Numeracy strategies

Dear Parents,

We're back in the thick of number sense and numeration and revisiting a lot of the strategies from first term with a little more depth and breadth.

First a couple of programming notes:

1.  A number of students were concerned about not having shoeboxes for their animal projects. Please let me know asap if this is actually the case and I'll try to support.

2. A number of parents had contacted me about summer school opportunities. Information regarding these went home today. If I missed connecting with you, please let me know and I'll pass the package along.

Our addition and subtraction unit started off with a bang on Monday when students were getting to know our new student teacher Ms. Vijan. 

They were very interested in her dog. One student asked the new student teacher how old her dog was. When she answered he was 8, the next get-to-know-her question was, "But how old is that in dog years?" (Priorities, right?)

Interestingly, one of our students got the correct answer intuitively, but couldn't explain how he'd gotten there. So we figured it out by modelling the number on the board with 8 groups of 7.  Another student insisted we'd counted wrong--the answer was 57, not 56! It was fascinating to see the wheels turn when I asked about whether a group of 8 would be an odd number.

The class is also going full tilt into reading comprehension for math word problems. In a recent PD I attended, word problem strategies were identified as an important area of need for students in our board.

Identifying number words and key phrases that signal addition and subtraction and modelling numbers by drawing circles to represent the number are helpful strategies that become even more important later--when the problems become more complex. We keep track of key information by underlining or highlighting it in the workbook, then drawing pictures to help count up.





The students are practicing using manipulatives (like counters or base ten blocks) to help make addition and subtraction concrete. They might also use also use counters or base ten blocks with a hundreds chart to help keep track of counting.



We're also back to the strategy of "Adding On". Students can use their fingers or counters to add or subtract once they have the first number as a starting point. This unlocks a lot of flexibility in how students can work with numbers because they don't have to have physical representations of both numbers. We practised adding up to 10 to some --really-- big numbers today and yesterday.

A hundreds chart can be useful to make sure you're not skipping numbers, especially when counting backwards. We talked about how the numbers don't change their order even when bigger numbers are in front (i.e. Counting backwards from 7299 is the same as 99, at least until we hit a round number)

Essentially, a hundreds chart is like a game of snakes and ladders (only upside down) so we got to work making our own snakes and ladders games to play in order to practice addition and subtraction.

Looking forward to playing this on Thursday when I return to the classroom. Tomorrow, I'm at a PD initiative planning a collaboration with a local dance artist. I'll post more about this when I have details, but I'm very much looking forward to it.

Sincerely,

Ms. Goegan

We are all made of star stuff. (Animal Projects revisited)

Dear Parents,

Some people found my division of the project confusing. My original intention was to chunk the writing, so that it could happen after March Break, but given the demands of different family timelines, I'll be sending home the written outline as soon as possible and letting it all happen at home. Many students hadn't started the project yet when we talked as a class on Monday--but with the March Break in the middle this timeline is likely to sneak up on you. Projects are due in their entirety on March 27th.

I would recommend getting the research and construction done pre-March Break if possible. 

I've also sent out a call for extra shoeboxes, but I haven't received any. (I may have a couple stowed in my own basement.) Please let me know via a note or email as soon as possible if you really need one. 

As we continue to investigate Living Things we've had a couple of really interesting Conversations and learned some interesting new words. For example, micturition, urine, and scat are all important parts of the life cycle. We talked about how farmers use manure to help plants grow and what happens to plants and animals after they die and return to the soil. It's amazing to think that the elements that make up our bodies are not new and have been around since the earth began. We are made of star stuff, indeed. 

Here's Carl Sagan saying that better:

Continuing on our science theme, today I brought out all my biology models and let students explore. Students were impressed when they could pull apart these 3D puzzles and see the layers that make up the human body. Here are some of the photos I took this morning: 

Model of human torso

This book has a 3D layered model in the middle and each page focuses on a different human system 

The placemat was being used as a reference for a couple different models including the skeleton and the muscle man

This is a single celled organism they're putting together.

The human heart

This student was looking at pictures of wolves, because that's the topic of her animal project

Another version of the heart 

Here's the complete torso

Wolf facts

A head with sensory organs and brains to put together 

Impressed with their work on the heart

I somehow missed getting pictures of either of the eyeball models or our transparent horse with all his visible systems, but you can ask your child about these as well. Many students cycled between several different models instead of silent reading this morning and had lots to say during our morning circle as a result. 

Sincerely, 

Ms. Goegan