The Science On My Cereal Box

Addition, Graphing, and Probability Dice Game

No spelling today because we are finished the spelling units. The students cheered :-)
We started the day with a partner dice game that teaches probability, quick adding, and graphing.

They loved the game and recorded their answers on a graph using colour. Then they completed a 2 page worksheet on probability (Is it certain, likely, unlikely, or impossible? Why?). We marked the pages together before recess time.



After recess everyone started a story writing project. Everyone enthusiastically completed a planning page and started writing today. Several decided to write a sequel to the last long creative story they wrote with me. Some students worked in partners or groups of 3 to bounce ideas of off each other and help with the creative process.

Math game

After lunch was Silent Reading, then groups of students rotated through stations to learn about the Science on My Cereal Box. Throughout the stations, there were 15 intact but empty cereal boxes for students to use and get information from. At one station, they found out how many teaspoons of sugar are in 1 cup of Frosted Flakes and measured the 16 g (4 tsp) into a measuring cup. The visual shows how much sugar 4 tsp actually is in a serving size of 1 cup. Some students were surprised and a little disappointed because they said Frosted Flakes is their favourite kind of cereal (although I don't know how often they are allowed to eat it at home).

Students also learned about whole grains, the % of your daily intake of vitamins and minerals in several brands, and how to read an ingredients list.

From a nutritional standpoint, we did not mention or look at calories. Instead, we discussed whole grains and low sugar content as healthy choices.

We ended by talking about how healthy choices help our bodies. Students shared their personal knowledge and insights. J. is diabetic and shared his knowledge. Thank you J! Also, T. insightfully and wisely commented on a game on the back of one of the boxes that told kids to flick a flake of cereal at the goal on the back of the box. T. said that parents wouldn't be happy about cereal being flicked everywhere. This could lead to a whole other discussion about advertising, which we only briefly talked about.
Students also had fun reading the Science facts, games, and advertising on the boxes!
We finished the day with Gym outside.
My archaic point and shoot digital camera that I use at work has packed it in (I've dropped it too many times!) so I wasn't able to take pictures of the Science stations this afternoon :-( I have another I can bring for tomorrow.
Mrs. Schneider