Ocrtober 11th, 2024

We're back with another round of lessons! This is shaping up to be a very busy October for me but I am so so so excited! Today I was at O.C Taylor Elementary school. This was a new one for me which seems crazy because I have been doing this for so long that it feels like I have been to all of them. But fun fact, my district had 11 elementary schools! Today I was with Mrs. Grant's 4th grade class with a nice little 30min lesson for them over equivalent fractions. They were actually doing their end of unit test as I was getting set up, so my lesson was a nice way to solidify their understanding of this topic. 

When I walked into Mrs. Grant's classroom it was a nice calm almost ocean-y theme and I really liked it. Her students were finishing up their unit test so it gave me a minute to set up. Like always, I did my warm up on the board and actually taught them the "not equal" symbol since most of them had never seen it. For the lesson today I made them, what I am now calling, my "Olivia and the equal fractions" lesson. I created a work sheet with a bunch of fraction questions on it and they had to determine if they were equivalent or not. Then they looked at the box right next to the problem that told them what Olivia looked like. Olivia was a blank outline of a person on it and they had to use the fraction conditions to draw on her features. 

This class was a little calmer than some I have had in the past but they were having such a great time. One of the table groups was trying to figure out a back story for Olivia where she was an O.C Taylor student just like them and she loved recess, which I thought was absolutley adorable. As I was walking around it was really cool to see them using the not-equal symbol and I loved getting to see them put their new fraction skills to work. Some of them finished fairly quickly so I told them to make a background for her. It's always fun to see their creativity shine through on these activities. 

At the end of my lesson, we did a little review and talked what Olivia looked like, some even sharing her back story. This was a nice little lesson for them and I loved getting to go to this new school and meeting new people. Next week I have 4 lesson lined up (woo!), so time to get planning! :)