Fastest Texter in the West

Trying to blog more about teaching....

In an effort to get kids interested in learning math from the beginning of the year, we created a new problem where the kids had to deterring who the Fastest Texter in the West is.  (I teach at a school named West...thus this is very clever).

First we had the kids take out their phones and see how many characters they could text in one minute.  You should have seen the looks on their face when we asked them to text in class.  We had them hooked at that.  Then they had to plot their output on a graph and continue the graph with the assumption that they could maintain the same texting rate for up to ten minutes or whatever would fill the graph.  Then there some follow up questions where they had to make a table, and equation and answer some other things.

The second day, we had any student who thought they might be the fastest submit their completed work.  We copied all the tables, graphs and equations and cut them apart.  Then groups were given a set and they had to match the representations.  Then they had to order them from slowest to fastest textures and vote on who they thought was the fastest.

The conversations they had were great.  They were able to match things pretty well.  It helped that all the situations had zero for a starting point.  I liked how well they worked together, especially this early in the year.  It was a great way to start the discussion about constant rate and comparing rates using tables, graphs and equations.

One change I would make is next year I wouldn't have the input of 1 in the table.  It made it too easy for them to match the equation to the table.  I want them to have to think more in depth about rate.

And I just realized that I created the activity at work, and I'm blogging at home...I will have to link it later.

What activities have you used that are high interest and hook kids?

Two weekends ago Harper and I made the trip to Kansas City to visit my BFF Emily and her family.  We have always flown before but airline tickets were ri-donk-ulous.  Like $900 for the two of us.  So we loaded up the Subaru and set out for a good old American road trip.  Harper did awesome on the car drive.  I had a bunch of activities for her to do, and some movies of course.  I was surprised by how much time she spent just looking out the window.  The best tip I learned: get picture books on CD.  We had some and checked out a few more from the library.  She is able to follow along with the story and it was really easy for me to just pop in the cd's.

While there, we got to check off item number 5 on our bucket list: Go to a farm.

Feeding the baby cows

Tractor ride.  Too bad she's TERRIBLE at pedaling.

Wagon Ride

"Help!  Let me out of here!"

One day we took a trip downtown, where they have lots of amazing things to do.  While walking through Crown Center we happened upon someone dressed as Elsa.  There was like no line, and you just walked up and took your own pictures.  Considering the Frozen obsession around here, that was definitely the highlight of her day!

Snuggled up watching cartoons.

 On the way home, Harper asked if we could go up in the St. Louis Arch.  I had never been before, and what good is a road trip without a stop to see one of America's greats?

It was a great trip visiting with friends and cruising the countryside.  I am having such an amazing summer with this little girl.  I will be really sad going back to work this year.  Sadder than any year previous I think.  I'll just make sure to soak up as much time as I can.

Bucket List numbers 8 and 10

Harper is very timid and shy in new situations.  She's not the type to go up to kids at the playground and start chatting and playing with them, and she gets nervous trying new things.  So when we went to the Ohio State Fair last year and she jumped on all the rides without one bit of apprehension I was surprised.  She loves riding rides of all kinds.  This summer she decided she wanted to move up to something a little bigger so we took her down to King's Island for the day.

The kiddie part of the park is called Camp Snoopy.  It has tons of rides of all sizes and thrill levels.  We rode every single one, some more than once.  She had a blast.  We walked in right when the park opened and didn't leave until after the fireworks that night.  I can see many trips in our future when she's big enough to ride all the rides.

Item Number 10: Make fresh lemonade
This one was easy and a perfect thing to do with a friend during an afternoon playdate.

We're all set

This is hard work 

Yum!

We're Pregnant

With Watermelon babies....duh!

 So apparently the fertilization treatments I administered were successful and we have three watermelons on their way.  I'm super excited.

As you can see I've also made the move to vertical gardening.  My cucumbers and watermelons were just taking up too much room.  So I had Joe build be a couple of quick frames with some fencing stapled on and with some stakes I was able to train my vining fruits upward giving me a lot more room.

The only downfall is I worry about the watermelons falling off when they get too big.  Of course a solution exists, found using my #1 gardening friend, Google.  Watermelon hammocks!

What a great use for all those old nude hose I never wear.

I can't wait to sink my teeth into my juicy babies.

Watermelon Sex

You read that right...today I will be posting about watermelon sex.

The other night while watering the garden we discovered this little surprise.

I was excited.  Not only was it the cutest little watermelon ever, I was really looking forward to the big, juicy, yummy fruit I would be eating in a few weeks.

The next night I went out and discovered a black, rotten globe of disgustingness.

A quick visit to my friend Google pointed out the likely culprit of improper pollination.  Apparently the bees in my yard are not doing their job.

Solution: hand pollination.  That's right, this morning I picked a few of the male blossoms and rubbed their pollen-y middles over a few of my female blossoms so that they would be properly pollinated.  That's right, I preformed watermelon sex.

These things better be delicious with the extra care I had to give them.

Bucket List Number 1 and 11

Number 1: Go to the pool

This one was easy to check off.  We went and visited some friends who have a pool in their neighborhood and got some swim time in.  I really should make more of an effort to take her to the pool to help her get over her fear of water.  She just isn't that brave when it comes to getting in the water, especially when she can't touch the bottom.

Either way, we had fun.

Number 11: Bake something new

It is way too bad I didn't get pictures of this one.  We were at my mom's house for card club and we made a dessert pizza.  It was so delicious.  We rolled out one roll of sugar cookie dough into a round crust shape and baked it.  Once that was cool we spread the top with Nutella, strawberries, mini M&M's, butterscotch chips and almond slivers.  It was delicious and I can definitely see us making something similar again.

Bucket List Numbers 7 and 16

We took our first official family vacation to the beach a couple weeks ago.  We rented a house on the beach on Folly Beach which is near Charleston, SC.  My sister and her husband, and my aunt and uncle joined us for the week and we all had a blast.  Harper really lived it up on the beach collecting shells, building sand castles and "frolicking" in the waves.

Item Number 16: Go the the beach!

Item Number 7: Ride a boat - 

While in Charleston we decided to explore a little using the public transportation.  They have a free trolley that goes throughout the city and a water taxi that can be ridden across the Harbor.  We hopped on the water taxi and were treated to views of dolphins popping their fins out of the water, sea turtles and awesome closeups of the military vessels dry docked there.

We had a great time on the trip and we will definitely be taking another beach vacation soon.