they looked great hanging up on the class bulletin board in the hall.
The steps:
1. Provide students with White, brown and assorted colored paper cut into half sheets.
2. Instruct students to cut out the cinnamon bun on the brown paper. They should draw the shape and then cut it out, trying to use as much of the paper as possible. (waste not want not)
3. Students that cut a swirl out of the white, which will be glued to the top of the cinnamon bun.
4. A plate should be cut out, for the synonym bun to sit on. I asked for short ovals and got some perspective talk in with this lesson.
5. Glue all pieces together and let dry.
6. On the plate the student writes the word that they will find synonyms for. My example being "Hot".
7. On the cream students should write synonyms all the way from one end to the other. If it isn't filled up with synonyms it isn't finished!
Once they are done students turn in their work for hanging up or sharing!
There really is so much in this book I hope you'll find time to share at least part of it with your kids. I'll be posting more about it's values in teaching math, science and even some history as this blog goes along. Until then be sure to stick near the sea of knowledge and avoid the mountains of ignorance!
Have you ever had that experience of doing, smelling, feeling, tasting or hearing something from your childhood and realize suddenly that your whole life was defined by that whatever?
I grew up on a song. Harry Chapin's beautiful, lurking voice was always a picture of comfort for me, particularly in a beautiful song called "Flowers are Red". It turns out it is one of those triggers that fills me with intense emotion that brings no less than tears to my eyes nowadays. I urge you to check it out, especially if you're an educator.
My name is Kyla.
I am an educator, and right now I teach at Grand Canyon School, in Arizona.
A fun fact about Arizona:
- the most recent ranking of AZ's education system has us placed at 44th. (1)
- A poll has us ranked as 46th (being low) on a list of best and worst places to be a teacher. Mostly due to our low wages and student to teacher ratios. (2)
Another fun fact about Arizona: there have been a lot of flattering articles seen nationally about this state including headlines like
-Long Term Substitutes Filling Teaching Positions (3)
-Arizona ban on ethnic studies to go before appeals court (4)
-New Gov Chops Education Budget (5) (Okay I can't say I know that this one is national but it is important)
Some even bigger issues that make me knock on wood every time I hear about. You can look those up on your own time. I didn't feel the need to discuss the backlash we are seeing on the Common Core Standards, the new state assessments, the amount of money the state legally owes the schools and the reformation we are seeing in schools (scripted education anyone?)
Anyway, let me tell you about myself, while the state of Arizona's education system is a big piece of my identity, it is not the only piece. So without further ado:
I grew up in Arizona, I live in Arizona, I want to get out of Arizona.
I live at the Grand Canyon. Like near the rim.
It is a beautiful place, filled with a lot of amazing people, and educators.
It is also filled with a lot of people who don't, and won't bother to know anything about education.
I grew up in Tempe Arizona.
I received my bachelor's degree at Northern Arizona university from some of the most incredible people, who taught me that education is not about test scores.
I believe in multiage education. Every bit of the way.
I have just started my second year of teaching.
I started teaching half way through the year in a 3/4 multiage classroom in 2013.
I now teach 6th grade.
I also taught K-2nd grade music one period a day last semester. It was incredibly difficult.
I believe in homeschooling but I am not religious.
I am starting this blog in order to archive my successes and reflect on my experiences. I will post materials that you are welcome to use or make your own example of. If you are reading these posts and have suggestions to make these ideas better I would love to know them!
Most of all I want you to know that I never want to be that teacher who tells students that there is only one color for a flower. These are the teachers who keep students sitting at desks all day. Who work at places where the kids have 10 minutes of recess and are not allowed to talk to their friends at lunch. Who, instead of telling themselves that the kids are off task because I give them worksheets, say the kids are off task because they are bad. I have known these teachers, had to work with these teachers and will never be this teacher.
There is no such thing as a bad kid.
There are so many colors in the rainbow.
Kids are not test scores, and it scares me more than anything else to think of them this way.
Okay enough of the high horse for today. I just had Navajo tacos delivered to my house.
