October 27 Week 10

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Posted by kavery508 | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on October 27, 2014

Highball Event Poster Template Dust off those boots! Our annual Harvest Hoedown is here. This Friday, students will be kicking up their heels as we square dance in the gym. They are invited to wear western gear to school that day (jeans, boots, hats, whatever). Please no weapons (just a good rule in general at school, no?) and nothing kids have to change into/makeup to apply/etc.

In the classroom, we will host our own Fall Festival. Students will have some fun making fall crafts, designing pumpkins to be used in descriptive writing lessons, and learning about Dia de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), celebrated by many South American and Mexican American families (more at http://www.celebrate-day-of-the-dead.com/day-of-the-dead-facts.html).

Please remember our school rule about not sending in food/drink for the class, and no tree nuts or peanuts in our classroom (lunch is OK), and thanks!

NarrativeDiamondLast week in writing, students learned about the qualities of good personal narratives. This is one of 4 genres that will be our focus this year, across Shrewsbury. Good personal narratives are about one moment in time, with the action stretched out and description thrown in to put readers in the picture. We learned to generate topics to write about, and how to find the “story seed”–the small moment that should serve as the basis for the main event. As an analogy, we encourage students to think about a watermelon. The melon is your big idea, for example, My Vacation. A slice of the melon is your narrowed focus, for example, My Day at the Magic Kingdom. But the story seed, the one event that should comprise your story, would be one thing that you did there, for example, Going on Splash Mountain.

writing seed

Students will continue to refine their small moment ideas this week, and they will begin to write their stories after some lessons entertaining beginnings and description of setting. To that end, we’ll be taking a sensory walk on our Nature Trail to look, listen, touch, and above all, describe the experience of being there. Here’s a helpful look at personal narratives, with kids and families in mind: http://www.timeforkids.com/files/homework_helper/aplus_papers/PersonalNarrativeSampler.pdf

regroup subtr

At math time this week, students will be learning the fine points of regrouping when subtracting, across the tens and hundreds (think 213 – 156). They will be working with base ten blocks to model the process and show understanding. They will be showing it another way by drawing base ten pictures (squares for hundreds, etc., like on homework). And they will finally learn to “cross out” the number in the tens and hundreds place to regroup–what we used to call “borrowing”. The difference between how we learned it years ago and how it’s taught today is that we’re making sure students have a real sense of the numbers involved and what the process of regrouping is really all about. In your homework packet in the center I have included a step by step picture guide so you can help your child at home if they need it. Whether they do or not, it’s always wise to ask them questions: How many hundreds/tens/ones are in that number? Will you need to regroup? How do you know? Does your answer make sense? Could you prove it another way?

The homework and classwork will often ask kids to check their subtraction with addition. I noticed 2 things last week to be aware of at home: 1. Some students are simply taking the numbers they got with subtraction and writing them any which way (e.g. 212 + 150 = 62). 2. Some students aren’t doing the actual addition to prove the subtraction is correct–this is an important step to see that their answer makes sense. So when checking their homework, I suggest asking your child to explain the addition to one or more problems to see they’ve got it.

As always, I’ll do my best to answer questions you have about our classroom or our curriculum. Thanks for all you do!

October 19 Week 9

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Posted by kavery508 | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on October 20, 2014

MIF workbook

This week’s blog focus is all about math! As you can see from the family letter sent home, the focus of Chapter 3 is on subtraction of 3 digit numbers with and without regrouping. In order to get to that end point there are skills and concepts students will need to learn and understand.

As with addition, we want to move students away from counting back to get answers, since this only reinforces the most rudimentary of computational practices. The exception to this is -1 or -2, and even then we want students to immediately recognize what one or two less than a number equals because they are fluent with counting and number patterns, not because they are counting on fingers.

One such pattern is to use complements of 10 to help work with big numbers. If 10-7=3, then 60-7=53, and therefore 60-37 will result in some number with a 3 in the ones place (as it happens, 23). Similarly, use multiples of 10 when they appear: 80-20 is just two hops up on the number grid; so is 180-20, etc.

Another strategy is to Make Friendly Numbers. When subtracting 92-6, think: 92 is close to 90–just 2 more, so I’ll subtract 2 to make 90 because that’s easier to work with. Now I have 90-6. Using my complements of 10, I know that 10-6=4 so 90-6=84. Last, I have to remember that 2 I subtracted: since I subtracted 2 on one side of the equation, I need to do the opposite on the other side of the equals sign. Therefore I add 2 to 84, for a final answer of 86. It sounds lengthy, but the actual process goes quickly and it goes really quickly with practice. Here’s a more complicated one:

When subtracting 202-79, think: 202 is close to 200–just 2 more, so I’ll subtract 2 to make 200 because that’s easier to work with. Now I have 200-79: 79 is close to 80, just 1 less, so I’ll add 1. Now I have 200-80, which is easier: 120. Last, I had to minus 2 and plus 1 to get here: so on the ‘answer’ side of the equals sign, I will balance that by doing the opposite–plus 2, then minus 1. This gives me 120+2-1, or 121. Whatever you do to the numbers on one side of the equation, you do the opposite on the other.

We will also teach students how to use addition to check their answers in subtraction. I know that 58-17=41 because 41+17=58. Now is when the Greg Tang math games website (accessible from the Student Resources section of our blog above) comes in handy and gets interesting. Your child can practice this skill with the game Missing Numbers.

math tang missing subtrahend

Finally, we will also teach kids to regroup, just as we did with addition. However, as before it’s vital that kids understand the numbers and meaning behind regrouping–that when we “cross out” or “borrow”, as most of us learned to do, that we are really trading in one of the tens for ten ones in order to make the ones place large enough to subtract with easily. As before, use the base ten blocks and/or the base ten mat to either model or draw subtraction homework problems. Greg Tang’s Funny Numbers can provide additional practice once the actual process of regrouping is understood.

math tang funny numbers

In addition, both Math Limbo and Numskill can provide additional fun and challenging work with making 10.

math tang math limbo

math tang math numskill

Last, Break Apart is a really smart game where students can subtract by looking for 10s in the reverse of how they did it in the addition Making 10 Mental Math Strategy I discussed in September 29th’s blog entry.

math tang break apart subtr

It is not a goal that all students master the use of all of the above strategies. It is hoped that they will, through practice, strengthen their fluency with numbers using whatever strategies work for them, and that they will become ever flexible by understanding how to use others.

October 13 Week 8

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Posted by kavery508 | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on October 13, 2014

kleenexThanks to those who have sent in boxes of Kleenex. We can use lots more to get us through winter so please send one or more boxes if you haven’t. I’ll be working hard to keep our classroom a healthy place this year!

osv logoOur trip to OSV was outstanding! Thank you for your help beforehand. Thanks, too, go out to our chaperones who kept us safe, engaged, and on-track all day. We were in good hands! Everything went off without a hitch, freeing us up to interactively learn about economics long ago and today.

Ask your child about the good s/he produced during the hands-on activities. Is a want or a need? (in economics, only food, clothing, and shelter are considered needs) Who might be a consumer for the good that s/he produced? Using the language of economics is a good way to continue to develop understanding.  In addition, engage your child in similar discussions as you shop in town and online.

002 010 014 016 018 021 osv 1 osv 2 osv 3 osv 4 osv 5 osv 6 osv 7 osv 8 osv 9 osv 10

informative writingWe will use our schema from this trip as the basis for our next round of Informative Writing. This genre of writing requires students to organize statements of fact around a main idea, to give reasons and examples to evidence their thinking, and to present their argument logically in order. As before, targeted writing lessons will be given to students to improve clarity; run on sentences; upper/lowercases; punctuation; and editing.

math factHow is math fact practice going? At some point try using flash cards, creating practice quizzes, and using Xtra Math. Remember, it can take some time for students to improve their time enough to pass quizzes at a particular level. Our first quiz is this Friday.

regroup This week we’ll wrap up Chapter 2. We will review and practice regrouping in the 1s and 10s. We’ll also spend time reviewing problem solving by focusing on what the problem is asking; ways we might go about solving it; and how we can show our thinking with number models, diagrams, and/or pictures. When solving problems during homework (especially if doing the challenge problems), remind your child to do the same.

A note about math tests: Because the program is new, we are still analyzing the effective usefulness of the Chapter Tests, called Test Prep. These tests assess students at somewhat higher levels than during daily work. It has been decided that analysis will be ongoing this year, and while students will all take these tests and receive a score, they will not necessarily be used to monitor student progress for report cards. Therefore I will be holding these tests here at school. In their place, I will be assessing students with a different document called Chapter Review/Test. Starting this week, this will be given, scored, and sent home.

Our reading focus this week is on using  Fix Up Strategies for when readers encounter unknown words. This is both a strategy for improving comprehension as well as accuracy. In grade 2, we teach readers to: Ask what makes sense (this one is HUGE); Look for words/parts of words you know; Say the first sound(s); Get a running start by rereading the sentence up to that point (this should help kids by guessing what sounds right there); and Chunk the word (break it into parts they can read). Any one of these makes a great prompt when your child gets stuck reading at home. You’ll notice that “Sound out the whole word” isn’t on the list. That’s because that strategy comes later once students know most vowels, blends, and phonemes (for example, think of what a reader must know to sound out a word like permission).

Thanks for your continued work as partners in your child’s education! It’s inspiring to see the level of home support these young scholars receive.

October 6 Week 7

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Posted by kavery508 | Posted in Uncategorized | Posted on October 6, 2014

kleenexIt’s getting to be that time! Cold & flu season is near. We can use donations of Kleenex for our classroom to get us through the fall and winter. Please send in a box, and thanks!

Our first early release day is this Tuesday. Please note there is no lunch that day. However, I will give students the opportunity to eat snack at our usual lunch time if you wish to pack one, since their bodies will be used to eating at that time.

Highball Event Poster TemplateFall Festival is coming on Friday, October 31! I have one parent signed up to come in and run the activities that day, from 9:30-11:00. I can use 3 more. The crafts will be ready, and I’ll demonstrate them for you then. If you’d like to volunteer, please contact me: kavery@shrewsbury.k12.ma.us

math fact Math facts homework begins tonight. Please see the notice I sent home today. It explains procedures; notes your child’s individual level; includes tips; has your child’s Xtra Math account information attached; and references other resources. You can access the A+ Flashcard Creator and Math Fact Cafe (quiz maker) directly from our blog under “Parent Resources.” To give parents and students time to get used to the new routine, try out Xtra Math, and explore the above resources, our first quiz will be two weeks away on Friday, Oct. 17. Quizzes will be weekly thereafter.

osv logo Our Field Trip to Old Sturbridge Village (OSV) is upon us! We leave Friday at 9:00. Please send in lunch with your child, in a completely disposable container (e.g. no metal silverware or Tupperware that you want returned). Please, no nuts: there isn’t a “no nuts” table in the lunchroom there. We will return at the end of the school day and eat snack then. Also please dress your child comfortably in layers.  If you drop your child off at school that morning, please plan so that your child is here by 8:45. I know, there are a lot of details–but it will help our day run smoothly so we can focus on the fun learning to be had there!

In particular, we’ll be observing and analyzing economics from a historical perspective. We’ve been learning in class what goods are and to distinguish between want and needs. We will learn this week the difference between goods and services, and where to find them in our community. We’ll bring this to bear during our walk through OSV, and introduce students to the importance of consumers and producers to  the economy of a community. Students will then “produce” a “good” (toy; art; print) from long ago in activities led by OSV’s education staff. Try taking a virtual tour at home by using their interactive map with your child: https://www.osv.org/village-map

Other learning to note this week:

regroup In math we are learning to add 3-digit numbers by combining the ones, tens, and hundreds. This week students will be introduced to regrouping in the ones and tens places. When they add 127 + 136, for example, they will be physically combining 7 and 6 ones and trading in for a ten and 3 ones. The ten then gets added to the 2 tens and the 3 tens, and finally the hundreds get added together. It is especially important that students understand the concept of trading, or regrouping, before being trained to “carry the 1.” We have found time and again that kids in elementary school and above make errors and lack understanding when adding and subtracting if they don’t own this concept first. Try using the base ten block pictures and the base ten mat in the homework packet when doing problems on this week’s homework. Alternately, you could put the base ten mat in the sleeve protector and your child could use a dry erase marker for drawing dots (ones), lines (tens), and hundreds (squares) to prove hisorher thinking.

informative writingIn writing we have learned about the purpose of opinion writing. We have also studied examples and learned to use our pillar framework to help us organize our thoughts. We then expounded on the ideas in the pillar to write whole paragraphs, and edited them for upper/lowercases, periods, spaces, and spelling of some words. Look for them when they come home–wow! Students will be learning about the writing craft by editing run-on sentences and unclear phrases in small groups. Then we will follow the same process for learning about informative writing, including the nature of it (it’s factual; includes and introduction and conclusion; contains details and examples that prove our thinking; uses sequential transition words first, also, finally, etc.)

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