This is an easy game to replicate at home to give your child practice counting pennies and reading dot patterns on dice. You must roll an exact number to take the remaining coins in the "bank." Player with the most pennies wins! Then it's time to play again.
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I was absent on Monday and Tuesday when Math Homework 4.1 and 4.2 were given.
Today I checked to see if they had these assignments. We did not have time to go over them. There is NO new math homework tonight but we will go over it tomorrow. So please just leave these in their folder. Tomorrow morning is our end of year MAPs assessment for math.
Give them the positive pep talk. Let them know you believe in them and encourage them to do their very best. It means so much to know you care. I look forward to seeing them bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to rock this math assessment! You may have seen information about a class project posted on DonorsChoose.org. The project targets reading fluency. There are many apps available to help children practice, self-monitor, and improve their reading fluency. When our fluency improves, we read smoother and with better comprehension. Fluency is practiced by reading texts over and over again. We need digital devices to run the apps. I would love iPads, but they are VERY expensive so I asked for iTouches to lower the cost. Our project will not happen without securing more funds and there are only 2 days left to fund this project!
But there is still HOPE! Donors Choose announced an opportunity to boost funding called the Friends and Family Challenge. Every $20 donation, gets us closer to earning a gift card to apply towards our project. Look at the table below to see how it works. Please help spread the word about our project! Imagine how many people would know about it if each of us did that? Donations can be made in any amount, but they won't count towards the gift cards unless they're at least $20. I believe it is possible to reach 25 donors and earn a $1,000 gift card to fully fund our project with your help. Reading fluency is just the beginning of the endless possibilities these tools will bring to our classroom. Today we used this information to calculate how much money our project could earn with each $20 donation. We figured out that ten $20 donations totaled $200 and it would earn us a $250 gift card which would give us a total of $450 towards our project. Then I asked them how many more donations were needed to get to the next gift card level? So I challenged them to work in teams to find out how much money twenty-five donations would be. As I circulated, some students suggested doubling... "If ten donations = $200, twenty donations = $400." I said, "I noticed some of you are using doubling as you try to figure this out. Does anyone see how halving could help us get to the final answer?" Once they saw that five is half of ten, they thought... "If ten donations = $200, then five donations = $100." By doubling and halving ten donations they solved the problem. ten $20 donations = $200 ten $20 donations = $200 five $20 donations = $100 So, twenty-five $20 donations = $500. This would earn us a $1,000 gift card and a grand total of $1,500 which is enough to fund our project! We explored doubling & halving in Unit 7 to develop readiness for multiplication and division. Tomorrow we wrap up our study of Unit 7 and will be doing assessments. Unit 7 explored number patterns to reinforce numeration skills and develop readiness for multiplication and division. It also expanded computation to adding several 1-digit and 2-digit numbers as well as adding and subtracting from large numbers using multiples of 10. Finally we collected, represented and interpreted data. You probably know the complements of 10.
1+9 2+8 3+7 4+6 5+5 6+4 7+3 8+2 9+1 Knowing the numbers that go together to make the sum of 10, strengthens our number sense and builds Fact POWER. It also builds a foundation for working with larger numbers. If you know your Fast 10s, you can expand this understanding to other multiples of ten. If you know 2+8=10, then you can also know... 12+8=20 or 32+8=40 or 62+8=70 Today's lesson explored ways to solve problems with 3 or more addends. We looked at how the complements of 10 can help up solve these problems. We also recognized that no matter what order we add the numbers, the answer will be the same. Does your child know their Fast 10s? Make it into a fun game. You say a number, they say the complement of 10. You can do this just about anywhere. Do you still have fact triangles? Find the Fast 10s and use them to practice the complements of 10 as well as other fact families. We are beginning to add 2-digit numbers. In school we approach this a bit differently than most of us remember. When I was in school (like many of you) I learned to write the equations vertically and begin adding in the one's place, carrying the one anytime the answer was bigger than 9. Basically this method is a great written strategy or algorithm. If you've ever tried to "carry the one" in your head, it can be challenging, especially as the numbers get bigger. There are just so many parts and pieces to keep straight. Most adults have adopted other strategies for computing big numbers mentally. Sometimes I add the tens first, then the ones and finish by adding the tens and ones together. Other times I adjust one of the numbers to make it easier to do mentally and make a change at the end to compensate for that adjustment. And finally, there are times when I simply start with the bigger number and skip count up, first by 10s and then by 1s. What's more interesting is that children who have not been introduced to any particular method naturally discover these strategies on their own. In the long run these methods promote the understanding of number and the mental capacity to compute large numbers in our heads. We are also using estimation to consider the reasonability of our answer. Estimation is a great way to check our work to see if it is close. Below is a video modeling and explaining these strategies. Math- Family Letters & HomeworkYour child should have brought home the Unit 4 Family Letter this week. It is a great resource to keep handy while we work on this unit. It informs you about the skills and strategies we will cover in the unit, as well as ideas for practice at home and answers to the homework so you can check their work. Practicing math facts should be a part of your regular homework routine. There are many ways to do it.
Your child can access Facts Workshop Game and Fact Dash from home with internet access and their login information. Today they took home a blue card with their username & password. Their username is their first name, last initial and a number. Everyone's password is 123.The website is www.everydaymathonline.com We have used the Facts Workshop Game at school. They earn points and move to different levels as they successfully complete the problems. I can access their activity and track their progress on Everyday Math Online. Clay ClubA new Clay Club session is getting ready to start. Permission slips were sent home today. If interested, have them ready to return on Monday as it fills up quickly! See today's flier for more information. Thanksgiving Food DriveThis is the Stellar Student Council's 7th Annual Thanksgiving Food Drive! They will accept non-perishable canned or boxed food. Student Council has added a neat twist to this year's food drive. Rather than collecting the food in boxes, they will build Mt. Food-ji by the base of the stairs near the library as food donations arrive. It is a clever play on words for the real Mt. Fuji in Japan which I have climbed! Participation is not required. We have asked the children to check with their families before taking food to school :) See today's flier for more information. Informational Sessions about Standards Based GradingThere will be 3 meetings about Standard Based Grading for parents. The purpose of these meetings is to provide additional information about Standards Based Grading and answer questions that parents and students may have about Standards Based Grading and reporting at the elementary level.
See today's flier for more information. We continue to explore strategies to help us know our basic facts to 20. 2nd graders develop automaticity of these facts through frequent practice and explicit instruction of mental strategies. They should be able to recognize the answer within 3 seconds. We call this "Fact POWER!" Today we focused on fact families. We used fact triangles as flash cards to reinforce the idea of fact families. The more they use the fact triangles, the more familiar they become with the fact families. Then when they encounter a fact with 2 of the numbers they will quickly identify the missing number rather than having to calculate the answer. When they know 5, 7, 12 are a fact family they will know... 5+7= 12-5= 7+5= 12-7= For homework the children are bringing home a set of fact triangles. Have them cut them out and put them in a baggie and keep them in a safe spot. Pull them out frequently to practice for a minute or two. If you keep them handy, you can work on building "Fact POWER" a little bit every day. Below is a video of children practicing with fact triangles in class. The focus of Unit 8 is fractions. Students should be able to read and write fractions. Help focus children on the denominator (lower number). It is very important to understand that it represents the number of EQUAL groups.
For example... 1/4 means one out of four EQUAL groups. 2/3 means two out of three EQUAL groups. 5/6 means five out of six EQUAL groups. Fractions two ways: 1. Fractions of a whole region. This is using pictures to represent a fraction of a whole. Often it is a shape. Think of a cake or a pizza being divided into EQUAL parts. 2. Fractions of a whole collection. This is about sharing a collection of things EQUALLY. Think of 3 children sharing a dozen cookies. Each child would get 4 cookies. What fraction of the dozen does each child get? There are three EQUAL groups so each child gets 1/3 of the cookies. 1/3 of 12 cookies is 4 cookies. Watch OUT! Children often look at the number of things in each group and use that for their fraction. So in the above example, they say each child gets 1/4 because they see 4 cookies in each group. But 1/4 means one out of four EQUAL groups. There are NOT four groups! Children need lots of practice with fractions! Find opportunities to demonstrate this at home when you are sharing things equally or dividing up a cake or pizza. There are also two interactive fraction games on Everyday Math Online. Students must login to access these games. Refer to the card that was attached to your child's report card. Everyone's login is their first name and last initial followed by a randomly generated number. For example: John Smith might be johns53 All passwords are 123 Both games explore the relationship between fractions by comparing picture cards. In Fraction Top-It students find the larger fractions. In Equivalent Fraction Solitaire students find fractions that are equal. We will take the unit test at the end of the week. Thank you for supporting your child's understanding of parts of a whole whether they be regions or collections. Unit 7 explores number patterns and develops readiness for multiplication and division. Computational skills are also extended. Adding- several single-digit and multidigit numbers. Subtracting- multidigit numbers from multiples of 10. We also collect, represent and interpret data. The three main areas of focus are:
~describe patterns resulting from skip counting by 2, 5, and 10 ~build mental arithmetic skills for adding 1-digit and multidigit numbers ~make frequency tables, line plot, and bar graphs using data Unit 8 focuses on fractions of regions and collections of things, as well as relationships between fractions. The four main areas of focus are: ~review basic fraction concepts ~use fractions to name parts of a whole and of a collection ~find pairs of equivalent fractions ~solve number stories involving fractions To aid and extend the practice of these skills, your child should focus on the following tasks on IXL: A.1 through A.12 L1 through L.12 G1. through G.5, G.12, G.13 H.1 through H.5 S.1 through S.13, S.15 R.2 through R.5 U.1 through U.5, U.7 Thank you for supporting their learning at home with this practice. |