As our spelling words for this week were revealed, we realized that many reached across subject areas and caused our brain to cross and connect between the visual and verbal. Work we’ve been doing about research, using multiples resources, analyzing, and synthesizing all came together in this week’s list. The challenge will be, how will we put not only the words but also the skills and strategies they represent into practice? That’s what scholars do!
We are so grateful for Ms. Kraft and the time and effort she spends each week searching for resources that connect to our unit. She really encourages us to consider different points of view and to explore different facets of our countries of focus. Today, she shared two videos with us that allowed us to see some unique aspects of Cambodia. First, she introduced us to Mosha, an elephant injured by one of the millions of landmines that still remain in Cambodia. We had read about the danger of landmines in our read aloud Half Spoon of Rice, but were intrigued to see how they not only affect people but also animals.
Multiple Source:
Ms. Kraft also shared with us another video about a creative way Cambodians are clearing the landmines… with giant Gambian rats.
Multiple Source
How do these videos expand our ideas about struggle and survival?
Particularly, considering perspective, how has the struggle for survival in Cambodia lead to opportunity?
As promised, we put our measurement multiple source to work today as we converted various units of measurement in input-output tables. To show our evidence, we made sure to record the process (ex. 3 kg x 1,000 = 3,000 g). We also identified a rule for each table (ex. Rule k x 1,000 = g). After completing some conversions, we applied our knowledge to some multi-step word problems. Remembering to activate our visual and verbal parts of our brains, we used number lines and bar models to visualize the problems and equations to capture our mathematical process.
A magnificent moment marked the end of our day as we celebrated Mathew! Mathew’s mom and dad arrived at the end of the day with a delightfully delicious cake with a lovely lime flavor and sweet and sour candy. Mmm… marvelously mouthwatering! Happy birthday, Mathew! We hope YOUR day is as special as YOU!
