When I taught first grade, we were supposed to follow a prescribed set of exercises for Daily Oral Math. These were very short exercises in which the teacher posed a mathematical problem and the students solved it without the aid of pencil and paper. I really liked the idea behind these exercises, but I didn’t especially like having to follow the teacher’s manual. (Aren’t you surprised?) Often, after doing the oral problem in the book, I added one or two of my own. They were often based upon a recent first grade happening or something we had seen on the playground. (If Johnny hid Jason’s shoes out on the playground, how many single shoes were brought back into our room? How many little boys were in trouble?) As I was taking photos of designs today, I almost wished again for a group of first graders to whom I might pose the problems at the end of this post.

The pictures today are of new earring designs. I’m been trying to get used to the idea of using mixed metals in more of my pieces and have used the earrings to jump start this process. As you will see by the numerous photos (minus two that have already gone out) that I got a bit carried away.

 

        

I fear that some of these earrings are in search of a woman with a long neck. Most of them are definitely swingers! It was fun to play with the mixed metals and the look is starting to grow on me. Next, I need to tackle pendants with mixed metals.

Oh, and that math problem . . . let’s see . . . something simple here first. How many people would it take to wear 16 earrings? How many women would it take to wear 16 earrings if three of the women had two holes in one ear and one hole in the other? Would this create any type of problem? How many different combinations of pairs of earrings could you create with four pair of earrings? Would that number double if you used all eight pair of earrings? How many readers DO NOT want any more Daily Oral Math?