The Math Perspective
from Mrs. Wiemers
Welcome!
How can I help out my child at home?
Kindergarten ~ By the end of the school year, we want our friends to be able to count to 100. For most, it is easy until we reach 39. There is just something about 39....maybe true for us as we get older. :) The decades are tricky. The only way to get over those decades is lots of practice with items. The more we count items the better counters we become.
1st graders ~ Count, count, count. The main thing to remember is to count from any given number. Don't always start at 1. Ask them to count starting at 14. Also, don't count with them. After a while, YOU need to stop counting. Also, work on those number combinations that make 10. The number 10 is crucial part to our number system!
2nd graders - Knowing the addition and subtraction facts up to 20 builds on for the later school years and that is what we are working on! We are also working on feeling confident when we need to tackle a word problem. Word problems get more difficult next year in 3rd grade, and I want to make sure that they are not intimidating!
3rd graders - Addition and Subtraction Facts up to 20. These facts should already be fluent with your student. Fluency means that they use flexibility and automaticity. Work on these facts. We use a math tool called Number Talks to work on these facts. We are also working on adding 2 digit numbers by looking at the place value of our numbers.
4th graders - We are working on subtraction currently. We are gaining confidence working on subtracting numbers without having to borrow. Borrowing is hard for kids. When we were taught subtraction, we just did it because we were told to. Today, we want our kids to know why and explain their thinking. We also want them to be flexible with the numbers and that is what we are working on....that flexibility. It gives them ownership!
5th graders - We are working on subtraction - understanding what we are doing when we do decompose tens into ones, hundreds into tens, etc. We are also working on finding entry points in word problems.
Number Sense - It's Critical!
6 Ways to Help With math at Home
Helping with maths at home
1. Encourage children to play maths puzzles and games. Award-winning mathematician Sarah Flannery reported that her maths ability and enthusiasm came, not from school, but from the puzzles she was given to solve at home (Flannery, 2002). Puzzles and games or anything with a dice will help kids enjoy maths and develop numeracy and logic skills.
2. Always be encouraging and never tell kids they are wrong when they are working on maths problems. Instead, find the logic in their thinking because there is always some logic to what they say. For example, if your child multiplies three by four and gets seven, say ‘Oh I see what you’re thinking; you’re using what you know about addition to add three and four. When we multiply we have four groups of three.’
3. Never associate maths with speed. It is not important to work quickly, particularly in the younger years, and we now know that forcing kids to work fast on maths is the best way to start maths anxiety for children, especially girls (Boaler, 2012).
4. Never share with your children the idea that you were bad at maths at school or you dislike it, especially if you are a mother. Researchers found that as soon as mothers shared that idea with their daughters, their daughter’s achievement went down (Eccles & Jacobs, 1986).
5. Encourage number sense. What separates high and low achievers in primary school is number sense, ie having an idea of the size of numbers and being able to separate and put numbers together flexibly (Gray & Tall, 1994). For example, when working out 29 + 56, if you take one from the 56 and make it 30 + 55, it is much easier to work out. The flexibility to work with numbers in this way is what is called number sense and it is very important. My book The Elephant In The Classroom: Helping Children Learn And Love Maths shares ideas of ways to develop number sense in younger and older children.
6. Perhaps most important of all, encourage a growth mindset, ie the idea that ability and smartness change as you work more and learn more. The opposite to this is a fixed mindset, where the idea is that ability is fixed and you can either do maths or you can’t. When children have a growth mindset, they do well with challenges and do better in school overall (Dweck, 2006). When children have a fixed mindset and they encounter difficult work, they often conclude that they haven’t got what it takes to do maths. One way in which parents encourage a fixed mindset is by telling their children they are clever or smart when they do something well. That seems like a nice thing to do, but it sets children up for difficulties later, as when kids fail at something they will inevitably conclude that they aren’t smart after all. There is a pervasive cultural view in England that some kids can do well in maths and some can’t. Parents believe this and some teachers believe it too. This is completely wrong and one of the biggest reasons that maths is a traumatic experience for many children in England.
The good news is that parents can be very powerful in bringing about change. They are the voices that politicians listen to and also that schools and teachers listen to. In the coming months I will include advice about ways to talk with teachers and schools to help ensure that your child experiences real mathematics. That’s mathematics that they will enjoy and learn well and that will help them in their future.
2 Digit Multiplication
What is this math that they are doing?
Adding 2 digit numbers with Decomposing
Solving Word Problems - the Singapore Way
https://learnzillion.com/lesson_plans/5400-solve-word-problems-by-drawing-bar-models