MathThis week in Math, we worked on writing and solving addition and subtraction stories. We learned how to use the Change to More diagram to organize our thinking. This diagram can help children organize their thinking when working with "adding to" situations. We used penny drops to demonstrate this. I dropped pennies into a can, and we used them to add more.
We found out that another way to say 3 more is to say add 3. We repeated this using different numbers. After working on this together, children worked in partnerships to solve penny-drop mysteries. I explained that they will determine what information is missing. Secretly hiding 6 pennies in the can, I posed the following problem: I have some pennies in this can. I am going to add 2 more pennies. (Dropping in the 2 pennies.) Then we counted the total pennies in the can as a class. There are now 8 pennies in the can. How many pennies were in the can to start? Partners were invited to share their strategies, which included the following:
We then used the change-to-more diagram to help the children make sense of the problem. After putting the known quantities in the diagram, we used a question mark (?) in place of the missing quantity, in this case, the "Start." We repeated this activity with other pairs of numbers with sums within 10, varying the placement of the unknown. I encourage you to practice this at home. This week, I tried to bring our Math classroom outside as much as I could. The concept of the Outdoor Classroom is built upon the premise that children are complex beings. To nurture the whole child, education needs to follow the fundamental principle that children are learning everywhere and all the time. Experience in the field and child development research alike are showing that all children need and benefit from more time outdoors; it is critical for their health, self-concept, and future school success. The optimal learning and growing environment for young children is composed of a full integration of indoor and outdoor spaces. The Outdoor Classroom enhances and adds to the limited scope of activities available inside confined classrooms by providing for hands-on experiences, physical activity, social-emotional growth through peer interaction, and multifaceted approaches to cognitive development that connect children to nature and maximize their learning outcomes. Pictured above is the class playing a game called 'hops.' This game reinforces addition and subtraction concepts. Ask your child to teach you how to play at home. This week we stopped some of our regular Math programming, because I was noticing that many students were struggling with skip counting. A necessary skill moving forward with our mathematics. Skip counting is an important part of early numeracy as it is a basic skill used in many different practices. Children use skip counting for basic tasks such as telling the time or dealing with money. Skip counting is also essential as it lays a mathematical foundation for developing a students ability on other mathematical skills. Counting forwards and backwards in ones, or even in twos, fives and other multiples, are strategies that may be used to solve addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems. Learning this skill in the early numeracy classroom is therefore essential to allow for positive and effective future mathematical experiences. Skip counting is important not only because these mathematical activities and skills are developed and used in the classroom, but they are also a basic skill students can apply in life outside school. Activities such as sport, shopping or even counting large quantities are made easier by acquiring the ability to skip count. Some students, particularly those who play sport, may not even realize they are skip counting when scoring for games such as basketball, football or netball. Next week, we will move back to telling, writing, and solving addition and subtraction stories with missing addends. Language ArtsThis week in Language Arts, we took a MAP test. MAP, or the Measure of Academic Progress, is a computerized adaptive test which helps teachers, and administrators improve learning for all students and make informed decisions to promote a child's academic growth. With that in mind, this was our first test. Data from MAP helps us improve more when collected over time to look for trends in data. Your child's map scores will be shared with you in second grade.
Unit of InquiryThis week, many classes were beginning to wrap up their units of inquiry. We were so lucky to be invited to Mrs. Jennifer's second grade class for them to present out their learning from their unit of inquiry. Advocacy is one of the 4 types of action that can be used in the PYP. Through this approach to action, students create awareness on a topic. The grade 2 students did a phenomenal job presenting and teaching us about healthy eating. We then got to be risk-takers, by trying something new. It was a great way for us to learn about presentation skills. Authentic Inquiry - Our New Playground This week we arrived to school to see that the playground had been covered up. Students rushed to my room with so many questions. If you haven't realized yet, I LOVE QUESTIONS! We wrote our inquiries down, peeked out at the equipment, and made several predictions about what will be built for us. We are excited to see the construction of our amazing new playground equipment. Taking Action - The End of our Unit of Inquiry Our unit of inquiry on getting along is coming to an end. On Monday morning, Angele brought me in a flower, and I discussed how her small act of kindness could grow as I 'pay it forward.' This led to us deciding that if we did 50 acts of kindness, and each were paid forward that we would create 100 kind acts, and then talked about the spread of this to 200. We got to work and made a list of some of the kind things we could do at school. Gabrielle, mentioned that we could divide into groups to get the work done, and so we started a pile of student initiated actions that incorporated Math, literacy and science. One of the actions that we came up with was baking cooking for the custodians. We found a great (easy) peanut butter cookie recipe, and recruited Mr. Joe, our design teacher to help us. He told us that he works in the 'makers space' and that baking is another form of making and designing. We learned how to measure (math), look at temperature (math), follow directions (reading), and mix ingredients (science), We made delicious cookies and then spread the kindness to our custodians, in hopes that they would pay it forward and create a ripple. We remembered what we learned about bucket filling at the start of the year. When we fill someone else's bucket, we fill our own too. Giving away the cookies made us feel great inside. We also spent time working on several other action projects to spread kindness around the school. Students worked in groups to get along, Again, good inquiry integrates Math, Literacy, Technology, and Science, and this week our projects certainly did. Students are in the process of decorating Dr. Aina's door, providing a list of kind acts for students in the school to try, making a school welcome sign for the front of Miss Lalaina's desk, writing a thank you card to the cafeteria staff, and drawing/framing a picture for Mr. Reilly. In the PYP, action is supposed to be student-led and teachers are there to inform students as a mentor or guide. This was hard for me when I first started teaching in the baccalaureate system. But now I see the amazing ways that students drive their own learning. I am so proud of how these projects have come along.
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March 2018
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