We have finally begun MATH BUDDIES, and we are onto ALGEBRA!

Last week, our students met their grade 2/3 MATH BUDDIES from Ms. Hannan's class!
Students prepared five questions to ask their buddy, and they worked through Cube War to get to know one another, while engaging in a fun hands-on math activity!
We are all looking forward to our next Math Buddies session in the new year!

I have been so impressed with our students as we enter our next strand of Math! Students have been asking for more questions, and really WANT to know more about how they can solve algebraic problems - many are getting out the whiteboards at recess and creating and solving problems with friends!

Our students have identified a number of different ways to solve for a variable -

1) Guess and Check
2) Using opposite operations
3) Visualizing the problem
4) Expanding (Distributive Property)

We are also learning to...
1) SIMPLIFY and EXPAND equations
2) Understand how words are related to numbers and operations to help us navigate through real-world problems

We are moving through this unit quite quickly as our students are pushing us ahead with their thinking!

We HOPE to have our final assessments, or at least a quiz before the holidays, but we'll see where we are. If we are not quite ready, we will begin January with a review, and move onto our final assessment.

Looking forward to continuing our MATH THINKING!

Congress, Fraction Rules, and MATH ROUNDS!

Math class is always so exciting! Students constantly come up with new ways to think about numbers and problems, that we often end up learning more than we expected.

FRACTIONS - 

Yes, we had CONGRESS, and we learned A LOT!

Using our SUB inquiry question to DISCOVER REPEATED ADDITION!

DISCOVERING the role of the NUMERATOR and DENOMINATOR through STUDENT WORK!

Our students DISCOVERED the fraction rules, and we learned EFFECTIVE NOTE TAKING strategies in the process!

You can find these notes in your son/daughter's math journals!

MATH ROUNDS!

Students rotated through SIX stations to practise their fraction skills and put their knowledge to the test! Through this experience, students were able to share their learning, learn from one another, and reflect on what they need to learn on.  In preparation for their upcoming test, students have been engaging in these activities with partners and are studying with one another. It's great to see such effective teamwork!

MEASUREMENT - We went outside to see how many ways we can use measurement! 

We checked to see if our estimates matched the ACTUAL TIME it took to walk to the pond.

Circumference of a tree trunk.

Length of a puddle.

WHY is the WHY so important in Mathematics?

Hello Families!
Thank you again for your patience! We have been very busy in our math classroom!

Our students have shown incredible communication in mathematics through our Number Talks.

During Number Talks, students are provided with a carefully constructed problem which allows them to share their strategies. We discuss which strategies are most efficient, why they work, and which ones work for all problems of a similar type. This allows our students to truly understand the WHY behind their math processes.

WHY is the WHY so important in Mathematics?

I always think of this example when I am asked why I care so much about students developing a deep understanding for what they're doing.

Consider the following problem:

1/2 + 3/4 =

Students are often told that to solve problems involving fractions with different denominators they need to do whatever they did to the bottom, to the top!

Is it really as simple as that? Could I really just do that? Let's say a student applies this method and decides to create common denominators by subtracting 2 from the top and bottom of 3/4. This brings us to 1/2.

Our new problem would be:         1/2 + 1/2 =

That's easy! 1/2 + 1/2 = 1 whole!

WAIT A MINUTE!

What if our students understood what 1/2 + 3/4 looked like? Ask your son or daughter how they would solve this problem. Most likely, they would connect this problem to what they already know - using money or a clock.

1/2 could be thought of as 2 QUARTERS (50 cents)
3/4 could be thought of as 3 QUARTERS (75 cents)

Well, we can borrow 1 QUARTER from 1/2 and bring it over to 3/4 to create ONE WHOLE. We are then left with one extra quarter.

THEREFORE, 1/2 + 3/4 = 1 1/4 

We KNOW what this looks like, we can CHECK to make sure this is a reasonable answer, and we do not have to MEMORIZE, we can create solutions without being limited to only knowing how to solve specific problems. This helps our students generalize their skills to solving problems in the REAL WORLD!

You can see how some of our beginning thoughts allowed for errors in our methodology. Learning the money and clock strategies help us check that our answers are reasonable and ensure we can explain HOW we got our answers.

Please stay tuned for my next post about the SUB PROBLEM!

Our Mathematicians have BEGUN!

DID YOU KNOW...

Did you know that when we can visualize a math problem, whether through the use of manipulatives such as linking cubes, OR just in our minds, we can access effective problem solving techniques?!

Using PENTOMINOES to find the largest area for our Llama!

It is really important that students learn to visualize problems in order to find a variety of paths to available solutions.

This is why this week, our students really focused on HOW to use manipulatives effectively. We worked on developing our spatial sense so that we are ready to tackle open-ended, real-world math problems throughout the year.

CUBE WAR (top) - How many different figures can be made with 4 and 6 cubes?
TOWER SUDOKU (bottom) - Each day the students challenged themselves with
more challenging problems. WAY TO GO!

We want to make sure our students are able to take problem-solving skills discovered in class, and apply them to problems they come across in all areas of life. Some of these problems might include finding the best way to save and invest money when considering interest rates, choosing weather to buy the value pack of cereal over two smaller individual boxes, or calculating how much to tip.


The second area of focus for this past week was on PERSEVERANCE! Students are learning to recognize when they are frustrated and stuck on a problem, and how this affects their efforts. Students are learning that when they persevere and become resourceful despite their feelings of being stuck, they eventually lead themselves to succeed.

It is important to remember that perseverance DOESN'T just mean KEEP DOING WHAT YOU'RE DOING AND DON'T GIVE UP. 

It DOES mean, try a NEW strategy. Find a NEW connection between what you have done in the past and what you are doing now. ASK for help.

The grade 6/7s have demonstrated an openness to learning and persevering. We will continue to work and reflect on our perseverance, as well as our spatial sense.

Please stay tuned for our first MATH NEWSLETTER.