December Update

All students in all math levels have reached multiplication or very soon will reach the multiplication unit. I had decided to take this time to focus on multiplication as a whole-class. We have a short amount of math time before our long break taking into consideration Spanish lessons, weekly hikes, and assessments. This will give all students the chance to conceptually learn multiplication, how to solve for multiplication if facts are not memorized, and different strategies to show multiplication. 

We have learned 4 different strategies to solve for a multiplication equation:
1. skip counting; we have learned how to skip count as well as using skip counting as a number line for solving equations.
2. addition
3. pictorial/grouping
4. arrays

These strategies give students who do not have math facts memorized the opportunity to succeed, however please support students with math facts practice.

Give your student an equation and ask them to use any of these strategies to solve! We will continue working on multiplication with different activities and projects. 

*I an anticipating returning completed work home with your student within these two weeks. I will tell students to give the completed work to parents and that parents are expecting it.

Please refer to "Resources for home" to support your student during our winter break. 

Have happy holidays!

Resources for home

You can further math at home by practicing timed math fluency test and reviewing math from previous years. Our current math fact fluency test has showed that practice at school and home showed improvements. I tell students that even 2 or 3 more correct math facts from one timed test to another is progress! 

Math fact fluency:

- www.math-aids.com (this site has numerous different math worksheets, not just math facts)

- www.mathfactcafe.com

Review math from previous years:

- www.tenmarks.com

- time telling

- counting coins

- "how many more/how many less" word problems (Sara has 19 pencils. Tom has 8 pencils. How many more does Sara have?)

Math in the real world:
We want students to make that connection between math and their day to day lives. 
- grocery store: money, multiplication (1lb of potatoes is $1.00, how much would be 3lbs?), sum and difference
- recipes: sum and difference, ratios/percentages (1 serving calls for 2 tablespoons of sugar, what if I want to make two servings?)
- traveling: sum and difference (It's 15 miles to granny's house. We've driven 6 miles already. How many more miles until we get to have fresh-baked cookies?)
- taking a walk: (What shape is that stop sign? Is that number on the house an even or odd number? That dog walker is walking 4 dogs. Each dog has 4 legs. How many legs are with that dog walker).

Mental math:
Standing in line at the store? Driving somewhere? Taking the pooch for a walk? Throw out some basic math problems! Talk about numbers and patterns! Math is everywhere!
- what are 4 tens? 9 tens? 12 tens?
- what is 4 hundreds, 5 tens, and 7 ones?
- what is 45 + 20?
- what is 65 - 15? 
- multiplication
- skip counting

Fun Websites:
Students love screen time! 
http://www.multiplication.com/games/all-games
http://www.abcya.com/
http://www.hoodamath.com (most of these games are directly math related)
http://www.ictgames.com/resources.html
http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/mathmagician/mathsmulti.html (multiplication timed test)
http://www.prongo.com/math/multiplication.html

Math Update

The latest in math:
As students have settled in and familiarized themselves with this new curriculum, math has taken on a different speed. I am seeing students on a daily basis (with the exception of Spanish and Eaton Canyon or other events taking place during your students math block).

1B: We are getting into building the conceptual knowledge of multiplication. Instead of just memorizing facts, students are seeing what 3x2 means - three groups of two. Multiplication includes multiple math skills, such as adding and skip counting. 

2A: We are moving out of putting together 3-digit numbers. Encourage your student to add from the "ones" column to the "tens" then the "hundreds" as opposed to just "right to left." During our lessons, I am exposing students to different ways of putting together 3-digit numbers such as stacking, decomposing by place value, or using the part-whole method. 

2B: We are moving out of mental math. Students were encouraged to use various strategies to add or subtract up to 3-digit numbers using mental math. We learned to use friendly numbers, such as counting up by tens or "compensate using friendly numbers." For example 387- 98 can be easily computated by mental math if you compensate for 389-100.