Math Olympics

A Day to Celebrate Math... (and as the math teacher that means I am in charge of it) This year's plan- "Mini Measurement Olympics" for all grades- preschool all the way up to 12th grade. The little kids made up their own units like tiles and counting. Older elementary did metric units (which is easier for our students here and comes more naturally to them). Secondary students did US customary units to make it more challenging. When I told them that we were not doing metric but instead customary units there was some groaning. It was challenging for them because they do not think in terms of those units normally in their everyday lives. (I did hear some kids throughout the day asking "how many inches are in a foot" or "how many inches are in a meter.") We had a fun day and ended it with an all school assembly where we set up the game show "Hollywood Squares." We chose staff members to be the celebrities in the squares and continued our theme of measurement by asking questions like "How long is the school building?" and "What is the population of the world?" Here's a bit of a recap of the day.

A beautiful day to be outside and participate in a "mini measurement olympics"

First event- "Paper Plate Discus"

Students had to throw the plate. Then estimate how far they threw in inches. Then measure the exact distance and see how close they were.

Hmmm... how far would that be in inches

Next event was the "Drinking Straw Javelin" Students had to throw the straw. Estimate and measure.

Next event was "Left-Handed Sponge Squeeze" Students had to estimate how much water they could squeeze out of a sponge in fluid ounces. This was really hard for them; they did not know fluid ounces at all.

Matt the other math teacher looking to see how much volume it is.

Next event was the "Big Foot" Students had to estimate how many square inches their foot is, then trace it on graph paper and calculate the actual amount.

The last event I don't have a picture of but it was the "Right-Handed Marble Grab" Students had to grab a handful of marbles and estimate how much they weighed in ounces. Then they measured it on a scale to find out the actual weight.

Calculating the difference between their estimate and the actual measure.

This picture cracks me up because there is something about 8th grade boys and climbing... no matter how many times I told them to not get on this thing they just couldn't stay off.

In the busyness of it all I don't have any pictures of our assembly and Hollywood Squares. Here's the only thing I do have to show you. These are our squares and celebrities:

Love it! :)

Good Morning

Happy Monday morning to you.

The sunrise out my bedroom window one morning last week.

I love mornings.

I don't especially like waking up, but I do like being up early. I like the quiet that
the morning holds before the rush of the day and all the troubles that it brings.

And especially Monday mornings. It feels like they hold so much promise.
Promise of a new start with a new day and a new week upon us.

Lamentations 3:22-24
"Because of the LORD's great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.

They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.

I say to myself, 'The LORD is my portion;
therefore I will wait for him.'"

Weird Things

Ever since moving to this foreign country I have found myself intrigued by the many bugs and insects that find their way into my world. To be honest I never really grew up around critters. We had the occasional ant and rolly-polly bugs, but nothing like you can find here in the tropics. After two and a half years they have become part of daily life. They don't really freak me out anymore, but they do still catch my attention every so often. We just have such interesting and weird creatures all around... and all the time.

All of these pictures come from around my house or around the school.

And this is my favorite. This frog has been living on my window sill for the past 3 weeks.
My classroom is on the second floor so I have no idea how he got there or why he stays.

Just a few insights into daily life here.

Krakatau {updated}

Our most recent trip: Krakatoa- the famous volcano.
The volcano is known for its epic explosion in 1883. The eruption was heard as far away as Australia.
This explosion pretty much destroyed the volcano, but a new island is slowly
growing up in the same location- they estimate it is growing about 5 meters a year.
It's called "Anak Krakatau" or baby Krakatoa. Since 1927 it has continued erupting
and mostly recently had erupted just 10 weeks ago. So it was too hot for us to hike
to the top, but we did get out and hike around a bit.

I haven't had time to put together my own Picasa album of pictures from our trip,
but here's the link to the album Aaron created.
He compiled everyone's pictures into one spot. It pretty much sums up our adventure
(which I have a hard time finding the right words to describe).
http://picasaweb.google.com/ads548s2/KrakatauVolcano2010#

Purple Party

A night out on the town. Friends. Bowling. Motor bikes. Lots and lots of rain. Getting lost. Excitement. Dinner. Cold Burgers. Yummy shakes. Napkins on fire. Silliness. Photos. 24 things to do while 24. Laughter. Theme = Purple. Happy Birthday Kim!