Class #57--8th Age Math

Friday, May 20, 2011, 12:50 P.M. 8th Age Math Class. Class #57 on my “50 Classes or Bust!” voyage. There is tremendous excitement in the air today in the Lower School! It is Black and Gold Spirit Day and “Moving Up” Day, in which students spend time with teachers at next year’s grade level. In addition, we had an orientation for our new (for 2011-2012) students and parents. In the midst of these many activities and events, we are, of course, having academic classes. Mrs. Woods’s math class has finished lunch and recess and is ready to learn. Class begins with a review of three-digit addition problems on the chalk board. Mrs. Woods ensures that the students are adding correctly and saying the answers in the correct manner. Transitioning out of the warm-up, the class truly perks up when Mrs. Woods holds up a big Hershey’s chocolate bar. In the name of fractions, the class examines the candy bar, which can be conveniently divided into halves, quarters, eighths, and sixteenths. Each student has a small, sixteenth piece as a treat. (The leftover pieces are within my reach; will I be able to resist?). I look up from typing, and yarn is flying around the room! (See second picture below). The “pitcher” asks an addition fact (for example, 5+9), and the “catcher” provides the answer (14). The result of the yarn tossing is a variety of geometric shapes, which the class analyzes. In the final part of the period, Mrs. Woods reviews subtraction with regrouping. Each student works through a variety of problems on a small whiteboard on his or her desk. Mrs. Woods is unsuccessful in her efforts to stump the class! I commend Mrs. Woods and her pupils for a multi-faceted, successful period.