The Fibonacci Sequence

This is sooooo awesome and sooooo relevant because...

I did a problem solving activity the other day with the class, they were given clues to figure out the numbers on a set of combination locks. I really thought it would be easy for them, but it was more of a challenge (for them) than I thought. There were a few learners in the learning pit that lesson!
Anyway, once they had figured out the ones they'd been given, I asked them to devise their own set of 4 numbers and matching clues. Numbers could be anywhere between 0 and 39.
Off they happily went, creating problems and clues for others to solve, most using basic facts. I reminded them of other ways we could create number clues, resulting in how many days in... and letter places in the alphabet.
But Finn K created his with way more challenging clues. One of his related to the Fibonacci sequence. I was not sure that any of the children would know about it, and rather than me explain, I thought it would be great for Finn to be the teacher. Math talk came into it, the method had to be revoiced and repeated many times before I was certain everyone understood. The whole time I was thinking about how I could use this in art, especially since the children seemed quite into continuing the pattern way past the point of 55 (which was more than the 39 limit!) but anyway, then I found this awesome youtube clip and I got all excited about sharing it with the children.
Funny how I wasn't even looking for stuff about the Fibonacci sequence, but maybe it's only because I was aware of it, being a recent discussion in my classroom, that it popped out at me. So expect some nice spirally maths art coming soon!

Solution to Lack of Wall Space!

I know, two posts in one day, but it's parent/teacher interview night and I am waiting for my next interview and filling in time. I found this idea on pinterest, I pinned it and then I just screen captured it so you could see, and I am wondering if I'd be allowed to do this in my classroom?! I've decorated ceilings before, but the one I have in my class is new and I don't want to wreck it - even though I did pin those Paper Fish up earlier today!

Perhaps if I just cut card to the exact right size and stick it in each tile gap.

More Circles!

This was a maths problem solving activity I found on nrich maths. I was trying to pretend that I was a little interested in the Olympics by doing something with a sports theme!
This activity involved circles! So out came the compasses again. It was great to see the children working so well together, they were really into what they were doing. And I pretty much stayed right out of it, let them figure everything out on their own. Initially, groups were trying to draw circles in their maths books with diameters of up to 22 cm. Then they figured out that they would need larger sheets, which meant raiding the scrap paper box... I am actually pretty impressed that they remembered the things they had discovered about circles from previous tasks.

 The link to the activity we used is here Sports Equipment
 Anyway, I have decided to create a Blipp about circles, because they just keep popping up everywhere! Literally! Put your Maths Eyes on... :)

Thank you, Yvette!

A massively huge big thank you to Yvette, for showing me Blippar!

I took a study day today. I wasn't going to because I have too much going on in the classroom. But today was cross country, and it is cold, and I figured I may as well stay at home (where it is cold also) and create a Blipp!
Yvette discovered an amazing app called Blippar, and when she showed me her awesome Blipp and what could be done with it I just had to try it. I had some issues because I signed up for the wrong account to start with. If you get this for the classroom, make sure you get Blippar for education. Anyway, as of Wednesday, I have been able to use it without any hiccups so I am a very happy person. 
My first Blipp wouldn't work, I created one about kinetic art, useful for this term and the future. But last night I kept thinking about a topic and I didn't want to do the same one, and then I thought about our Zero Waste school, and I decided that would be a good topic with lots of opportunities to make links and include information etc. I was a good, honest person and only used images that were labeled for reuse, and I hope all of my information is correct. So here is my day's work. I will probably edit it some more in the future but I was eager to complete it and now it is almost 7pm and I'm still sitting on my backside in front of the computer!
To view 
Download the Blippar app (free)
In settings, type in the code 77600
Hover your device over the image below.

 
And check it out! 
You can move away from the marker image once your device has picked it up.
Thanks again, Yvette! I love this!  

Mantle and Maths

I finally finished reading Elephant in the Classroom, and I have finally sorted out where to next with Mantle of the Expert with my class for Term 3. The book had lots of interesting things to ponder, but I didn't get all excited like I did when I read Mathematical Mindsets. I have used a couple of ideas from it though. I tried one of the problems with my class - how many squares on a chessboard?
This was such a neat problem and the children behaved exactly as I thought they would. Ruby straight away came up and said 64, because 8 x 8 is 64. She seemed annoyed with me when I asked her to show me, I wanted proof, and while she was drawing up a grid on paper, other children were coming up with the same answer. This made her even more grumpy, she already "knew" the answer! After groups of children had all arrived at the same conclusion/ solution, I asked them to think about the question. I then had to push them further by telling them that 64 was not the answer. This resulted in a bit more thinking outside the box. Finally, Finn clicked, and shared the idea that there were 2 by 2 squares... 3 by 3 and then he was like, "oh man, that's gonna take ages to work out!"
Time run out and I suggested they think about the question in their own time. I was excited, I thought surely they would want to find the answer. Only Alicia found the answer, which she proudly presented to me the next day. "The answer is 204, it's 64 + 49 + 36 ..." I was so happy, I asked her to explain how she did it. She went online and got the answer, she did not understand why those numbers were added together, what they meant, or anything! So the question is still floating around, ready to be solved and fully understood. It's funny though, because there was a time when I probably would have said, "well done, you found the solution!" without actually questioning the child to see if they really do understand how and why it works.
Mantle never finished at the end of Term 2, we didn't close the company, and I didn't want to carry on, those little experts were beginning to muck around. So drastic action was taken.
First day back I placed a jar of ashes from my fireplace on the floor, with a label - T.K.T.B remains, and a few of their kinetic artworks scattered around.
A fire burnt down the building. Accusations flew around the room as a chain of consequences finally  ended (or began) with a storm. And we had no insurance. What a pity.
Luckily, an eccentric but wealthy woman saw our newspaper report, that we wrote as reporters,and has offered to finance rebuilding - if we open an art gallery.
Now I've got all my fun stuff rolled into one! The art, the maths and Mantle. Kinetic art is our focus  and will involve lots of technology, visual art and science. I have big plans!

I know this little clip is really pixelated and a bit crappy, but this is some super cool art maths inspired by Yaacov Agam's art. And this is a bit closer to what I hope we will be doing in the near future.