Dear Math Families,
We are off to a terrific start in our math class. The children spent the first 36 days of school getting to know each other and learn how we use our math tools and manipulatives in a safe and responsible manner so we can be accountable for our math learning and explorations.
This year, your child’s math knowledge will improve rapidly. As you probably know, we use the program Bridges at Allen Brook. Your child will take home his/her first unit work next week. I hope you will look at the different math concepts explored during the first 36 days of school. We certainly covered a lot and your child worked hard!
In our first unit of math, the students explored number sense and fluency up to 10. They worked on their automaticity to understand numbers to 10. We explored this concept through a variety of games and number sentences. The children learned that 2+8=10 but so does 6+4 and 7+3. We explored “turn around facts” for 10, such as 2+8 and 8+2. We call the “BOGO Math”. It means “buy one, get one free” because if you know one addition fact, you automatically know the turn around fact! Students also explored expressing their understanding of relationships in different ways. For example, we learned that we can write our equations horizontally and vertically, but we can also write them 10=9+1 or with mathematical representations, such as tallies, or story problem diagrams and graphs.
Moreover, the students learned that mathematicians “chunk, or group” numbers into larger units to help them organize and calculate problems correctly. We learned to chunk our numbers by 5 and 10 and used these skills in many different games.
Lastly, the students explored graphing and geometry. They learned about different shapes and that pennies and nickels represent 1s and 5s. Throughout our math class, we used rekenreks, unifix cubes and our number scrolls to help us solve and justify our thinking.
In the next few weeks, we will continue working on addition strategies, chunking and parts to 10 and ten and more. We will also explore measuring and how mathematicians estimate reasonably. Stay tuned.
Best,
Maria
If you are interested in the year-long math expectations from Bridges, please click on this link:
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