Week 18- Picture Pie Fractions

Last week, at the Blue Ribbon Conference, I attended a session about using art in the general education classroom. When the presenter shared Ed Emberley's Picture Pie, I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I ordered both of these books from Amazon and was ready to go!

This is a page inside the 2nd book. It shows students how to cut shapes to make a bulldog. 

So I shared my vision with my math classes and they went to work. I told them I wanted them to create pictures with cut circles and squares. After they made their pictures I asked them to use the pieces to create fractions. I also had them take any mixed numbers they had and convert them to improper fractions, which is what we did this week. 

I was excited about the way they embraced this project and ran with it. Most of them were really excited to be able to do art during math time. :)

Each of them put their own spin on the project, which is exactly what I wanted them to do!

The most challenging part for them was writing the fractions after their pictures were finished. I reminded them that I wanted them to use fractional pieces somewhere in the picture because this would be a 1st grade project if we just used whole numbers. The picture above used fractional pieces but when adding them all she ended up with whole numbers. So this student added a little more to her art project to end up with fractions!

The kids are still working on these projects but these are a few finished ones. I love how they each made something to reflect themselves!

STUDENTS: Did you like the Picture Pie art project during math? What was the best part of the project? What was the most challenging? Explain why.

Week 14- 2 Point Perspective in Art & Math Games

In art this week, my students were working on 2-point perspective. Mr. Mikell, Auburn graduate in Industrial Design, was our guest speaker. He talked to the kids about the importance of learning to draw in two-point perspective. Architects and designers do this all the time.










In science we used a new reading strategy called 5-3-1. They read the section on their own and find 5 important words/phrases. Then they group up and compare their lists and come up with 3.



In the end they come up with one phrase that summarizes what they have read.



I loved the conversations that took place and the way students defended their choices by finding evidence in the text.


Here are a few of the final statements from the groups.



Thursday during math rotations we played a few games. The students were able to play the factor tree race. They worked in pairs and rolled 2 dice. Using the numbers rolled they create a 2 digit number and then race to find the prime factorization for that number. Then they use the calculator to check to make sure the answer is correct. The first one finished scores a point.



We used the upside down birthday cake method to find the greatest common factor this week. So at the table with me this week I reviewed this and taught them another new game.



Each pair got 4 cards, which they used to create two 2-digit numbers. Then they found the GCF for those numbers. The team with the greatest GCF won.



Once we determined which team won they rolled the die to see how many points they earned.



STUDENTS: Do you like playing math games during our review rotations on Thursday? Why or why not?