At home talk with your child about coins. Ask him or her to name the coin and it’s value. Try trading coins and making change with coins. Ask which is more and which is less questions about coins.
We had our second “Pocket Day” on Friday. Students estimated the number of pockets we might have now that we have two additional students in the classroom. After we counted about half the pockets in the class, students revised their estimates using the data we gathered. Once we collected all the information, we counted all the combinations of ten and then added the remaining numbers to arrive at our final count of 103 pockets.
In addition, we worked on another math activity in which we made towers of connecting cubes and grouped them into twos, fives, and tens. Students then figured out how many complete towers they could make and how many were left over after forming the groups. In our math discussion, students noticed that when the number was even and the towers were two cubes high there were always zero leftover. Also, we discovered the smaller the tower size the more towers we made. And, the bigger the tower the fewer towers we made.
These math investigations and activities help students understand and solve problems representing addition and subtraction. Also, they are extending students' counting ability and building their knowledge of place value.
Our Cat Bandit reader continues to delight the students with the clever ways the main character steals food from the humans. We read “The Ham” and “The Milk” this week. The Cat Bandit used an inclined plane to get the milk. He used a magnet and a belt to grab the ham. Ask your child about the simple machines the Cat Bandit has used in the story.
We began a new Listening and Learning domain about the War of 1812. In this domain students will learn why the War of 1812 is often called America’s second war for independence.