Building 1/76th of the Great Wall of China

As a teacher this was a wonderful project to watch, the intensity of the student's work, the amazement that turned to tedium in the heat, and then the excitement of finishing, the return of the amazement and the need to show everyone they could find.  

The photographs show our journey of building 1/76th of the Great Wall of China that measured 14,494 centimeters. It started at our classroom, went around the playground, all the way to the second set of soccer bleachers.

 First we had to get blocks, we counted ours, sorted them by color to help with the calculations and set of to ask for more from other teachers.  We got as many as we could.

 

  The students worked in teams to build
sections of the wall, making it curved just  like the photographs of the actual wall they
had previously observed.  It didn't matter to them the exact shape, as they said, it is a representation not a copy.






As we were working, the third grade had spotted us from their window and came out to ask what we were doing. They quickly asked it they could help, "Of course" we said.

 A small group of students recorded the numbers of cubes and the length we had achieved, lots of addition and multiplication going on here.

We took a couple snack and water breaks, this was exhausting work on an unusually hot day, but the students persevered and at last the final blocks were being laid.

The finished wall - a relieved set of builders!

As soon as they were done a cry of "Hooray" went up and everyone fell to the ground!

Within seconds the next cry was, "Can we show everyone?" 

"I'll go to the Middle School."

"I'll get first and second grade"

"Can we show Cat?" Cat is our math specialist.

And they came, virtually the entire school came to visit our wall over the course of the next thirty minutes. The 4th grade led the visitors along the route, shared their experience and answered questions.

What an exhausting but fun day.  I was absolutely amazed at the incredible length the Great Wall of China must be.  At only 1/76 it was an incredible feat of patience and building for the 4th grade, I am glad we only had a limited number of cubes, we'd still be building now!

Inviting the preschoolers to the outside classroom

It is amazing how fear can influence your thoughts.

The children in the Meadow Room emailed our class to ask if they could come down and visit the outside classroom.  They asked if they could play there and look for animals.  When the 4th grade recieved the email their immediate response was a resounding NO!

Their idea of preschoolers, I think from experience with younger siblings was that they wouldn't be able to listen and would potentially destroy the classroom.  The return email was full of rules and regulations.  They basically wrote that they didn't really want them to go, but if they had to, then it was going to be by the 4th graders rules.

Now, the 4th grade have spent a lot of time building their classroom and are already upset that others have been inspired to build spaces or play close by.  They have incredible ownership of their space and are very territorial about it.

So the children of the Meadow Room came over for their pre-visit briefing and a discussion was held.  The 4th grade were very polite and accommodating but I could see that underneath it all they were worried.

We buddied up and started off across the field.  Immediately the 4th graders took charge, waiting at the road until everyine was ready and crossing together. A sense of excitement as in the air as we went behind the ha ha wall.

It was as if the 4th graders had wanted the preschoolers with them the whole time.  They held their hands, led them through the classroom, were very friendly and caring towards them, making sure of their safety with all the big branches.  They then discovered a swinging vine and for the next ten minutes or so took turns to swing. It didn't take long for the 4th graders to take turns with the preschoolers and show them how to swing.  I noticed encouragement for those who were a little nervous of the vine.

Each 4th grader stayed aware of their buddy the whole time.  Many gave their buddies piggy backs on the way back up, and only a few let go off hands.  We decided to extend the moment and eat snack together, it was hard to pull away.






This experience was so magical for both grades.  Once the 4th graders were with the preschoolers they were no longer afraid, they had a better understanding of them. They had been given a chance to share something very special to them and they did it with grace.

And after the visit the resounding response was:
 When can we do this again?

Scale modeling the Great Wall of China.

How long is the Great Wall of China?

A simple question you would think, a quick check on the internet and you have your answer.  Not so.
The Great Wall of China is a series of walls built at different times.  When the children were researching in groups they found all sorts of lengths and answers.  It was wonderful to see them automatically check multiple websites for their answers, and indeed to check with each other.

We got all sorts of answers ranging from 5,500 miles to 13, 000 or so miles.  So what to do?
Well, we decided to settle on the Ming section of the wall which is 5,500 miles or 8,850 km. They are into the Ming dynasty right now from their investigation into the Forbidden City.

Can we build a model?

The first thing I did was to stand back, to let the students figure it out, how would they go about building a model?  One group started building with blocks, their main goal to build an aesthetically pleasing wall that looks like the great wall, complete with watch towers.

Another group decided to use a scale - one cm to one mile in length and then one cm to one foot for the height - this of course ran them into problems.

The idea of scale was there for most of the students but I soon realized that the sense of length was proving to be a difficulty.

So we slowed down.

The next day in math we looked at both standard and metric measurements.  Scales mixing the two measuring units were common and I wanted them to stick with one set of units.  We went with metric and decided on a length scale of 1mm = 1km.  They easily worked out that the wall needed to be 8,850 mm long.   Easy!  I then asked how much space does 8,850 mm take up, is it as long as the trailer?

This proved to be a fascinating glimpse into the students ideas of length and measuring units. As they were studying rulers, it was soon obvious that mm were foreign for many of the students and they explored the idea in detail.

They first looked on rulers to try and find the part that was mm.  They all knew that mm were small but were not sure whether they were part of inches or cm.  We started with that, then moved to how many mm in a cm?  Some said 10, some 11.  It all depends on knowing how to read a ruler.  This led to a great discussion. Then some groups looked into how many mm in a ruler. (standard 12 inch ruler) Next was how many in a meter.  Even though we slowed down, it was amazing quickly the children took themselves step by step to solve the problem.

Think of the math involved, converting mm/cm/m using multiplication and division, the powers of ten.
Reading a ruler, investigating the sense of length and size, making comparisons.

It is one thing to say 8,850 mm = 885 cm or 1 meter 85 cm but it another to really understand how the system works and to get the sense of the scale of the measurement units.

I was so impressed with their enthusiasm and the speed of their understanding.
One group took a long tape measure outside to get a sense of the scale.

So, next:
Will this scale work?  What about the wall height?  With 1mm = 1km, getting the height of only 15 meters is going to be tough.  Let's see what happens.

Electronics in the classroom - a collaborative approach

Sometimes an classroom issue needs to be given time to resolve itself in a safe and respectful environment. I was watching closely the development of the issue of personal electronics in our classroom. Today I decided to step in and help the class out with this issue.

Our class has recently had an influx of personal electronic devices in the classroom.  It started with two children bringing in their electronics for academic needs.  Soon others started bringing theirs in, primarily to listening to music while they were working.

Now, these are curious 4th graders, so soon others started bringing in devices. They wanted to share the electronics, people wanted to play video games and share music at lunch.  Some students felt that it wasn't fair that some had devices and others not.  The issue got bigger. One student was frustrated that while he was working, others would type on his page, another said that people were trying to guess his password.

After a while, the students began to make decisions about the issue.  Some stopped bringing their own devices in and used their headphones to listen to music on the classroom computers.  Others found spaces to work on individual projects, so they could listen to their music quietly. The issue started getting smaller again.

Still, however I felt that some guidelines needed to be discussed, just so we were all clear and that we could respect those who had and indeed did not have personal electronics.

We had a wonderful discussion.  The children felt safe to voice their opinions and some felt strongly about their stance.  They worked in small groups to develop guidelines, then we had a class discussion.

These were the main ideas:

• Whatever the guidelines are we must follow them or we would lose our personal electronics for the day.
• The whole issue was unfair - family rules mean't that some children were not allowed to bring electronics to school, so to be fair no one should have them.
• Personal electronics should be allowed but with guidelines - no video games
• Want versus need - a fair idea
• We have always been fine without personal electronics before - why do we need them now?
• People should respect both personal and classroom electronics.
• They should only be for work.
• Idea - how about music from the CD player in a space in the classroom for quiet work.

Well, this was debated and even though the children understand that they will need to follow a lower school policy when it is made, they came up with, I think a well thought out set of guidelines.

Here they are:

• Those that need personal electronics can use them only for academic work.
• Music has to be quiet enough that it is not disturbing others.
• If headphones are being worn, that is a sign that the person wants to work quietly.
• Respect all people using electronics - don't hack, or type on their work.
• Electronic devices need to be treated like our journals.
• Those that don't follow guidelines have to put their device in their backpack for the rest of the day.

I think that the students really thought this through.  The discussion, although full of opinion stayed respectful and not personal.  I think that allowing the students to work on this issue by themselves, it enabled them to see it from many points of view.  They differed in their opinions but were able to come up with a set of guidelines that they felt were fair for everyone.

It is important to make our classroom investigations valuable to the students, then they can take ownership of their learning.

This afternoon I received via email a photo of two of our class who had gone to a Chinese New Year Celebration over the weekend.  I love getting photos like this.  It reminds me of the importance of making our work in the classroom both enjoyable, and of value to the children.

When the students voluntarily take their own time to learn more, to find out more to share with the class, it demonstrates that the learning is valid, it is important to them and they are taking ownership of their understandings.

How far is Beijing leads to an investigation into longitude lines

Our investigation into China has deepened.

We started our investigation into Mandarin, learned a few phrases and the students went home with much enthusiasm to have conversations with their families.  The next morning they all greeted each other with Ni Hao!  They were so excited to learn Mandarin that they were asking for all sorts of new words.  I know very little so we moved towards the numbers, they soon saw how the pattern worked and began counting, they now know up to 99! Further questions are how to say zero and 100.

In a constructivist classroom it is easy just to  "go with it", to let the project evolve completely from the students leanings, but I must also be sure to listen out for those ideas that will lead the investigation further and deeper.  As we were working on the numbers a child asked about the One Child Policy in China, another asked if we could actually go to China.  Both of these questions are very valid, and both could lead to deeper investigations.

So which way to go?  Which one would be more interesting, which one would lead to the goals I had set for the investigation?  We decided to go with "going" to China.

This led to a fantastic discussion into our world.  The size of the earth, how far Beijing is from Richmond, Virginia and would it be possible to fly all the way there without stopping.  The general consensus was no it seemed too far.   We looked at scale, and on a world map calculated the distance - about 8000 miles - still too far was the opinion.

We then looked at airline route maps, it seemed that by going via California we may be able to get there, still not sure though.  Then a student brought in the proof - her father had traveled all the way to China without stopping and she showed us the route - yes it could be done!

Then the children became interested in the globe, looking up the route and investigating the markings on it.  Soon the words longitude and latitude were coming up.  What do those words mean I ask.  And as in an earlier blog, I noted that the students had learned a vocabulary word but had no real idea of the meaning of it. They knew they were lines on the globe, but nothing further.

So, an investigation into the longitude lines on the map ensued, groups of children gathered around globes, observing the lines and numbers they saw.  It was noticed that there were 12 longitude lines on one globe.  When this information was shared, we found all the globes had 12 lines, could this be to do with time, one student asked - YES, of course time zones, it must be!

In the constructivist classroom, it is always important to acknowledge the ideas of the students, right now it really doesn't matter whether the longitude lines have anything to do with the time zones, or that there may indeed be more than twelve of them.  It is not time for the teacher to reveal that information yet.  But I have been asked to find a time zone map, and we'll see if the time zones do match up with the longitude lines.

Using popsicle wrappers to start an investigation of China

So what can you tell about China from a few wrappers?

We started our investigation into China last week and the initial provocation was for the students to investigate some popsicle and candy wrappers.  They had to describe the wrappers, try to figure out what was inside, then comment on what they can glean about China from the wrapper.

Well - these are some of the ideas:

It must have been hot when I was there because so many of the wrappers are from popsicles.

Chinese people eat popsicles.

Chinese people eat some of the same candies as we do.

A different language is spoken in China.

Chinese is written using different letters than English.

Words are written using Chinese letters and numbers are in English.

The Chinese like to use cartoons.

Some Chinese foods are familar and some are unfamiliar.

Apart from the flavors, that are still a mystery - this we will investigate further another day, the other main interest was the language of Mandarin.  One of the wrappers was for Mentos so one student commented that if we know the letters that make the word Mentos in Chinese we could use those "letters" to make other words.  Then we would be able to read other things in Chinese, and maybe figure out some of the unfamiliar flavors.

I was interested in the misconception about the Chinese language of Mandarin.  Students will always build on previous understandings in their construct new ones.  All of the students were familiar with Spanish, which uses the same letter system (for the most part) to English, and they had applied this knowledge to a language new to them that of Mandarin.

So, on to speaking Mandarin.