FOCUS Updates
Updates 10/09/15
Next week we will begin our work in addition and subtraction. As part of this unit, our kids will take timed addition and subtraction facts "quizzes" to improve fluency. Kids have already started to practice for this in my class, using either dice (lower numbers ) or playing cards (higher numbers). These daily column "quizzes" will not be recorded in the gradebook (although eventually we will take a facts fluency as a daily grade), but the kids will set a goal each day for improvement.
There will not be a Math Rules next week due to the shortened week.
3rd Grade:
Next week we will focus on two division skills - the distributive property and unknown divisors in division sentences. Much of our exploration will use word problems to help deepen student understanding.
Kids have shown a lot of improvement this 9 weeks with multiplication facts. In the next 9 weeks to earn an A for math facts, a student must show mastery to the 8s, for a B through the 7s, and so on. Your child should show you the previous Friday's facts test each Monday.
4th Grade:
Wow- the kids did an awesome job on a rigorous test! I'm so proud of them all.
Our next unit of study is a fun one - Factors, Multiplies, Prime/Composite, and Patterns. There is a lot of learning in this unit. One thing to watch out for in this unit is mixing up multiples and factors:-)
5th Grade:
We have already begun our next unit of study - Expressions. We have begun with a review/extension of exponents and order of operations. Next week we will focus on evaluating and writing expressions as well as identifying and using properties (commutative, associative, identity, and distributive) to simplify expressions. While this unit is not that hard, there is a lot of new learning. Students tend to find the distributive property tricky, especially when writing an expression to match a word problem.
Remember there are 3 units of study this 9 weeks so the pace will be more accelerated than in the first 9 weeks.