Maneki Neko and Managing Impulsivity

This morning we warmed up with the Spontaneous problem, "What do you need to Explore?"  and shared about some of our own recent discoveries.  Students were able to share their personal artifacts and think about assumptions future archaeologists might make if they uncovered their item 3,00 years from now.

Next we got to crack open our M^3 (Mentoring Mathematical Minds) text in order to begin unraveling the case of the Moli Stone.  This ficticious stone was just uncovered in an archaeological dig in China.  Throughout the unit, students will build on their knowledge of place value and number systems in order to decode the symbols and unravel their hidden meaning.  Today we counted the change in a Maneki Neko bank and explored the different combinations we could use to total the 47 cents we found using only dimes and pennies.  Ask your student about the rule they discovered.  I am already impressed with their ability to problem solve, identify patterns, and communicate their thinking!

Our Habit of Mind focus was on Managing Impulsivity.  We read My Mouth is a Volcano by Julia Cook.  Students then practiced managing their impulsivity as they participated in a relay race to come up with the biggest list of good and bad examples of the skill.