What a fun last GATE class of the 3rd quarter! Today was all about world records. We started the day by learning about the world's largest rocking chair and all of the other "world's largests" in Casey, Illinois. The students discussed the ethical question of whether they think it is a good thing or a bad thing to build enormous versions of things, and I charted their thoughts in two Tree Thinking Maps on the board. 

Later, the students learned what a scale drawing was and used graph paper to create scale drawings of the world's largest mailbox (60 ft tall) and the world's largest wind chimes (42 feet tall), both found in Casey, Illinois. Their scale was the length of 1 grid on the paper=10 feet in real life.

Then things got really exciting... After learning how to fold a cootie catcher* we decided to scale up the design to fold a world record-breaking cootie catcher! The official world record-breaking cootie catcher is 36 inches across, but our class made one that is 42 inches across!

Folding is still a difficult task for most 1st graders, and I really admired the persistence shown by the students while learning to fold their cootie catchers today. It is soooo important for GATE kids especially to practice failing and practice trying things that they aren't initially good at. They need to have lots of experiences where they are challenged but keep pushing through. It's a good thing to struggle because then we know we are learning!

*Is there a better name than this?? I feel like an ancient granny calling them this, but it's the best name I could remember!