Day 9: Flowers and Bumble Bees

Hello!

Sadly, today was my last day at Chaucer Elementary. It was such an amazing experience to be able to step inside a school in another country and be able to compare/contrast it to schools back home in America. I have learned so much from this experience!

I participated in a fourth grade classroom today and learned a new way how to teach children how to divide called "chunking". Here is an example:

24 divided by 3=?

-ask yourself "how many lots of 3 will go into 24"?

-a child may guess 7 lots of 3.

-you then multiply 7 times 3 to equal 21

-you then subtract this 21 from 24 to get 3.

-then ask yourself "how many lots of 3 will go into 3?"

-then answer is 1

-1+7=8

-so 8 "lots" of 3 will go into 24

It's kind of confusing when it's written out like that. The vocab is also pretty different ("lots"). It's almost like the word "lots"="groups". Nevertheless, it was interesting to see the children try this method.

After my experience with the fourth graders I got to watch the end of the school year play put on by the k-2 grade levels. The play was great and the children were all dressed as flowers and bumble bees. The play was about acceptance, and being friends with everyone. It was very cute!

I had a great experience at Chaucer and I wish we had more time there. The students were so polite and well mannered. Everyone was so welcoming and friendly as well. It will be interesting to see how my experience at the high school (community college) compares to this!

Tomorrow is the Bath/Stonehenge trip. I can't wait!!

Cheers,

Tara