Our chapter was a little sad today, but we’re hoping it gets better next week. It started with Snowbell talking about all of their cat friends, which prompted Yianni to ask how many cats were mentioned. I counted the ones on my fingers and counted 5, but Bisola reminded me that Snowbell was a cat, so it was actually 6. Unfortunately, the cats were discussing how they could eat Margalo. Thankfully, a pigeon overheard and gave an anonymous to Margalo, who ran away to stay safe. Paolo thought the chapter was really sad, since the cats wanted to eat Stuart’s friend. Timo agreed that it was sad, but he focused on how sad Stuart will be that Margalo left without saying goodbye. I hope the story gets a little brighter next week, as this was all pretty dark.
Our writing investigation today was writing an anonymous note to a character in one of our stories. We discussed what might be in a note like that, usually a warning, and why it might be anonymous, a new word for the class. Gia wanted to write a note to Sophie telling her to get away from the mean giants. Jerome was a little more specific and said that Sophie should just stay away from the window in the first place. Sokrates was remembering how much the BFG got hurt, so he wanted to tell the BFG to watch out for his brothers. Bisola was thinking about the BFG story too, but she wanted to write a note to everyone to not drink the frobscottle since it would make you fart. Tove wanted to make sure Charlotte protected her eggs, while Rebecca wanted to warn Stuart about the wave. Timo realized that, if he signed his name, it wouldn’t be anonymous, so he signed his note “Timoa”, reasoning that it wasn’t his name anymore. I wasn’t sure if the class would be able to understand both what anonymous meant and the kind of things you’d put in an anonymous note, but they rocked! It was also great to see them thinking about what warnings different characters could use.
For our last challenge with just pennies, nickels, and dimes, today we tried to make 20 cents. This was interesting because there were so many different ways to solve it. Sokrates knew there was an easy way to do it, but didn’t want to just use 2 dimes. Instead, Timo suggested they start with 1 dime and see what else they could use. Rebecca counted and saw that she had 6 coins and knew that it was worth 18 cents. Gia said it would be best if they finished using pennies, since then they would just be counting by ones. Paolo knew that he did it one way, but there were lots of other ways to do it. Teddy decided to use 20 pennies, just so he knew he did it right but then watched how other people solved it to get some ideas. Niki was only comfortable solving it with pennies, so I asked her if she knew how many pennies it would take to equal a nickel. She knew it would take 5 pennies, so we practiced trading out until she realized it would take 4 nickels to make 20 cents. Bisola liked that process so much she decided to do the same thing with pennies and dimes. I’m not surprised the class is doing so well, but I am impressed with their dedication and persistence in the problem solving. Have a great weekend everyone!
