Discovery World Milwaukee Field Trip 2014

We had a great trip to Milwaukee's Discovery World today. What a great way to wrap up our invention unit and the school year! Check out the video below, made using WeVideo (super easy to use app) on the bus ride home:

Our Cart has Been Replaced with the Power Tower!

A couple weeks back I was asked by our technology coordinator if I would prefer to have a set of "towers" to hold our class set of Chromebooks on versus our big cart.  My immediate response was, "Yup!" Within a couple of days the "Power Towers" were up, but not wired.  They were a cool decoration of what was to come NEXT YEAR.  However, this weekend our technology elves were busy.  I arrived this morning to my room feeling different and a little bit empty.  Upon further inspection...I found that our computer cart was gone, the Power Tower was wired...AND FULLY LOADED!  I can't wait for my students to arrive to see our big our room just got, and hopefully more efficient as a result of our district technology elves.  

Hangouts and Prepping for our Invention Fair

We have been busy this week in our final preparations for our upcoming "Trash to Treasure" Invention Fair (next Thursday).  As you can see display boards are taking shape.  Students will have these on display, along with their invention, at our fair next week.  

Along with our display boards our building librarian / media specialist has began filming all of our fifth grader's infomercials.  Word on the street is they are turning out great this year!  Those will be played on a big screen, in the gym, at our fair.  

As it seems like it year to year, our invention fair is really coming together great.  It is hard to believe that we accomplish the creative part of coming up with an idea, send the idea home for students to work on with friends and family, research a famous inventor, write their own script for an infomercial, film an infomercial, create a display board, and soon present ALL of their items.  Not to mention, we also use the Invention of Hugo Cabret as our literacy piece all month.  We have for sure been busy.  It is great to work with a team of such hard working individuals and professionals!

Today we also had two Google Hangouts!  After attending #edCampMKE (edCamp Milwaukee) I met another educator who does an invention project and fair.  We thought..."HEY...LET'S HANGOUT!"  So we did...today!  It was great.  Each of us had seven students/groups share their ideas with the other class.  The experience was wonderful!

Our second Hangout today was with staff members at Milwaukee's Discovery World.  They spoke to our students about the inventor of the electric guitar (and Wisconsin native) Les Paul.  They also shared with our students some of the cool things they will experience on our field trip there on June 9.  We can't wait!  What a great experience!   

Google Hangout with a Patent Attorney 2014

Today we had a great opportunity to have a Google Hangout with an old friend of mine, who is now a Patent Attorney in the Twin Cities (MN) area.  This is our third year uniting for a 1 hour session.  In the short screencast (Screencast-O-Matic) below (15 minutes (not that short)) you can see how our attorney shares mostly about what a patent attorney does, what a patent is, and is able to answer a few questions.  What a great experience..as always!

During our Hangout we were also had the opportunity to have our own inventions critiqued.  Here are some of the pictures from the experience:

"The Fun Hunt"

"The One and Done"

"Light My Way"

"The Sanitation Shirt"

"The RC Turkey Decoy"

Divide Fractions with Number Lines

In math we are currently learning how to take a whole number and divide it by a fraction...actually a decimal fraction.  Today we thought about how we can break down a fraction in terms of what it equals to 1.  For example, how many tenths = 1? 10...so 10/10 = 1...got me?  

We figured out then that if 1 is made up of 10/10s, then 0.1 x 1 = 10.  

So...we can quickly then figure out that 3 x 0.1 = ___ (using the above idea that 0.1 x 1 = 10) simply multiply the answer by 3...so 3 x 0.1 = 30.  This means that 30=tenths make up the number 3.

Our final problem today asked the following:

Amber bought a 6-meter roll of ribbon.  She needs pieces that are 20 centimeters long.  How many pieces will she be able to cut from the roll?  Show your thinking.

This problem assumes something significant...that students know how much of a meter 1 centimeter equals (1/100) OR how much of a meter 10 centimeters equals (1/10).  

A couple of my students figured this problem out using a number line version by taking meter sticks and determining the answer...great way to show their thinking:

Another group of students determined the answer by using what they already knew about meters, centimeters, and newly acquired information about division (and multiplication) of fractions and decimal fractions.

This is exciting to see students really using what they have learned throughout the school year in order to solve one problem.  COOL!