Thursday's Tasks

The were a number of tasks at hand for the Brown Room today: taking our Thank You book to Christophe's, making a birthday cake for the school's upcoming birthday celebration and researching how many of pieces of cake we would actually need for the birthday. There were other wonderings and observations too....

The New Crane....

During morning meeting Wolf noticed a new crane out the window. We had some discussion about it:
Wolf: The crane's bigger. How they make it big?
Ada: They just build and build and build...
Wolf: Why it's new now?

So before embarking to Christophe's the group stopped to watch the crane lift a large metal box onto the building's 2nd floor. We waved to the driver, even though it wasn't  Ronnie.
Wolf: Why isn't Ronnie driving it?
Gigi: That's the biggest crane I ever saw!
It took a long time to place the item....
Wolf: Why they not dropping it? Maybe they don't want somebody to be hitted? How they can drop it?
Cannon: Uh oh! It's gonna hit somebody!

The Thank You book....

Cannon, Ellie, Wolf and Gigi were the friends who took the thank you book to Christophe's. Unfortunately, Ben, our favorite French baker, was not working today. However, the staff were delighted by the gift and said they would pass it along on our behalf. 

Baking the cake...

All the friends had an opportunity to help prepare the birthday cake. It was a big responsibility and there were many steps in the recipe. It was extra fun because Jack was able to help out.

Counting: How many pieces of cake do we need?

During morning meeting we asked the Brown Room friends how many pieces of cake we would need to have at the school's birthday celebration next week. When asked about the number of friends at St. John's, there were a variety of answers:
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Maren: One hundred.
Ada: There's ten.
Wolf: One.
Olivia: Three.
Cannon: No, five.
Ada: (counting) Eight.
In reference to this discussion, Olivia used a strategy: she looked through the Brown Room's birthday calendar (photos along the wall). Olivia  named each friend and if they were or were not at school:
Olivia: Evelyn is not here. Lane is not here. Maren is here. Grace is not here. (keeps going and concludes...) But all the friends are not here. We're missing friends. 

Having a strategy - something to reference - would come in handy later as a few friends tried to answer the very difficult question about the number of pieces of birthday cake. Watch the video below to see how Ada, Maren and Olivia attempt to count the Tucker Room friends.
* The goal of this challenge was not to necessarily to answer the question accurately but more to think about how to approach it and practice numeracy skills like counting and one-to-one correspondence.*