Dear Parents,
We are in the home stretch before winter break! Tonight is PTA Eat-Out Night at Tijuana Joe's! A copy of this week's newsletter, The Weekly Hoot, is under the News You Can Use tab.
Next Tuesday, December 20 from 12:45-2:00 is our class holiday party. Please check our class Shutterfly account to see how you can donate supplies and/or your time to our party! All parents are welcome to attend. Parents who come for the party may check their child out of school and take them home at the end of the party if you wish! Don't miss out, because it is going to be SNOW much fun!
We DO NOT have a spelling rule this week, as we are using our word study time to review grammar concepts learned this quarter. We'll be reviewing contractions, proper nouns, possessive nouns, and reflexive pronouns!
Please continue to practice basic addition and subtraction facts 0-20 with your child on a regular basis. Building basic fact fluency will help your child to solve multi-step/multi-digit problems and problem solve with more confidence and consistency. Greg Tang has some great games for building fact fluency on his website www.gregtangmath.com--BEST OF ALL, these games are all FREE!!
I'm looking forward to another awesome week in second grade!
Mrs. Kidd
Tuesday, December 13, 2016
Sunday, December 4, 2016
All About Problem Solving
Problem Solving...it's a challenging task that students will encounter for most of the rest of their mathematical school lives. We will work on one and two step problem solving for the remainder of second grade. Here's the good news: with consistent practice and a routine for attacking each problem, problem solving can actually be fun and easy!
There are several different types of addition and subtraction word problems that students must be able to solve with consistency by the end of second grade. (Click on the picture to download a copy!)
Greg Tang is a nationally respected math guru. He has a FREE word problem generator on his website, which can be found here: Greg Tang Math Word Problem Generator! He trained East Side teachers the past two years on how to teach problem solving and how to break down the steps for solving with our students. He suggests the following steps, which is what we use in class to solve problems!
Rewriting the question as a statement, helps students to truly understand what missing information they are looking to find. Creating and labeling a bar model is one of the most important steps in this plan! A correctly formed bar model, will show students exactly how to write a number sentence and solve their problem. Is the whole (biggest/total amount) missing in the model, but you have both parts? Simple, add the parts to find your answer! Do you have the whole, but you are missing one part? Subtract to find your answer. A number sentence, or equation, includes numbers to add or subtract and a variable, or unknown part! When solving comparison problems (keywords more/fewer), the students should first determine who/what has more and who/what has fewer or less. We try to solve several problems of the day each week. Here is what these steps look like in action:
There are several different types of addition and subtraction word problems that students must be able to solve with consistency by the end of second grade. (Click on the picture to download a copy!)
Greg Tang is a nationally respected math guru. He has a FREE word problem generator on his website, which can be found here: Greg Tang Math Word Problem Generator! He trained East Side teachers the past two years on how to teach problem solving and how to break down the steps for solving with our students. He suggests the following steps, which is what we use in class to solve problems!
Rewriting the question as a statement, helps students to truly understand what missing information they are looking to find. Creating and labeling a bar model is one of the most important steps in this plan! A correctly formed bar model, will show students exactly how to write a number sentence and solve their problem. Is the whole (biggest/total amount) missing in the model, but you have both parts? Simple, add the parts to find your answer! Do you have the whole, but you are missing one part? Subtract to find your answer. A number sentence, or equation, includes numbers to add or subtract and a variable, or unknown part! When solving comparison problems (keywords more/fewer), the students should first determine who/what has more and who/what has fewer or less. We try to solve several problems of the day each week. Here is what these steps look like in action:
Another great site for practicing modeling and solving word problems is Thinking Blocks. This site also includes a FREE app for practicing these problems. We use the app in class to help us practice these problems in an interactive way!
Problem solving takes time and practice, but it doesn't have to be an unsolvable mystery. When working with your child at home, he/she should be familiar with the steps above and be able to work through these steps to solve homework problems!
Happy Problem Solving,
Mrs. Kidd
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