Sports Day :)

Great fun but wow, am I tired!!

These are our house flags - although I notice as I type this
that I cut my own flag out of the picture! I was in the blue
house when I was a student at this school :)

For the last 10 years it has, without fail, rained on Sports Day. Sometimes we've soldiered on through drizzle and spitting; sometimes we've made mad dashes into the gym during heavy downpours; a couple of times we've had to postpone... but today...

...today the sun shone for practically the whole day! And most of us, being totally unprepared for good weather (in fact I had a raincoat, umbrella AND a change of clothes in anticipation) got burned. I had to  borrow a hat and borrow sunscreen. No sunglasses - thanks to the weather forecast of overcast skies, rain and thunder (none of which materialized) - so by the afternoon I was squinting and head-achey.

However it was a great day. Sadly my house came last :( but one of my own students won the best performer cup and since she's a child who struggles sometimes in the academic arena it was wonderful to see her excelling!

I don't know what tomorrow will be like - I may have a grumpy little group - but since it'll be Friday it doesn't really matter too much :)

Enjoy the weekend all!

Earth Day Math

 And what, you may be wondering, does this little fellow have to do with Math?

Luckily I like holding toads!!

He is an example of natural symmetry :) He's a male Cane Toad, also known as a Marine Toad or a Giant Toad - Bufo marinus if you want his scientific name. We found him swimming in the school pond when we were out searching for examples of natural symmetry as a joint Math review/ Earth Day lesson.

Joey Udovich of Create, Teach and Share made a fabulous pack that I snapped up last week (you can find it HERE - it would be a fun activity for any time of the year!) and we used it today.

My girls had a great time. Look at their mathematical explorations in the school garden.

   

Posing for the artist. Toads have no rib cage so this is
the most comfortable way for them to be held. It also
prevents them from hopping away :)

Drawing our national flower - the Bermudiana

Angel wing begonia flower

   

Using a mirror to check the symmetry on
this African iris

This child was determined to check the symmetry
of the Mexican poppy below

 

Checking the pond for symmetrical fish and tadpoles.
Tomorrow we will be collecting some tadpoles for
the classroom :)

Happy Earth Day

No words needed.

From Apollo 17, 1972

Apollo 8 - Earthrise

Holiday Fridays...

... are the best :) Specially when it's a sunny day!

I can stay in my pajamas as long as I want, sit outside with a cup of tea and talk to the dogs, plan lots of things to do in the house - and then not do them because it's a holiday! :)

The one big problem is that we live right beside - well, on actually - my husband's job site. He manages a golf course and we live on the 14th tee :) Why is this a problem? Well... he pops home for lunch and sees me in my pajamas, having cups of tea, talking to the dogs and doing nothing in the house :)

When he's on holiday he still works - he finds things to do even if they don't really need doing; when I'm on holiday that does not happen! Opposites attract, right? I tell him that's why we're still happy together after 25 years :)

Having said that I have been roaming around on the internet (in between sunny cups of tea) and have discovered new blogs and fun ideas and great new resources plus some nice inspirational posters.

Have a happy weekend everyone :)

I left this big so you could read it properly. I love it! I'm going to put it up in my classroom next week!
And venspired.com is a wonderful blog! Definitely go check it out!!

Mathematical Earth Day Project

We've been in school only 3 days this week due to a PD day on Monday and a holiday tomorrow (yay) for our Annual Exhibition (sort of like a State Fair for any US readers :) ) Plus today was Alumni Day - with a traditional ceremony in the morning and Spirit Day all afternoon - so very little formal teaching was done this week.

Instead my class embarked on an open-ended Math project with an Earth Day-ish theme. I am so proud of my kiddies - they are becoming experts at cooperative group work and are able to take a project, read the directions and get going with very little help from me now. I just wander around taking photos and listening to their discussions.

Since we live on an island, with the most northern coral reefs in the Atlantic, I decided to discuss the threats to the coral reefs. We looked at pollution, the warming of the ocean, coral bleaching and discussed ways that we could protect the reefs. We agreed that we could practice reef-friendly behaviors when snorkeling and diving, pick up trash etc. and then we looked at artificial reefs.

We actually have some artificial reefs here - some purposely sunk ships have been designated as dive sites and are becoming encrusted with coral - so this was a good topic for us. We specifically looked at the materials used to make artificial reefs - reef balls, limestone boulders and concrete block - and then we started our project.

The girls worked on several Math concepts - finding area, fractions, percentage, multiplication and money - as they put together their bid for an Artificial Reef Project for the Reef Committee (aka me :) ) No limit on spending but I was looking for an attractive design, good cover of the site, cost effectiveness and an appropriate habitat for sea life.

Check out their work!

The project begins...

 
Lots of discussion about how many of each particular reef material to buy:

"How many Ultra reef balls should we get?" "Well, how much do they cost?" "I think we should get a Pallet reef ball!"

Onto the planning... They had to cover 1/2 to 3/4 of the dive site (which was 100 square meters) so they had to work out the area of each reef ball/material individually and then plan their design on a  grid. (I provided templates for them so they could move material around - my girls are very visual!!)

"So far we've covered 35 square meters. We need... how many more?"

"Should we layer them like this so we have highways for the fish?"

Costing it out... I loved these conversations! 

"We've spent $5000 already!"

"We still need to know how much we're spending!" (budding accountant here!)

Side View plans and Models...

Once their grid plan was completed each group drew a Side View of their reef design and then created an "artists' drawing".

 

Every single group opted to do the 3-D model :)

Drawing the grid

Sponge painting reef balls made
from egg cartons

Starting to place the reef balls

A finished reef - complete with giant
squid and 3 meter long fish! They couldn't
quite get the idea of scale with their
sea creatures :)

And here's a finished display - booklet bid ready for the Reef Committee, models and... an extra "Save the Reefs" poster with sea life facts! Above and beyond what was asked!! I am SO proud!

And finally this was my favorite comment overheard when we stopped for lunch yesterday:

"Ohhhh... do we have to stop? I love this project - let's eat fast so we can go back to it."

Music to my ears :)

So, in case anyone feels like tackling an artificial reef math project at some time in the future...

I've packaged all of this up with a set of word problems and have it available HERE.

Hope everyone has a great Friday :)

Making blogging connections

This has been an exciting day!! Our blog has gone international!! We have linked with a class in Morocco and a class in Wales :)

My kids were thrilled to see comments on their posts from children in other countries. We had a few glitches (to be expected when you have 3 people in 3 different countries all trying to do this via email :) but now we are up and running.

Tomorrow we will start reading and commenting on our international friends' posts - and this weekend we'll be writing a "get to know us" post.

If you're interested in doing something similar look for a post on Global Teacher Connect at the beginning of May. Krystal from Lessons from the Middle will be blogging about this :)

Ideas by Jivey Giveaway

A giveaway is enough to make anyone smile  :)


Pop over to Ideas by Jivey to enter her 300 Follower Giveaway :)

Enjoy the remainder of your weekend, everyone :)