Don't be negative!

Unless, of course, you are a red bingo chip.

Then, you ARE negative....as in negative integers.

After a few rounds of a card game called "I have- I owe," where we learned about being "in the hole" when we owe more than we have... we expanded our math learning to include adding positive and negative integers.

After counting out the correct number of positive (blue) and negative (red) chips, we figure out the "zero pairs."

The red chips and blue chips together form "zero."

Then, we count the remaining unpaired chips and we prove that +9 + (-4) = +5

We discovered that we can use this idea of "having/ owing" and chips/zero pairs to work out the answers to math problems with harder numbers. 

Adding a negative number to a negative number, or adding a negative and a positive number together, isn't really all that hard once you know what's happening!

This becomes really important when we use it for our checkbooks! We do not want to  have any negative numbers as a balance.

That's why we learned how to estimate our "utility bill" so we can make sure we plan for paying it on time. We need to do the same thing for our rent. 

Our rent is the same every week: $100.00 per week. We got our first utility bill today. It was $92.90 for a month. Utility bills go up and down so we had to figure out a range ($20-$25 per week) for our weekly budget.

What's a budget, you ask? It's a plan for paying bills and saving money. By the end of this year, we are going to be really good at budgeting!

Hands on Geometry

What's the difference between a line segment and a line?

You can hold a line segment in your hands.

At least, if it is short enough!

In Geometry, we're exploring points, lines, line segments, and planes.

We used pieces of rope to team up to show:


Parallel : Line segments never touch.
Coplanar: They are in the same plane.

Perpendicular: Line segments cross at right angle.
Coplanar: these are in the same plane.

We're glad we had our Rubik's cube handy, too. 

We learned a lot of new geometry words and added them to our Word Wall.

Here is a geometry quiz:

Study this shape:

1. What is the name of this 3- dimensional shape?

2. How many vertices does it have?

3. How many faces does it have?

4. How many edges does it have?

5. What is the perimeter of one face using the unit "cubies" (one of the smaller cubes)?

6. What is the area of one face (use the unit "cubies")?

7. What is the surface area of this shape?

Learning These Really Important Life Skills...

... hardly feels like "learning" at all!

This year, all of the students in our Learning 4Life Success program are taking on a huge challenge. We already started!

Our First Annual Cube Challenge is already helping us learn a lot!

First, we have set a goal. Our goal is that, by the end of this school year, every single one of our Learning 4Life Success students will have solved a Rubik's Cube. 

Don't worry. There are only 43,252,003,274,489,856,000 (that's rounded to about 43 quintillion) different combinations!! (How's THAT for a place-value math challenge??!!) We just need to figure out the combination that makes all six faces on the cube a solid color. 

This week, we each received a cube to use for the year. We spent time this week working the cube (they call it "cubing") and several of us actually solved a side!

Would ya look at that!! I solved the White Face!! 

We also watched a video of a 15 year old "speed cubing" champion, and marveled at how he could even solve a cube using only one hand!

Cubing requires research.

Here are some of the life skills we will be using and strengthening:

More research!

• research (We already started this! It's fun!)
• following written directions accurately
• following oral directions accurately
• understanding, following and memorizing algorithms
• perseverance ("sticking to a hard task")
• the power of a "we can do this" attitude
• making a hypothesis and finding a strategy
• problem-solving
• teamwork (we are all are in this together, and we will reach our goal only if we help each other)
• patience (a lot!)
• taking a deep breath after we mess something up and then refocusing
• how to start and stop doing something when asked
• spatial reasoning (seeing and using patterns and  sequences)
• practicing something until we get good at it
• tons of geometry and math words (cube, face, vertex, algorithm, rounding, quintillion...)
• doing something that feels/looks impossible but turns out to be possible (we sure hope!! HA HA)

So far, we get to work on our cubes after we have our other assignments done. We even have a tab on our class website for "Cube Challenge."

Cubing takes a lot of thinking. It is really, really fun!

Homecoming Wacipi!

Tahtaywih is one of our school's photographers. She took some fantastic pictures of the 2018 Homecoming Wacipi!

Here is a link to all the pictures from Learning 4Life Success 2018-2019.

Here are a few taken by Tahtaywih!

Tiospa Zina Tribal School Drum Group

Grand Entry

Freshman Class

Sophomore Class

Junior Class

Senior Class

 Fantastic photos!!

Congratulations

This week is Homecoming Week. There are a lot of events. Tuesday was Coronation.

Itancan, a member of Learning 4Life Success,
was nominated as one of the wicasta.
He is a Senior.
Karen is putting on his corsage.

Our staff and students selected seven young men and seven young women from our high school as candidates. All of these young wicasta (men) and winyaƞ (women) were selected because they live the Dakotah Wicohan (Dakotah values or Way of Life). They do not use alcohol or drugs. They have not become a parent. They contribute to our school tiośpaye. They strive to become people who live a good life for their oyate (people).

Lannie, with the beautiful red dance shawl, is a
nominee for Winyan. She is a Senior and a member of
Learning 4Life Success.

All of these young men and women show ohoda (respect), okciya (sharing), teh́inda (cherish), wicake (honesty), and waunsida (kindness) in school, at home, and in the community.

We, your classmates and teachers at Tiospa Zina Tribal School are really proud of you, Lannie and Itancan! Congratulations!!

Our Drum Group sings an

Honor Song.