Hailstone Conjecture

              Friday's math lesson inspired a lot of enthusiasm, as we explored Lothar Collatz's hailstone conjecture. It was fascinating to the kids that mathematicians are still trying to prove/disprove this mathematical theory after more than 80 years.  We enjoyed exploring the idea and testing it with a variety of numbers.  The conjecture asserts that in any string of numbers if you divide even numbers by 2 and multiply odd numbers by 3 and add 1, you will eventually end up at 1.  The kids crunched numbers and begged for more time to explore this idea. Some of the numbers got so big, we had to pull out calculators to do the long division and multiplication.  Some number strings went on for more than 30 numbers. The kids also came up with theories about why certain strings of numbers were longer than others.  We extended our math time and many kids continued to explore this during WIN time.  Ask your child about his if they haven't already talked with you about it! It's so exciting to see this enthusiasm for math.  

Jack and Jason even used their learning mascots to cheer them on. 

Students gathered around to witness the final descent of a particularly long string of numbers that Oliver and Will were exploring.

Bobby and Tyler were particularly proud of their massive string.  It took a long time to get to 1.

Writing enthusiasts

            We're off to a great start in our writing workshop! Last week we read  Sylvester and the Magic Pebble and Wizzil by William Steig.  We analyzed Steig's style and thought about how we might emulate some of the traits of his writing in ours.  We noticed that Steig incorporated magic and elements of fantasy into both of these stories.  We also noticed his use of interesting vocabulary and the literary devices he incorporated into his writing, such as alliteration and similes.  Many of us began stories ourselves. We also began to establish our writing workshop routines, as well as tried out different areas where we might do our best writing. The ideas are definitely flowing and I'm excited to see where they take us!

DASA Explorations Begin!

We're off to a great start together!
View the DASA Curriculum Night presentation.