I’m working more closely with some of our elementary specialists this year. It’s been a good while since I worked with this age group. I’m pretty excited the potential to do some interesting things.
Measurement is a big issue for our students in elementary. It spans math and science standards and kids are not connecting it with their lives. I’m playing around with some graphic ways to get students engaged.
When I tried this out with my own kids (ages 9, 7, 5) they all really wanted to know how big the dog was. I realize it’s not the best sample but they aren’t shy if they don’t like things.
I don’t know that will stick with an apple as the visual reference object. I’d like it to be something they have in their hands at the time and on a regular basis.1 I hope to encourage a lot of measuring against their own bodies. My kids like that- holding their hands up to where on their body the dog’s head would be.
It might also be interesting to run a number line down the wall and have kids move to the numbers to indicate guesses, kid of a kinesthetic graphing exercise. I am pretty sure I saw that someplace.
I’m attempting to imitate some of Dan Meyer’s three act math strategies (guess too high/low, what information do you need?, progressive release of additional information) but may be missing the mark. If you look at the other Flickr photos, the guidance may be way too heavy handed. I’m still feeling my way here and will need to see it live.
Another problem area in English is synonyms and antonyms. I happened to see these two items in the grocery store that day. I have no idea how they’re differentiating chopped vs diced foods. I’m hoping that by modeling capturing media of this type you’re turning on a lens for both teachers and students. It feels like it ought to be so easy to do things like this.2 We are bathed in words every day, we just have to look around.
I saw a number of other interesting language choices in just this one trip in a tiny section. I was told by someone that I looked lost. After I responded “I’m just capturing vocabulary in the wild to use with elementary students.” She opted to move on.
These mushrooms were growing in our front yard. I added the quarter for scale but have one without it as well. That might be an interesting piece for measurement as well. The idea of context for measurement is more and more interesting to me. Strangely, I remember reading in Capstick’s Maneaters about how hard it was to estimate the size of crocodiles in the water because of the lack of visual references, even by experienced guides. This lead to claims of really huge reptiles. There’s probably some interesting way to use that.