Our morning began with part two of our CGI adventure problem. All of our CGI problems are now multistep, multilevel, and go across the strands of math. For example, this particular problem involved Jane Goodall observing the facial expressions of chimpanzees and taking notes for one month. It was a "join change unknown" CGI problem meaning that your child would solve a complicated math problem at the individual level of your child to determine the final amount of happiness expressions observed at the end of the month. Another multistep math problem specific to your child's math understanding (all individualized) would unravel the number of smiles on the first day. They had to figure out how many more expressions Jane observed throughout the month - the unknown change. Using that information, your child needed to figure out how many smiles would have been observed on the third day which required making a chart to organize information. That was all yesterday! :)

Today, your child took the information gathered from yesterday to determine how many smiles were observed in each of certain number of chimpanzees (partitive division). Every child has a different answer due to the different permutations possible when I created it to address every level of math understanding and scaffold (baby step) to the next area of math growth.  To them, it was easy. It sounds and looks quite complicated, but every child was successful and proud! :)
??? What did you do in your CGI problem today that showed smart math thinking?

Tomorrow you will see a sampling of your child's CGI problem solving (not always on paper), the multiday one from last week on the wall by the adjoining door, and the one from today placed loosely at the back of his/her CGI folder. It is loose on purpose. You can put it side by side with the one on the top to analyze how your child has progressed in math concepts, understanding, and application as the academic level has steadily increased. :) It's quite amazing to see. :)

We enjoyed listening to Don the Bookreader this morning. He read a short biography of Louis Pasteur. If your child asks to look at the side of the milk or juice container - hooray! That's amazing transfer! :)
??? What is rabies?
??? Who is Louis Pasteur?
??? What contribution did he make to our world? :)

In preparation for tomorrow night's homework :), your child created a circuit for you to build. Since we are a studio of learning rather than a traditional classroom, our open house will reflect what we really do. It will be more hands-on than perhaps expected, but will truly allow your child to demonstrate growth in learning, language of the discipline, and hopefully love of learning. :) As always, nothing was changed "for open house". We simply continue our learning and build upon what we just did to link and make solid connections for next steps in learning. That must be working, because for the second day in a row, a few children have recycled containers to make gardens for me. I can't wait to see what grows! :)
??? Did you make me a circuit to build tomorrow night? I hope you made it easy . . .  :)

Open House was changed to 6:00-7:00 tomorrow night. A neighboring school is starting at 5:30 due to the darkness. Since I must leave at 7:00 to make it home for a Gchat session previously arranged, I will open the classroom at 5:30 for any families who would like less of a crowd. If you pick your child up from Kid's Korner, it might make it easier for you to come straight there then go home for dinner. The earlier time will also allow more time for siblings in other rooms. It's no problem if this option is not taken by anyone, since I will have plenty of things to do. I just thought it made sense if I would be here anyway. Thank you again for all of your support!