Tuesday, November 25: Planning a bridge (Mat session)

I read the Bridges article from The Three Billy Goats Gruff big book to the children. We went over the different types of bridges: girder, arch, suspension; the history of bridges; materials used; and purposes. I asked the children who had had to cross a bridge to come to school.

Oliver: I had to go over one, and it's a type of bridge that opens sometimes. To let boats through. There's water under it and we go across it.

Stella: When we went to Rottnest we had to go under a bridge, not over it. It was really dark and we had to switch our lights on.

Sam: I like that bridge (pointing to a picture of the Sydney Harbour Bridge). It's a steel one.

Chloe (pointing to a wood and rope bridge): I have been on that bridge before. It had some wood and some ropes.

Kealeigh (pointing to a picture of the Golden Gate Bridge): My uncle went to that bridge. It's famous.

Friday, October 31: Adding Up With Grendel (Single sample)

We read the story Grendel by David Lucas as a class. The children engaged well with the story, which  complemented Halloween nicely even though that wasn't my intention.

After reading and connecting with the story through questions, comments and a brainstorm of what the children would wish for if they also had 3 wishes, we did some adding up.

Each child was given a sheet on which they were to add on more chocolates for Grendel to receive when he made his fateful wish. There were tokens on the table to give the children tactile assistance in figuring out their final result.

Most children got the idea of adding on more and making one big group with the sum total.

Sam insisted that his result should be 22, so I asked him to count out 22 tokens, set aside the 1 initial egg that Grendel had, and then work out how many to put into the other two boxes. Because of the large number, this task took nearly 10 minutes as he changed the variables in both boxes a few times. He eventually found a combination that satisfied him and wrote/drew this on the sheet.