Conjectures in maths

We have been using photos of every day objects to find math questions.

This term we are starting to use conjectures in our math programme.  We have been looking at fractions, so we considered this:

My conjecture: Any number divided by twice itself equals 1/2, except 0.

We started off with looking at 5 divided by 10 equals a half.  We asked, "is this true and how can we prove or disprove it?"

We looked at materials we could use and soon realised that we couldn't cut up cuisenaire rods to equal share them.  So we moved to paper - we folded our paper to make 5 equal size shapes.  We coloured each shape a different colour.  Then we cut our shapes so we could equal share our 5 pieces into 10 groups.  We discovered we have to cut them in half and when we had put them into 10 groups, each group contained a half.

This conjecture was proven so far, but would this work with other numbers...?

Math in every day life - honeycomb

We have been using photos in our class to stimulate math thinking in our every day lives.  We are getting very good at thinking of all sorts of math questions for ordinary, every day photos.  Yesterday we looked at a picture of honey comb and here are some of the questions we came up with...

how many bees did it take to make it?

How many days does it take to make the honey?

How many holes are there?

How much honey can fit in there?

How many litres can the bees put in the honeycomb?

How much honey can they make in a day?

How many flowers do the bees need to make a litre of honey?

How many flowers do the bees visit in an hour?

How much honey do they need to fill up a honeycomb - one hole?

How many bees does it to make 1 litre?

How long does a bee stay out for to collect honey?

How many days does it take to make the honeycomb?

Cinderella didn't go to the ball...

We have been learning to write Bold Beginnings to hook our readers so they will want to read more.  We have been practicing these by rewriting the Cinderella fairy tale.
We read the Kiwi Corker story Cindy and the Jandal.  We loved the rhyming story and the way the author had taken a fairy tale and rewritten it to make it their own story.  We decided we would do the same thing, rewrite Cinderella and make it our own story.  Our stories are all about Cinderella going somewhere other than the ball.  Here are some of our stories, more to come later...

Pumpkin writing templates thanks to www.dragonfliesinfirst.com

The Faraway Tree Dioramas

We are reading The Enchanted Wood - the first book in The Faraway Tree trilogy by Enid Blyton.  If you haven't read these stories before, you have really been missing out.  The students are loving it, you could hear a pin drop when I'm reading a chapter, and they are literally on the edge of their chairs waiting to find out what happens next.

I read The Faraway Tree when I was 8yrs old.  It was the first chapter book I remember reading and I couldn't put it down! What an exciting world where anything can happen at any moment.

The story is about a brother and two sisters who discover a magical forest with a special tree called The Faraway Tree.  Lots of different people live in the Faraway Tree, but if you climb to the top there are different worlds at the top - each world will turn up for 24 hours and then move on, so you can't stay for too long or you might be there forever.  You never know which world is waiting up the top till you get there.

The Faraway Tree is very tall and very conveniently one of the characters (Moonface) has made a slippery slide inside the tree, so you can slide to the bottom.  How awesome is that?!

We have been making triangle dioramas to show scenes from the book and we think they are pretty fantastic.

More to come soon...