Documente Academic
Documente Profesional
Documente Cultură
40
group lesson is to show new work available in the classroom or to start a new unit.
In this case, the class is starting a next step
to their geometry unit: geometric solids.
Their teacher takes out the Montessori
geometric solids that they have seen in the
past. Many remember the work and eagerly
offer the names of the sohds. They play a
few well known games to famiharize themselves with the shapes, feel, and nomenclature. Their teacher then gives them a packet
ofactivitiesthatwilllastfor the next several
meetings. The student sheets came from the
Illusions website, sponsored by the National Council of Teachersof Mathematics,
that their teacher found using the MarcoPolo Intemet Content for Teachers search engine. One sheet is a grid in which they record
the number of faces, comers, and edges of
various geometric solids that are not included in the Montessori set. The students
go to the website written at the top of the
page where they can tum, count, color, and
explore the various solids on their grid.
Other activities in the packet include making a "jackef for various solids and creating their own solids with materials such as
balls of clay and straws. The children are
happily engaged during the math hour.
Once the hour is up, the child goes back
to her original computer and completes
her Mesa Verde project. That afternoon,
she gets math problems from her teacher
and works more with the checkerboard.
On Wednesday, she will have math highlighted so that she can fmish her work
staited today, as well as one new highhght.
At 2:30, the teacherrings the bell forjobs.
The child goes to the jobs hst to remind
herself what her job is this week. The list is
created in Microsoft Excel and the teacher
is easily able to rotate jobs among the
children using the spreadsheet design.
After a productive day, the child goes
home. She is excited about her accomphshments. She has written down the web
address ofthe PBS and the math websites.
Perhaps, if there is time after soccer and
dinner, she will explore them this evening
at home with her parents or sisters.
Later, her teacher heads home. Her day
Resources
http://pbskids.org/africa/
http://www.pbs.org/saharawww.marcopoloeducation.org
http://uluminations.nctm.org/inriath/3-5/
GeometricSolids/student/GeoSolidsLhtml (Courtesy MarcoPolo search
engine)
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