Math Monday - Number Sense and Numeracy

Remember:
Numbers are used to describe quantities, to count, and to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Understanding numbers and knowing how to combine them to solve problems helps us in all areas of math.

To try at home:
Practise "skip counting". Together, count by 2's and 5's. Ask your child how far he or she can count by 10's. Roll two dice, one to determine a starting number and the other to determine the counting interval. Ask your child to try counting backwards from 10, 20, or even 100.

Math Monday - Number Sense and Numeracy

Remember:
Numbers are used to describe quantities, to count, and to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Understanding numbers and knowing how to combine them to solve problems helps us in all areas of math.

To try at home:
Ask your child to help you solve everyday number problems. "We need six tomatoes to make our sauce for dinner, and we have only two. How many more do we need to buy?" "You have two pillows in your room and your sister has two pillows in her room. How many pillowcases do I need to wash?" "Two guests are coming to eat dinner with us. How many plates will we need?"

Mr. HoHo

If you are a parent of a child in Room 15, you may have heard of Mr. HoHo. He is helping us count down the days until Winter Vacation.
He started out having a very long beard. Each day his beard gets a bit shorter :)

Word Wall

These are the words that we have up so far on our Word Wall. These words will remain up on the wall for the rest of the year. These are words that we are practising and, hopefully, all of the Grade 2's will know them all by the end of the year, and the Grade 1's will know most. We also have a math word wall.


We also have a word wall that changes with the seasons, celebrations or science units that we are studying.

In our writing, all of the words that are on the word wall should be spelled correctly. It is a necessary writing strategy to look at the word wall (this is an early form of dictionary). Please remind your child that it is not cheating to copy a word if they can easily look at it or find it in a familiar book!
Here is part of our current Holiday Word Wall (the Hanukah words are off camera)


The students came up with the words as a group, then individually illustrated each word.

Dear Mayor Ford

As you may have heard, our Community Centre (which is attached to our school) is on the list of those that might be closing. The students were very sad to hear this, so we wrote letters to the mayor to ask him to reconsider. The letters were passed on to the Mayor, along with many other letters from Students at our school. Here are some of the letters:



(clarification of the bottom 2 lines, above: "I want to play mixed up sports".)



"Dear
Mayor Ford
Please don't close the
community centre....
Because I have karate
after Christmas."

Homemade Gingerbread

Words of the Week
Grade 1
men
ten
den
hen
pen
bonus word: make

Grade 2
make
take
bake
cake
lake
bonus word: cookie

Math Monday - Number Sense and Numeracy

Remember:
Numbers are used to describe quantities, to count, and to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Understanding numbers and knowing how to combine them to solve problems helps us in all areas of math.

To try at home:
Discover the many ways in which numbers are used inside and outside your home. Take your child on a "number hunt" in your home or neighbourhood. Point out how numbers are used on the television set, the microwave, and the telephone. Spot numbers in books and newspapers. Look for numbers on signs in your neighbourhood. Encourage your child to tell you whenever he or she discovers a new way in which numbers are used.

Skip Count Song (Poem of the Week)

We are learning to skip count!
We are counting by 2's, 5's and 10's

This song is sung to the tune of Skip to My Lou.


We've been using 100's charts to help us count.
You can practice with an interactive 100's Chart here.

Words of the Week

Grade 1
an
can
ran
man
fan
bonus word: skip

Grade 2
ski
skip
skirt
skin
skate
bonus word: song

Math Monday - Number Sense and Numeracy

Remember:

Numbers are used to describe quantities, to count, and to add, subtract, multiply, and divide. Understanding numbers and knowing how to combine them to solve problems helps us in all areas of math.

To try at home:
Sing counting songs and read counting books. Every culture has counting songs, such as "One, Two, Buckle My Shoe" and "Ten Little Monkeys", which make learning to count – both forwards and backwards – fun for children. Counting books also capture children's imagination, by using pictures of interesting things to count and to add.