The Year of 29 Days

Quiz Bowl Team for BETA, 2011
Smart Kiddos!

Yesterday in one of my math classes a most delicious thing happened.  Especially delicious when you consider testing is a month away.  I teach math to 7th graders and I love it!  Every day we date our notebook, and I love to talk about the numbers as I write.  Yesterday as I wrote 2/24/12, I said, "This is great.   Two is a prime number, 24 and 12 are composite.  Two is a factor of 12 and 24.  Twenty four and twelve are multiples of 2.  And 2 x 12 is 24, so we have a fact family.  All in the date."  Then it dawned on me that this was Leap year, so I said, "And this year February has 29 days!"  One student piped in, "That's right Mrs. Evans, it's Leap year."  I decided then to pass on an old joke.  "Well," I said, "This year February has 29 days, how many of our other months have 29 days?"  One kiddo put his finger up in the air like the scarecrow from Wizard of Oz right after he had received his brain, "All of them, I read that on a Laffy Taffy wrapper."  He announced this just like it was news that he'd read in the Wall Street Journal.  So I kept a straight face and pulled it further, "That's right this is the year of 29 days, all of our months have 29 days."  I could tell some of the students caught on and some just kind of stared at me.  I continued to write the objective.  One young man looked really worried.  He said, "Mrs. Evans, what about August?"  "Yep," I said, "August has 29 days."  He looked really upset.  All of a sudden he says, "That sucks!"  I looked at him and asked, "Why would you say such a thing?"  "Cause my birthday is August 31!"  I just shook my head, "I feel your pain, now let's do some math!"  I did not tell him that there would also be a 30th and a 31st.  I figure he'll find out soon enough.  Maybe he'll notice the March calendar next month...The journey is great!