Menger Sponge

The students in Mr. Wilder's 4th grade class have been hard at work over the past couple of weeks preparing to make a Level 2 Menger Sponge.  When I first began my student teaching in the class, this was all they wanted to talk about.  Everyone was eager to introduce me to the project.  They have been folding playing cards to make cubes and then assembling these cubes together to form a larger one.  They are very meticulous about the cards.  It is almost like watching a surgeon make an incision with perfect precision.  Here are some pictures of the progress they are making.

Right now, they have made the initial 20 larger cubes that they need to make the great big one - the Level 2.  I am very excited to see the final product.  Be on the lookout for more pictures.

Science Fair Preparations

This past week, my students have been working on their science projects.  They have been working very hard to conduct research on their topics and have been designing visually appealing displays.  Everyone is coming up with titles to capture the essence of their topics and go through the scientific process of developing a question, hypothesis, materials, and procedures.  Once the experiments are complete, they will finalize results and conclusion sections as well.  I have been very proud of their teamwork.  They are coming together nicely.  I am looking forward to seeing them continue the journey through the scientific method.  Here are a few pictures of their progress this week. 

   

Smarties Fractions

We have been learning about adding and subtracting fractions with like denominators in my classes, and today we learned about unit fractions.  The students learned that a unit fraction is one piece of the entire whole.  After working a few problems in our math book, we brought out the candy - Smarties!!  The students showed great restraint and refrained from actually eating their Smarties until they had worked through the what the roll of candy had to do with fractions.  We made a fraction for each color and practiced adding different colors using our fractions.  The students drew a fraction model of their roll of Smarties.  It was great fun!!  Check out a couple of students hard at work to make fractions out of their Smarties: