Author Archives: drawlins

Math, Push Carts, & City Hall Protest in New York

  By drawlins • February 24, 2016 , ,

Math with Social Justice Relevance

food samplingIt was a chilly day in January.

Fourth grade students and teachers went downtown to walk the streets of the busy financial district to meet food cart vendors. They were able to observe the variety of international selections that vendors were selling, and sample the delicious-smelling food.

Over 90% of the food vendors in New York City are first generation, or recent immigrants. This field trip gave students the opportunity to talk directly to the people who stood inside these carts, cooking food that reflected the cuisine of their home countries. Students were curious to hear the stories of where they immigrated from, and how they happened to enter into the business of selling food on the street. Continue reading

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Family Math Night at LREI

  By drawlins • November 30, 2015 , , , , ,

Students and Parents look forward to Family Math Night every year.  

Students in grades one through four celebrate mathematics, as well as continue to hone their fluency in combination facts by playing fun games. Fourth grade students create their own math games as a capstone experience, and then teach them to family and friends during Family Math Night. Continue reading

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PROCESS POST: Little Red Square Area/Perimeter-Comments

  By drawlins • November 26, 2015 ,

Grade 3/Relationship between perimeter and area (Same perimeter: different area)

Things to think about for next year’s project:

  • Book Laura Drawbaugh (Parks Dept.) to come and speak about the progress of reconstruction of Little Red Square. This is a two-year project, so we potentially could repeat this lesson next year.
  • Ask Laura to print out large one inch chart paper for drawings (30″ wide, unlimited length). It’s also thicker paper.
  • Maybe do “measure your foot” TERC lesson after this project (but have the students take the string and create different quadrilaterals using the same perimeter). Then they could create their own “T-Chart” individually and reflect on the data regarding the relationship between same perimeter and different area. This will reinforce the concept on an independent level with each student, and provide further practice. Most importantly, it will help make every student accountable for the learning because it’s an individual lesson. Teachers can base formative assessment on this. It is also a “Low floor, high ceiling” problem because every student has a different size foot, and will be working with their own perimeter, and reflections are open-ended.

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