Are You Smarter than a 5th (or 6th) Grader?

PARCC is coming up, and I wanted my students to flex their brains in preparation. I gave them a set of 6 brainteasers, courtesy of TheTeachersCorner.net; the first person (or group of 2 or 3) to get them all right won a prize. I loved that even after the prizes were given out, lots of kids kept plugging away, determined to figure out the answers. Can you answer the following questions?

Prize box!

Prize box! 

1. You are a cyclist in a cross­country race. Just before the crossing finish line, you overtake the person in second place! What place did you finish in?

2. In a year there are 12 months. 7 months have 31 days. How many months have 

28 days?

3. I do not have any special powers, but I can predict the score of any football game before it begins. How can I do this?

4. Jimmy's mother had 4 children. She named the first Monday and the second Tuesday. The third is named Wednesday. What is the name of the fourth child?

5. You are driving a bus. At the first stop, 2 women get on. The second stop, 3 men get on and 1 woman gets off. Third stop, 3 kids and their mom get on, and a man gets off.
The bus is grey, and it is raining outside. What color is the bus driver’s hair?

6.        Which is heavier? A pound of feathers, or a pound of rocks?

Opposites! Opposites! with Grade 1

After we read Black? White! Day? Night! by Laura Vaccaro Seeger, Grade 1 students worked together to develop lists of opposites. They got some inspiration from this Sesame Street video, and had a few books to help with ideas as well.

I have to say, I was impressed by how many new word pairs the kids came up with from their brains. Here are just some of their words; can your family fill in the table below with what's missing? Can you come up with more examples?

old
	short
hot
	boring
uppercase
	light
alone
	gone