Tomball ISD - Mathematics
PreK - 2nd Grade - Make Math Happen
April/May Newsletter, 2017-18
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Brags, Shout outs, and Finds!
3D Shapes in a tub! Get Geometric!
Creekside Forest , Geometri-City
Tomball Elementary, 3D Shape Review
Measuring with cubes and paper clips
The headbands game for facts to 10
"Is this book closer to 1 or 2 straws long?"
In your curriculum - Get Concrete to spend less time teaching the abstract!
Kinder
Unit 9: Addition and Subtraction
If you spent time on composing and decomposing, capitalize on this skill and connect it to adding and subtracting. See the great activities in the New Fact Fluency Folder linked in the Unit. The headbands game is great! All you need are ten frame cards.
Unit 10: Measurement
Heavy or light? Long or short? How much can something hold? Weight, length, and capacity. Give students ample time to use real items to compare. This comparison skill plays a big role in math and students need to see a lot of concrete examples and have time to work with them.
First Grade
Unit 10: Geometry and Fractions
Set kids up for success! If you can have several shape examples so that students can manipulate them, several times. Bouncy balls, glue sticks, base ten rods, dice are all great examples of geometric shapes that students can get their hands on and their minds around.
Tangrams and pattern blocks can really get to the heart of our fraction standard.
Unit 11: Money and Financial Literacy
There are a couple of great PBL's around, please let me know if you are going to implement one so that I can showcase your team! First grade standards focus on the value of the coins and being able to make equal trades for values, like 5 pennies for 1 nickel.
Second Grade
Get Concrete with fractions. In my February PD we looked at fruit strips to find halves, fourths, and eighths. To represent this model I have some fraction strips that are Second Grade appropriate.
Unit 10: Money and Financial Literacy
Students will count coins to $1.00, and use the decimal point and dollar sign as well as the cent sign to represent the values. Spend time with real coins and allow students find efficient ways to count them.
Pre Kinder
Addition and Subtraction
Concrete and representing ans sharing a verbal word problem! 'I have three blocks, I got two more, now I have five.'What a long way they have come!
Measurement
Length, Weight, Capacity, passage of time. These are all big players in the big picture of mathematics. Give students multiple opportunities to compare in these 4 areas.
Workstation Ideas
Have students practice facts to 10 or 20. They can illustrate their fact on a recording sheet for other students to make and practice. This is a wonderful visual tool that can help students with mental math later on.
Make a Comparing workstation.
Comparing station- Leave anchor charts for length, weight, and capacity. Let students compare 2-3 items and share by posting a picture of their comparisons, or letting them share what items they compared. First and Second Graders could compare values of money or even geometric shapes.
Technology Tips
Splash math has some free games that include measurement. Check this out for length.
This Learn to Count Money on ABCYA is pretty good!
Of course, I love Pearson's math tools, they have great virtual manipulatives for Fractions, Geometry, and Money! They have a pan balance I love to use to compare items, or even show equalities with addition and subtraction! They also have games in the centers tabs. There is one game I will link here called Tentacles - students first make groups of 5 then 10, it is awesome!
April/May- Upcoming Dates
April 17 - Tax Day
April 22 - Earth Day
April 25 - Administrative Professional Day
May 4 - Star Wars Day
May 5 - Cinco De Mayo
May 8 - National Teacher Day
May 13 - Mother's Day
May 21 - 25th (Scores in AWARE by the 29th) - Math EOY Benchmarks
May 28th - Memorial Day - Holiday
Pre K - 2nd Grade Mathematics Content Teacher
Email: annbutts@tomballisd.net
Website: http://www.tomballisd.net/apps/pages/index.jsp?uREC_ID=544967&type=u&pREC_ID=817599
Location: 1302 Keefer Road, Tomball, TX, United States
Phone: 2813573052
Facebook: anniembutts
Twitter: @annbutts_K2math