Less Zombie Like

The kids were definitely less zombie like today. We were able to get a lot accomplished. We learned to use slide rules today to add and subtract fractions. This was the first of many steps to becoming proficient in addition and subtraction of fractions. Next up will be common denominators. I like the slide rule lesson, even though it can be confusing, because it really shows that we are putting the two pieces together to add. We will be using the slide rules later in the year to add and subtract positive and negative numbers. Today we also started working on another science experiment. This one involves lifting books to see how much force was used. We didn’t get to the experiment today because we spent our entire time planning the experiment. We had a little trouble with the fact that “hard” or “easy” aren’t measureable and we need to use terms like more force, or less force. Tomorrow we should get done with the planning and actually get to the experiment.