The Rookery

 We've begun our new math unit on algebra by sharing the story of a bronze jar that doubles everything that goes into it.  Cathy, Amy, Kelsey and I acted out the tale while a bemused group of Big Birds (our name for all three classes) looked on.  (Sadly, I forgot my camera).

We'll be presenting algebra as a way of using what you know to figure out what you don't know.  Today's lesson included creating an "in and out" chart that we then apply symbols to and help children to define a function that describes what the pot did to our inputs.  Over the next lessons, students will create their own functions, explore opened and closed equations, and graph simple functions on a coordinate grid.  Following this, we'll play with pan balance problems.  These logic challenges use algebraic thinking and teach the basics of finding unknowns.

We're currently split into gender groups for our math instruction.  We asked students to choose an single gender or mixed gender group for the first half of the unit.  There is some research that supports single gender grouping for the introduction of skills.  It was interesting to see which children chose single gender and which preferred to remain mixed.  Ask your child about it.  MM