Upper Elementary digs into math and science

One facet of our program is grade level math in the mixed-grade levels; all of the fourth graders gather in Strawberry Creek, while all of the fifth graders meet in Cerrito Creek, for an hour each day. In 4th grade math, students began with a Number Talk, in which they were challenged to come up with as many different mathematical ways to represent the number 36 as they could. As you can see, there was no shortage of ideas!

Fifth grade students were given a slant on the traditional Number Talk, and asked to create the highest number they could using the digits 0-9 with certain constraints (the number can't be even, can't be divisible by 7, etc).

Fifth graders were also asked to explore the relationship between different strands of mathematical thinking including numbers, patterns, and geometry through a coloring activity. This also led to a conversation about efficiency and effectiveness -- what approach to coloring the squares would allow for the fewest number of times a student would need to put down one pencil and pick up another?

In third grade, students returned to the creating-a-compass activity from the first day in more depth; they were asked to make predictions, record their observations through words and drawings, and compare the results of the same experiment conducted multiple times.