Week of January 13th

What a busy month January is proving to be and not just inside the classroom: Lip Sync, Star Lab, CAPER, One School/One Book (starting in a week or so...), the Science Fair (at the beginning of February), just to name a few!

We have been off and running since returning from break. I'd like to use this blog post for some important announcements and reminders.

Star Lab Parent Night is Wednesday, January 22nd from 6 - 7pm. Please send in the RSVP by Tuesday, January 14 whether you plan on attending or not. This will give Mrs. Mooney and I time to organize the event to make it run as smooth as possible based on the number attending.

Parent/Teacher Conferences: Last week I sent an email with a link for an online sign up for parent/teacher conferences. These conferences are optional, however, I believe it is important to touch base. With only 2 afternoons at my disposal I have set up 15 minute blocks of time to be able to accommodate everyone. I understand it is difficult to take time off from work to come in for only 15 minutes, so I am willing to conduct phone conferences at the time you sign up. Please visit the link below to sign up for a time and then shoot me a separate email requesting that I call you at that time, including the best number to reach you at. I look forward to meeting with all of you!

http://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0945A9A82DAAFE3-february

Math:
Math Facts
We have been working tremendously hard on memorizing our multiplication facts here in school as well as now moving on to understanding division concepts. It is extremely important that math fact practice is worked into your daily homework routine. We continue to have math fact quizzes every Friday. This week many have moved on to the 6's, however, I still have people working on the 9's, 3's, and 4's. On each fact quiz that is taken on Friday I make a note as to which facts your child should be working on.

Problem Solving
Your child now has 4 different operations to choose from when solving word problems: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division. We have been discussing at length the difference between these operations and what these operations are actually asking us to do.
1. addition: putting together groups of different sizes
2. subtraction: taking away from the total number
3. multiplication: putting together equal groups
4. division: taking the total number of items and separating them into equal groups

Last week your child brought home word problems to solve. The format of those word problem sheets are meant for your child to think through what the question is asking them to do, show their work, put their answer in a sentence, and then explain their thinking.

For example:

Problem: Naomi has 45 red beads and 69 purple beads. She loses 16 beads while making a bracelet. How many beads does Naomi have left?

What do you know?

• Underline that in the problem.

What do you need to find out?

• Circle that in the problem.

Solve. Show your work (picture/model/diagram/equation).

45 + 69 = 114
114 - 16 = 98 beads

Answer Sentence: (Tell me in a sentence what your answer is)
Naomi has 98 beads left.

Look back and check. Explain why your answer makes sense. (Tell me why you knew which operation to use).
I needed to find how many beads Naomi had to start with since she had 45 red and 69 purple. Once I found that, I knew she lost 16 so I had to subtract that from the total number of beads she started with. 

This week your child will be continuing to focus on choosing an appropriate equation to figure out word problems.