So, today we focused on finishing up the floor plan for Mr. Python's home. The students already had a bare footprint based on their work yesterday. Today we got to fill it!
We discussed rooms that are typically on the first floor. We looked up floor plans and discovered that they are typically shown in square feet. Since we are using meters, we had to convert the feet to inches. Since we do not covert across measurement systems in 5th grade, we Googled it! I emphasized the fact that, while we will not actually be building this home, we have to create plans that are accurate representations of living spaces.
I told the groups that they needed to work together to decide which rooms would go on which floors. I also expected them to look at each other's design to make sure everyone agreed with the final plan. At this point, I let the creative juices flow! Mr. Python had not given us a budget, so my kids assumed that the sky was the limit. I have students planning for unicorn rooms.... and swimming pools on the top floor... elevators.... you know, your every day necessities!
Today included some of the best math talk I have heard from my students. I heard discussions about door widths (if a door is 3 feet wide, then it would only need one meter of space on our plan). I heard discussions about elevators (we need to show it in the same spot on each level's floor plan). I watched them use their computers as a resource; looking up floor plans, converting measurements, discovering how to show a stair case on a floor plan. There was collaboration galore and it made my math heart happy!
We also decided that we will work with the roof line as a team as well. Since we are working in groups of three, we will have a three story home and we will create the specified rectangular prisms (3 of them) as part of our roof line as an architectural team.
We finished our class with a Countdown to STAAR.