Tuesday, January 26

Hi parents,

We had a good day today! The students worked on their data collection assignments (see previous post), had Music class, practiced 2-digit math, and wrote sentences about their graphs. 

I talked to the students about the "Counting on" strategy, which comes in handy for solving math problems mentally. "Counting On" basically means solving a problem by counting forwards, or backwards, from a given quantity, rather than starting at zero.

For example, consider the problem:    23 + 4 = ?

Many young students will see a problem like this and think, "I don't have enough fingers for this", and feel overwhelmed. Using "Counting On", students can visualize the number 23 in their head, and then count up 4 more times. They can even use their fingers to keep track of their counting, holding up another finger for each number. Once they are holding up 4 fingers, they know it is time to stop counting, and hopefully that will happen as they say '27' aloud.

Anyway, I am a big fan of "Counting On" for Grade 1s and 2s. I think many students kind of figure it out on their own, but sometimes it takes a lesson like today's for it to click.

In the afternoon, Ms. Thaxter taught the class about 'th' tongue twisters and indigenous games (Ball and Cup was a big hit!), and also led them through Daily 5.

CRAZY HAIR DAY: THURSDAY, JAN 28

I forgot to mention this to the students today, but this Thursday is a school-wide crazy hair day. Students are encouraged to try out a crazy hairstyle. As with Halloween, please avoid 'violent' hairstyles (for example, sword-shaped hair, or gun shaped hair).

Have a nice night!

Zac