We needed 255 to make the next landmark so between a couple of small donated baggies and scouring the school kitchen I was pretty sure we had enough. A few students counted them up and said we had 300 but had obviously forgotten we needed less than that for our pre-Christmas goal. I held on to the three hundreds bags until students returned from breakfast, reading announcements and the variety of other responsibilities that Grade 5 students have in a K-5 school. I asked the students how many tabs we needed to get to 300 000. While the others were tabulating in their heads, one bright little boy, who has been keeping careful count, quickly stated 255. I, then, one by one, held up our newly filled hundreds bags. With hardly a word the students rushed over to grab the empty 100 000 container that had been taunting them for a couple of weeks, opened it and started grabbing 10 000 containers while I started taking thousands and hundreds bags off of the wall. There was no doubt that they knew what to do.
I got them to take turns and they started to dump. We then arrived at the large water bottle with the 20 000 tabs that had been donated to us by the class from the other school. Pouring a large number of tabs through a small hole became a lesson in physics. Several less-than-patient students felt that cutting a large hole in the bottle was the best suggestion. Between the dear, patient intern, a meter stick and myself, we eventually maneuvered the tabs into the container. Exciting times! We had a total of 300 045 little pieces of plastic. I'll post a picture when I remember to bring my camera home.
Later that day, a little boy with a Santa hat on came in with a bag containing about 500 bag closures. The children decided to put it under the class Christmas tree as it was a wonderful gift.
My intern's supervisor was in a couple of weeks ago and she taught a lesson on estimating and rounding using...you guessed it...bread tabs. (I am now warping the minds of fresh new teachers with my plastic insanity.) He said that he had never seen a class so excited to do math. Her lesson went off without a hitch. Her supervisor returned the next week saying that I may be receiving a visit from the math professor in the Education Department at UNB. Evidently he had been spreading the news about our little quest to see what one million looks like. You just never know what will interest some people.
Pouring a ten thousand container into a hundred thousand container.
Neena and I trying to get the bread tabs out of the water bottle.
Merry Christmas to all and keep saving those bread tabs!!!
