January 29 - February 2

 January 29 - February 2

Math

In math this week, we moved back into thinking about numbers and how to represent them.  We worked with groups of ten trains and made connections to numbers with 0 - 20, 30, 40, 50 to 100.  We are now trying to extend our thinking and understanding of numbers beyond 20.  With a group, we also reviewed numbers from 1 - 20 and worked together to see if we could organize the numbers on an open number line in a way that made sense.  Some students were also ready to try with greater numbers to 50.

Learning Intention:

I can represent numbers to 100 using words, numerals, objects or pictures.

 

Social

This week in Social, we continued to talk about our school as an important group and community to belong to.  We discussed and brainstormed different roles and responsibilities that students have at school.  We worked together in our table groups to think of all the important roles and responsibilities we have as students.  We then shared all the GREAT ideas that all the groups came up with.  Students then reflected and chose 4 that they think are most important to them, and recorded them visually in their visual journals.  We look forward to learning about other people in our school community and the different responsibilities that they have compared to students.

Learning Intentions:  

I can understand and identify my rights and responsibilities at school.  

Art

Even with the snow rapidly melting this week, we took time to create our own snowmen.  We then wrote a set of clues about our snowman and what they looked like.  We then play the Snowman Guessing Game as a class, to see if we could listen and then identify which snowman belonged to which person.  We enjoyed this very much and look forward to continuing to play our guessing game next week.  

Learning Intentions:

I can create messages that are for a specific purpose.

I can write sentences that contain a complete thought and make sense. 

I can share information with an appropriate volume, tone and pace.

I can present my writing and ideas individually to an audience.  

Maker Space

We wrapped up the week with time in Maker Space.  Mrs. Harris gave us specific parts of a winter story and being challenged to solve a problem of being in the forest and our dog Pickles.  With our group, we focused on different things to build.  We worked together as a group, focusing on making sure we were compromising with our group members if we each had different ideas about what to build.  We were very focused and used our communication skills well.

Literacy

Ways to support your child at Home:

This month is literacy, we have moved from learning about the initial sounds of the letters of the alphabet.  We are now building our understanding that 2 letters can represent one sound, known as a consonant digraph.  This was very exciting for many of us and some of us didn’t know that 2 letters could make one sound.  We have focused on learning the sounds of ck, th, sh, ch, and will continue with wh and ph (saying f sound) next week.  Reviewing these sounds and recognizing them in our environment also helps to build connections and understanding.  

Representing Numbers to 100

Many materials can be used to represent numbers to 100. Each material has pros and cons.

A 100-chart shows the sequence of numbers, even though it doesn’t really show size.

10-frames show numbers up to 100, but it takes a lot of counters to show larger numbers.

Trains, or stacks, of 10 linking cubes can be used with loose cubes to show numbers.

Number words are also valid ways to represent numbers, although they do not indicate either sequence or quantity.

Tally marks work well, especially for numbers that are not very big.

Base ten blocks also work. Rods (or sticks) represent tens, and small cubes represent ones. The risk here is that students may not easily equate a solid item, such as the 10-rod, as representing a multiple (i.e., 10).

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Noticing What Different Models Show

Different models give different information.

For example, the image below shows a model of 58. It is made up of 5 stacks of 10 linking cubes and 8 single cubes. This model can help you write the number. You write a 5 first because you notice the model shows 5 tens. You write 8 second because you notice it shows 8 ones.

The image below shows another model of 58. 10-frames help you notice what benchmark a number is near. In this case, you might notice that 58 is 2 less than the benchmark of 60.

The image below shows yet another model for 58. Tally marks can help you notice that you would not say 58 if you were counting by 5s.

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Helping Your Child

An important convention that will help your child read and understand numbers is the information given by the position of the digits in a two-digit number. Show your child any number up to 99, for example, 84. Note that we don’t want to tell children that 84 has to be 8 tens and 4 ones. We say just that it could be, since sometimes we want to think of 84, as, for example, 7 tens and 14 ones or simply 84 ones.

•	You could ask, “What does the 8 tell you about the number?” (E.g., It could tell you that you would need to fill 8 10-frames to show it, or that you could use 8 sticks of 10-linking cubes to show it.)
•	You could ask, “What does the 4 tell you about the number?” (E.g., It could tell you that if you used 8 tens, there would still be 4 ones left over.)

Children also benefit from practice representing. You can play a simple game: Print a few numbers on slips of paper. Then have your child pick one at random and represent that number using number tallies.