Today was Miss Herman's last day as a student-teacher in our classroom. We have loved having her in our classroom, and greatly appreciate all the gifts, talents and teachings she has shared with us. We hope she comes back to visit sometime soon as we will miss her dearly!
This week, Miss Herman concluded the Seven Grandfather Teaching with Wisdom, Truth, Honesty and Humility.
As a conclusion to the teachings, each student made a chain of 7 beads, with 7 colours, to represent the Seven Grandfather Teachings, and act as a reminder of how to treat each other.
On Tuesday, Miss Herman surprised us by having our Dream Jars illuminated and waiting for us on our tables when we walked into the classroom. Each student's Dream Jar is coming home with them next week to share with you.
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| Students used different colours to create a Dream Jar that reflected the mood of their dream. |
Sometimes, we can skip count items based on pre-existing groupings, like our fingers, or rows of eggs in a carton.
But sometimes, we need to create groups for efficient counting. We need to estimate first to decide what kind of groupings are most efficient for the items. Skip counting forward and backward, as well as counting on and counting back, all connect to pre-addition and pre-subtraction strategies.
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| Students estimated that this group of jellybeans was less than 20. Therefore, grouping by 2s or 5s made the most sense. |
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| Students estimated Ms Thomas spilled more than 20 googly eyes. They grouped by 5s or 10s to find out how many.
Here is a list of ideas for home practice to develop number sense, and complement the work we are doing in the classroom:
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- Using the interactive hundreds board to highlight skip counting patterns: http://www.abcya.com/interactive_100_number_chart.htm
- Using the interactive hundreds board to fill in missing numbers: http://www.abcya.com/one_hundred_number_chart_game.htm
- Looking at and describing patterns that appear in the hundreds board
- Talking about place value (tens and ones), writing and building/drawing two numbers like 13 and 31 and having your child tell you what’s the same, and what’s different
- Exploring how skip counting by 2 is connected to odd and even
- Giving your child a group of objects (Lego pieces, Cheerios, beads, etc) and have them group the objects in different ways for counting
- Asking questions like how many would be 1 more? 2 more? 10 more?
- How many more would you need to have ___?
- How many less would you need to have ___ ?
- Starfall.com has some math activities targeting basic number sense
- The card game Shut the Box is wonderful for practicing a variety of number sense skills. Students have been taught this game in class.
Reminders for next week:
- Library exchange on Wednesday.
- February Scholastic book orders due Wednesday if you wish to order.
- Class Valentine's Day celebration on Wednesday, February 13th. If you plan on sending valentines, please send one for every member of our classroom community, we have 17 students. If your child cannot remember names, you can address the valentine: To My Friend.
- Family Dance on Wednesday, February 13th. See notice sent home earlier this week for details.
- No school Thursday, February 14th or Friday, February 15th due to Teacher's Convention.
- No school Monday, February 18th due to Family Day holiday.
If you have not already done so, please send in your child's report card envelope for re-use in June.
The weather forecast continues to be quite cool in the upcoming week. Blue Days are in affect when the weather is -20 degrees celcius or below. Some days, we have a Blue Day in the morning, but then temperatures warm up enough for us to enjoy an outdoor lunch and recess in the afternoon. Please continue to send your child to school ready to be comfortable outdoors (boots, jacket, hat, mitts and snowpants).
Have a wonderful weekend everyone!
Ms. Thomas
Ms. Thomas
