Secret Number

Today in math we learned how to "read minds" using this Secret Number game.  Here's how it works.

1. Have someone think of a number and hold it in their head (don't tell!)
2. Take that number and multiply it by two (add it to itself)
3. Take the new number and add 10
4. Take the new number and divide it by two (cut it in half)
5. Subtract your ORIGINAL number
6. Their answer should be 5!

Try it out!

Rocks ROCK!

This week we started one of my favorite units, rocks!  The kids eat this up every year and most of them spend all of their recess time looking at and for rocks to show their friends and me!  One of my favorite activities we have done was our properties sort.  This was our introduction to the unit.  I gave each group of students different colored papers and a pile of rocks and wanted them to sort them in some way.  I was surprised that every group did the same thing: size!  I had them do it again and choose a different attribute to sort by and this time we got some different sorts: shape, color, texture etc

Another fun activity we did was our Pet Rock Projects.   Each student brought a rock that they had found and we pretended to be geologists!  We learned how geologists classify rocks based on different properties such as color, luster, texture, pattern, hardness and streak.  Since we didn't have professional geologist tools to test hardness and streak we used a penny (for hardness) and the sidewalk for streak. :)  

Next week, we will continue our exploration of rocks and learn more about the three main types of rock!