A Nice Thought As We Head Into The Weekend

Hi everyone!  Here's a wee something as we head into the weekend after a hard week of learning.  The learning never stops though!!  Don't forget to blog about things you learn over the weekend too if you'd like to.  I love reading about your learning.  Remember, learning doesn't just happen at school - it's happening all the time...For ALL of us! :-)

Have a great weekend, have a good rest and come back ready to challenge yourselves next week just like you did this week!!

The Problem with Problem Solving

We're revisiting our understanding, knowledge and thinking around problem solving strategies.

Today we discussed the 5 main ones and then applied them to a game of human solitaire!  It was a fantastic way to put many of the strategies into action.  We even tied in Habits of Mind, Multiple Intelligences and Reading Comprehension strategies!  Not too bad we thought - if we do say so ourselves.

The 5 main Problem Solving Strategies are...

1. Guess (this includes guess and check, guess and improve)
2. Act It Out (act it out and use equipment)
3. Draw (this includes drawing pictures and diagrams)
4. Make a List (this includes making a table)
5. Think (this includes using skills you know already)

If you want to read more about these and look at some examples, the check out
http://nzmaths.co.nz/problem-solving-strategies

There's some fantastic examples on this site.

Some of us in action today.  (Just wait for tomorrow's challenge!!!!)  Help your child by asking them about the strategies and how they are applying them in their learning.

If they can stop laughing, they'll get it!

Yep, they're getting there - still laughing though! :-)

Maths and having fun while we learn - what could be better??

Our Teaching and Learning is Moving at the Speed of Light!!

Meet our new class members - yes, they do have names!

I wonder just how many caterpillars / butterflies we're going to end up with!!!!

Wow!!!  How fast is our learning moving team!!!! 

Last week we explored all using Google Drive - all at once - worked pretty fantastically I thought!!  I loved the collaboration, the teamwork and support and the metacognitive thinking - (there's that word again!!!!)

You've now kidnapped my camera for the class which is fantastic because you're using it all the time to photograph and share your learning- what could be better than that.  Use it all the time - just remember to charge it each day.

We've got the Monarch Butterflies and I'm loving seeing how you are thinking like scientists when you're observing and making hypotheses about what happens during their life cycle.  It's deeper than that though because you're observing everything so very closely - that's what fantastic scientists do.

You're also starting to learn about Evernote and how we can use that to take notes when we're in our reading groups online - a great skill to have - more on that tomorrow.

Our next step is to also have your modelling books for Numeracy online - it will be a great resource and you can always access it no matter where you are.

eLearning - it's anytime, anywhere learning!!!!

What Impact Has Blogging Had on Your Learning So Far?

Take some time to critically reflect on the impact of Blogging on your learning Team.  You've had your blogs since November last year.  This is a chance to do a bit of a 'mind dump' of all the ideas, thoughts and opinions you have about blogging. 

This Week's Habit of Mind: LEARNING CONTINUOUSLY

Created with Padlet

Congratulations to Fabian and Jade!!

An enormous congratulations from everyone in our room on your election as our Class Councillors for 2013! Both of you thoroughly deserve this honour and I know you will do us proud.  (Make sure we take some suitably stunning photos of you both tomorrow).

Guess What I've Just Bought For Us for Thinking Like Scientists??