In January, we explored the concept of measurement by reading the book How Big Is a Foot? and discussed the importance of having a standard measurement.  In this story, a king wants to have a bed made for the queen, so, after some thought,  he measures the queen with his big feet and then relays the measurements to the prime minister, who tells the chief carpenter, who tell’s the carpenter’s apprentice, who uses his little feet to measure out the size of the bed.  We acted the story out and when the bed doesn’t quite fit the queen, we have to do some problem solving to figure out why, and how we can fix the problem.   We even measured our own feet!

We also explored weight and were able to use a new math tool, the balance scale, and wrote about it in our math journals.  We use our math journals to write about a problem and our thinking around the problem.  The students are really beginning to think more deeply around math problems and explain their thinking and strategies used.  I find that students sharing out their thinking around a problem really helps those that are struggling to see it in a new way.  I am super proud of the growth that the class has demonstrated already this year and we still have much more to learn together!