Nov. 12, 2018
We are just beginning work with multiplication! Students will be focusing on the why and how of multiplication, and far less on the memorization. There is a lot to learn about why math works for my students - it really holds them up when faced with a challenging problem. We'll be learning strategies to solve fact problems that are holding students back. One thing we have learned is that many of them only use the "count up" strategy, which is not very efficient. Learning to be flexible in their work with numbers and using what you know to find out what you need is such an important mindset. We will be working on building our number sense all year, so that math can be much less of a struggle down the road!
We have spent a lot of time working with money recently, and have found that students are still struggling with counting up and down with monetary amounts, especially by 25. Working with money, adding it up, paying for things, and figuring out how much change they should receive would be fantastic practice at home!! Working on learning to make change mentally would be a terrific goal! I encourage you to have some money set aside to play with your child - working with money is fun, and such an important lifetime skill!
We are just beginning work with multiplication! Students will be focusing on the why and how of multiplication, and far less on the memorization. There is a lot to learn about why math works for my students - it really holds them up when faced with a challenging problem. We'll be learning strategies to solve fact problems that are holding students back. One thing we have learned is that many of them only use the "count up" strategy, which is not very efficient. Learning to be flexible in their work with numbers and using what you know to find out what you need is such an important mindset. We will be working on building our number sense all year, so that math can be much less of a struggle down the road!
We have spent a lot of time working with money recently, and have found that students are still struggling with counting up and down with monetary amounts, especially by 25. Working with money, adding it up, paying for things, and figuring out how much change they should receive would be fantastic practice at home!! Working on learning to make change mentally would be a terrific goal! I encourage you to have some money set aside to play with your child - working with money is fun, and such an important lifetime skill!