Learning and Problem Solving

One thing I love about being a teacher in this online world is that I can connect to teachers everywhere! For instance, a teacher named Kelley sent me some lessons she put together, a product of a 3-year research project on learning skills in her school board.  It came at the perfect time, the beginning of the school year when you are itching to try something new! What I found was that it fit beautifully with so many things here on ProDivas...the Problem Solving Steps in Mathematics, the Inquiry Cycle, that I had to  try to put it all together.  It also worked well as a Maths pre-assessment to see where my new class was when it came to Number. 
This class also seemed preoccupied with finishing...for example "How many sentences do I need to be finished?"  or "Do I have to fill the page to be finished?" I know it is all well-intentioned effort to do a good job on their part, but I thought this was a great opportunity to set the tone that we are here to learn, not just "finish"!
 Below is a summary of our inquiry, with input from my new Grade 5 class during our first days of school.  I am finding my new Grade 5 class to be delightful...they are a chatty and articulate group! I am anticipating a great year with them!