Cardio? No Thank You... I Thought You Said Oreo

Estimation

This weeks class was great! Not only was it filled with a variety of open questions surrounding estimation for each table to work with but it was also filled with OREOS!!!!!

The class opened up with an activity that circulated the room for us to guess how many Oreos were in the jar. Although when it reached my table I just wanted to grab them and run I estimated and nicely passed along. This may or may have not been after Pat told us we would all get our share...

As the jar of Oreos was being passed around the class for them to secretly make an estimation and write it on their sticky note the class continued on with this week's lesson. 

What is an Estimate?

- a thoughtful guess

- saves time and effort

- can be used the gauge the accuracy of their calculations

- we do estimates when it is not practical/ possible to count and measure the precise amount of something (aka a full jar of cookies)

Now that we are all on the same page about what an estimate is and what it can be used for, take a look at this week's problem with Daniella and Emily:

As a group, Courtney, Daniella and myself all divided the cube blocks equally as each cube represented one movie ticket. The cubes were a great manipulative for the students to be able to visualize the problem and understand what would be fair! 

Thanks for sharing Daniella:)

Our group had fun with this activity working together to demonstrate the fair share with blocks!

Here is Courtney dividing up the blocks in one of our activities!

Although I know you're just thinking about the Oreos we must move on!!

In addition to learning all about estimation we also learned about MEAN, MEDIAN, and MODE. Here is a fun, short and cute little riddle (with the old methods) to practice and or post in your classroom for your students to remember and decipher between the three!

During our lesson on the three Mean, Median and Mode we learned a different alternative way at calculating the Mean. Throughout our education career we were taught to add up all numbers and divide by how many numbers there are. This method works but there is always another way!!! We learned that you can also find the mean by finding the middle number...

Here is a couple examples if you are confused (Do not worry - I was at first too, but now we can all be Math Geniuses!!)

1) Find the mean (the average) of these 3 consecutive numbers:

4, 5, 6.

Old method: 4 + 5 + 6 = 15

15 / 3 (HOW MANY NUMBERS THERE ARE) = 5

New Method:

4, 5, 6.

5 is the middle number, therefore 5 is the mean.

2) Find the mean (the average) of these 4 consecutive numbers:

3, 4, 5, 6.

Old Method: 3+4+5+6= 18

18/4= 4.5

New Method:

3, 4, 5, 6.

4.5 is the middle number, therefore 4.5 is the mean.

So many neat and cool tricks to teach the students when they are learning these new things! Great way to help any student who is having difficulty understanding how to find the Mean and more!

A great week with lots of new ideas relating to estimation, mean, median, and mode to pass along to our students. Towards the end of class we talked as a group about assessment, feedback, promoting higher order thinking and improve student learning. Here is some pictures of the slideshow that we all discussed. 

Feel free to jot some of these down for what you are assessing your students or to share with your students so they know what is expected. If you do not want to record these for your own purposes, grab a glass of milk and some Oreos and enjoy a snack while reading!

What a great week filled with sugar, group work, new methods and new skills that I cannot wait to share with my students - the methods not the Oreos - those are mine! 

Take care and see you next week,

Emily