Math
Some highlights since the last blog entry: Graphing. Students loved a graphing lesson in which I stated the coordinates, they located the points and created a giant bear.
We have also done two explorations from the Everyday Math curriculum. One involved sorting dominoes by their sums. Chloe said: “I didn’t think this was going to be that interesting but then it was actually really fun!”
The other exploration involved building something using base ten blocks, and then taking it apart and determining its value: How many thousands, hundreds, tens, and ones? And then saying the number aloud.
We spoke about easy addition facts and the +0 and +1 rules.
Any number + 0 = the number and any number + 1 = the next number on the number line.
We have also just embarked upon an investigation by educator Marilyn Burns, called The 4 Toothpick problem. In this investigation, students are asked to find all the ways that they can arrange 4 toothpicks using only right angles or straight lines.
And of course, throughout we are practicing our facts, completing task cards, working on our number scrolls and Everyday Math journals, as well as learning lessons from the Everyday Math curriculum.
A really fun game to play at home involving place value: The Place Value Game, all you need is one die and some paper. You can create numbers as high as you would like. Instructions and images below. We played in class one day in January, but not many students were present. You can play largest number wins and then switch to smallest number wins, or vice versa.
Have fun!