Scratch Collaboration Gr 3 Mr Chelman's class and Gr 2 Mrs. Roy's class

Our third graders in Mr. Chelman's class created a scratch math game and invited Mrs. Roy's second grade class to try it out.  This is a great example of how technology and curriculum blends together. In collaboration with their third grade counterparts, the second grade students had an opportunity to practice addition using the place value strategy.  

What is scratch? 
Scratch is a programming language and an online community where children can program and share interactive media such as stories, games, and animation with people from all over the world. As children create with Scratch, they learn to think creatively, work collaboratively, and reason systematically. Scratch is designed and maintained by the Lifelong Kindergarten group at the MIT Media Lab.  Check it out - click on the links below.

SCRATCH - Scratch is geared towards ages 8-16.  

SCRATCH JR - Scratch is geared towards ages 5-7. 

Reminder! Bottles and Cans this Friday January 6

Let's beat the record in January of the most cans collected!

Making Math Count in the New Year!

Making Math Count in the New Year!

“Math is a language of logic.  It is a disciplined, organized way of thinking.  There is a right answer; there are rules that must be followed.  More than any other subject, math is rigor distilled.  Mastering the language of logic help to embed higher-order habits in kids’ minds: the ability to reason, for example, to detect patterns and to make informed guesses.  Those kinds of skills had rising value in a world in which information was cheap and messy.”  Esther Cepeda, Daliy News, 2/23/14.

This excerpt is from an article “Why math? Why not?” from the Daily News and it makes a very important point: math teaches your child much more than just how to add and subtract, math teaches your child how to be a logical adult with strong reasoning skills.  Math is an intricate part of our everyday life.  Think about your daily routine and how many times you have had to problem solve a difficult situation or make reasonable deductions.

Here is a problem for all ages from Bed Time Math - http://bedtimemath.org/   if you haven't had a chance to check this website out I would highly recommend it.  There are many quick "thinker" problems that you can add to your bedtime routine.  

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Here's your nightly math! Just 5 quick minutes of number fun for kids and parents at home. Read a cool fun fact, followed by math riddles at different levels so everyone can jump in. Your kids will love you for it.

KING OF THE GARBAGE CAN

December 12, 2016

By Laura Overdeck   |   Animals, Daily Math, Science and Nature

You probably know that it isn’t a great idea to eat out of the garbage. But for animals like rats, goats, and cockroaches, it’s a yummy treat. The smartest of these guys may be the raccoon. Raccoons, known for their funny black masks and poofy ringed tails, love breaking into people’s garbage cans and flinging leftovers everywhere as they snack. And they’re really clever about it, as we’ve seen here ourselves: the neighborhood raccoon always finds a way to undo the latch, tip the can over, and pop off the top.  In fact, studies have found that raccoons are smart enough to open 11 out of 13 different complex locks, and can also remember tricks 3 years after learning them. We hope we can do that, too!

Wee ones: A raccoon has 5 claws on its front paw. Is that more than, less than, or the same as the fingers on your hand? Count to check!

Little kids: If a raccoon starts breaking into your garbage at 8 pm and succeeds 2 hours later, when does he get in there? Bonus: If you put 13 locks on your garbage can and the raccoon can open 11 of them, how many locks are still stopping him?

Big kids: If a raccoon opens the 12th lock in a giant row, then the 16th, then the 20th, what lock does he open next to keep the pattern?  Bonus: If there are 42 houses on your street and the raccoons break into half of them, how many people’s garbage cans do they invade?

Wishing you a Happy Math Year!

Victoria Saldana

Math Specialist/Instructional Coach

  

Answers:
Wee ones: The same number as your 5 fingers.

Little kids: At 10 pm.  Bonus: 2 locks.

Big kids: The 24th lock.  Bonus: 21 houses.

Save the Date! K and 1 Math Morning

We hope to see you!   Please RSVP to your child's teacher if you haven't already done so.  Watch for these reminder flyers to come home via your child's backpack.

                                    Kindergarten Math Morning - Monday, December 5th  8:45 am

                                             Grade 1 Math Morning - Tuesday, December 13th  8:45 

Turkey Math

It is hard to believe that December is just around the corner but first let's talk Turkey, turkey math of course.  Think about all the math you have to do to put a meal together.  Involve your kids in these types of decisions.

1. How big of a turkey to get to serve all the guests, how many pounds of potatoes you need to make 8 servings of mash?   
2. For the younger ones, ask them to figure out how many place setting, spoons, forks and so forth are needed for all the guests.  
3. You can also estimate how many oz or gallons of beverages will be consumed and then see if you were close after the holiday. 

Here are some fun facts to impress your family and friends -

• According to the National Turkey Federation, 88 percent of Americans have turkey on Thanksgiving. So if our math is correct, that leaves 12 percent of people who don't eat turkey on the holiday.
• A lot of cranberries are needed to accompany all that turkey on Thanksgiving. In all, 768 million lbs. (350 million kilograms) of cranberries were produced in the United States last year. Two states — Wisconsin and Massachusetts — were responsible for most of the production, producing 450 million and 210 million lbs. (200 million and 95 million kg) of cranberries, respectively.
• Turkey was the first meal enjoyed by Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin when they were on the moon. Now you can be the talk of your dinner table this holiday — a perfect turkey tidbit to impress holiday dinner guests.

                                                             -from http://www.livescience.com/41506-surprising-thanksgiving-facts.html

Happy Thanksgiving!

Jefferson Problem Solving Board is in full swing!

Jefferson Problem Solving Board

I am very excited to see so many students at my board every morning this week.  I already had to empty my basket twice because it was filled with returned work.  New problems will be posted Monday, November 14 (about every 2 weeks).

A notice was sent home last week via your child's backpack, in case you missed it below is a description of how this program works.  If you have any questions please call or email me: saldanav@

What is the Jefferson Problem Solving Board? - This program gives students extra practice with critical thinking skills in grades 1-5.  Who should participate? Everyone! Due to the fact that this program is leveled by grade level cluster and the problems themselves are leveled, students of all math abilities can participate.  This set up allows for remediation and enrichment.

How does this work?
1. Student selects a problem set from their grade cluster.
2.  The problems themselves are leveled.  Each problem has a star next to it.
     1 star is easy - 4 stars is difficult.
3.  The student completes these problems on their own time, no deadline.          
     He/she doesn't have to complete all the problems, if the 4 star problems are  
      too challenging for example, then they can be skipped.
4. Once the student completes the problems, then he/she can bring the  
     problems back to the math specialist to be corrected.

For every twenty five stars that the students earn (25, 50, 75 and 100) they get their name on the Math Super Star board, their name is announce in the morning announcement, and they get a special prize from the math specialist.

What kind of problems will the kids get to work on? The problems are a mixture of word problems, math puzzles, basic number operation reviews and most importantly they are fun to do.

Math Happenings Around Our School

There is a lot of great math learning that is occurring  everyday in our classrooms.  Students are engaged in problem solving, critical thinking tasks and collaborative learning.

Here are some snapshots -

Mr. Chelman's 3rd Grade class working on division and multiplication word problems - video

Grade 1 Students in Mrs. Marks class working on counting collections

Gr 4 Students in Mrs. Doherty's class working on place value

Gr 2 Students in Mrs. Roy's class working on Comparison Problems