Patterning with Toothpicks

Representing and Extending Patterns

As a school, we are collecting data related to "high ceiling, low floor" questions that have multiple entry points for all students to be successful. These types of questions also offer multiple ways for children to show what they know because there is always more than one solve a question!

Students were placed in partners and together, they were asked to find out how many toothpicks would be needed to complete figure 10. 

All of our students in 2/3P could extend the pattern but we had to go back and RE-READ the question to help us to understand that the question was only asking us to figure out how many toothpicks would be needed to create figure 10. This type of investigation helped most students realize that 33 toothpicks were needed. HOORAY!!!

The strategies used by students were: mental math, drawing out the figures hand, and other students needed to build all 10 figures before they could see the extended pattern. Way to go, 2/3P!

BUSY! BUSY! BUSY!

Last week was a super busy week! We made apple sauce, explored problem solving by representing numbers and naming our strategies AND we began creating Fall art! So....where to start?!?!

After a fun trip to the apple orchard, we decided to use our class bushel of apples to make some apple sauce to enjoy while watching a Halloween video. Look at us!

Spring Meadows Apple Orchard

We went on our first class trip to Spring Meadows Apple Orchard. The weather was cool but we bundled up and enjoyed the sunshine when it came out!

Our tour began with a visit in the cold storage room where we looked at all of the different types of apples sorted into crates ready to be shipped out to grocery stores. Then we watched how the apples were sorted and de-stemmed. Check it out!

                               

Before we picked apples, Jesse reminded us of "eye to the sky" and to only pick apples that we would eat. Each student was given a clear, plastic bag to fill and take home to share with their families. The Macintosh apples were cold, crisp and really juicy! Yummy!

Next stop, was a walk to the pumpkin patch! Students were able to pick any pumpkin of their choice as long as they could carry it. Everyone was so excited to have their own pumpkin to take home for Halloween!

Finally, it was time for lunch. We worked up an appetite. Some of us were really cold so we did a few jumping jacks to keep us warm!

After lunch, it was time to turn them loose to have fun in the corn maze! Our students had so much fun!

Finally, Jesse took us for a walk around more apple tree, farm animals and a stunning view of our Autumn trees. This was such a memorable part of our tour at the apple orchard.

  

I am so proud of our students! They were respectful, cooperative and good listeners. Our Prince of Wales Wild Cats represented us well at the apple orchard! 

A special thank you goes out to our parent volunteers. Without them, our trip would not have been possible! 

Spring Meadows Apple Orchard

We went on our first class trip to Spring Meadows Apple Orchard. The weather was cool but we bundled up and enjoyed the sunshine when it came out!

Our tour began with a visit in the cold storage room where we looked at all of the different types of apples sorted into crates ready to be shipped out to grocery stores. Then we watched how the apples were sorted and de-stemmed. Check it out!

                               

Before we picked apples, Jesse reminded us of "eye to the sky" and to only pick apples that we would eat. Each student was given a clear, plastic bag to fill and take home to share with their families. The Macintosh apples were cold, crisp and really juicy! Yummy!

Next stop, was a walk to the pumpkin patch! Students were able to pick any pumpkin of their choice as long as they could carry it. Everyone was so excited to have their own pumpkin to take home for Halloween!

Finally, it was time for lunch. We worked up an appetite. Some of us were really cold so we did a few jumping jacks to keep us warm!

After lunch, it was time to turn them loose to have fun in the corn maze! Our students had so much fun!

Finally, Jesse took us for a walk around more apple tree, farm animals and a stunning view of our Autumn trees. This was such a memorable part of our tour at the apple orchard.

  

I am so proud of our students! They were respectful, cooperative and good listeners. Our Prince of Wales Wild Cats represented us well at the apple orchard! 

A special thank you goes out to our parent volunteers. Without them, our trip would not have been possible! 

My Thanksgiving Birch Bark

On Thanksgiving weekend, I went camping with my family. While on a nature walk with my family, we came upon some fallen birch bark trees. I decided to collect pieces of birch bark and share them with my 2/3 students. 

After each student completed a journal entry about their own Thanksgiving weekend, students were encouraged to use the word wall, their personal dictionaries and reading strategies to figure out how to spell their every day words. We also revised their sentences for proper punctuation. 

Below is some of my proud students who were eager to share their Thanksgiving journal entry printed on birch bark. Oh, and did you know that birch bark comes from a seed? 

Student focus and smiles say it all! Writing is so much fun!

Visualizing BFG!

Our class is participating in Global Read Aloud. We are reading BFG and connecting with other classrooms around the world reading the same book as us!

To help us picture in our minds what BFG looks like, student drew the following pictures. They were able to VISUALIZE what he might look like based on the descriptive words in chapter two. 

I am so proud of what my students have produced! Stay tuned for more BFG!