math
Teaching happens best when we are partners in teaching your children. Family members are a child’s primary teachers and only by honouring you and partnering with you can the best learning happen. My hope is that by reading this blog, participating in the homework routine, and speaking to me, you will get a sense of how your child is doing mathematically, his or her strengths and challenges, and how you can help to support the learning at home. A common theme with this class is the need to memorize facts. We perform many activities in which addition and subtraction are required and memorization of these facts would greatly facilitate the students’ completion of these activities. At the students’ request, they are completing a facts quiz twice a week; most are working on the addition and subtraction quiz, some on the multiplication quiz. If you have the time and energy, please encourage them to practice outside of school. They can create flash cards; be quizzed or quiz you in the car; write the facts down on paper, in sand, or on a mirror; play games; create a board game based on the facts; chant, or whatever innovative way works for your family. I am happy to support this process, in fact we practice every week in various ways. And, know that research shows that children who use their fingers or other manipulatives to count have a more concrete understanding of the process, therefore it is an effective strategy in the early elementary years. At this stage, my goal is to move them one step further towards memorization so as to increase efficiency and ease when solving other types of problems.
That said, let me give you a recap of all we have been working on since my last post.
Students in the division group delved into division by solving an investigation titled Dividing Cookies. This was an extension of The Doorbell Rang and students were asked to divide cookies into equal fractions. Students learned The Game of Leftovers in which they were asked to divide, sometimes with a remainder.
The multiplication group continued to explore multiplication by playing the Game of Rectangles and working on writing out the multiplication tables by using the chart of Things That Come In Groups.
As a class, we discussed arrays and shared arrays from home. I brought in arrays from around school and in my home: a dozen eggs 2X6, erasers 1X3, pencils 2X6, etc. Students completed facts quizzes and our class goal is an average of 4:00. Students played Beat the Calculator and practiced their facts using the wrap ups and flip overs. After the break, I introduced the Length of Day project and students are calculating the number of hours and minutes between sunrise and sunset and learning to graph their findings. I also reintroduced the challenges and students will be solving them weekly in partnerships and independently. In our sharing circle, we discussed times in the past or present when we have struggled to learn a skill and then achieving our goals; many mentioned circus arts skills.
On a side note, thank you to Delilah’s family for providing a snack. The students can be hungry or tired by the end of the day and the snack helps them to focus.
Also, I apologize I take very few pictures while teaching.
Happy January!
