The children will be making primitive barometers and hygrometers for measuring air pressure and humidity. We are writing these daily observations in a log book and compiling a data base of weather phenomena. The children are learning the instruments, making their own measurements and then comparing those with reports from Internet weather sites in our area.
Large numbers are the main focus in math.
Employing the use of a benchmark to estimate a larger population is a skill that involves multiplication and division of large numbers. Student's have constructed a million, base-ten cube. They figured out the dimensions and the volume and framed it out with meter sticks. In the process they applied skills from solid geometry, skills of measurement, ratio and proportion and operations with large numbers. Skill lessons include converting remainders to fractions in division, circle geometry and decimal number concepts.