Welcome back math friends!

September came and went and now everyone has settled into the routines of the school year. I am so glad to have the opportunity to work with some of my students from last year and also to meet some new friends! 

I love teaching and I especially love teaching math and am looking forward to working with your child, yourself and their teacher to help increase their math skills and confidence!

I often get asked if I will be covering the same topics as they are in their classroom. The answer is yes, we all follow the Common Core State Standards, but the beauty of AIS is that you get to spend more time on concepts/skills that are troubling students in a small group setting.

Another question that I frequently get asked is....how can I help at home? One thing is to make sure that your child knows their facts. When a student gets bogged down by not knowing their facts, it can impede their ability to grasp a new concept as they are struggling with fact retrieval. Flashcards are just one way to help with facts. If you do use flash cards, don't waste your time on the facts they already know - take those ones out and work on only the ones they don't. Help them to visualize the fact by drawing a picture or using some kind of visual such as coins, macaroni, poker chips, etc. to help them see and internalize the fact. There are many websites listed on this blog that can be useful to help students at all levels with their facts.

I look forward to a great year together! My goal is to help your child be more successful as well as to see that math is fun, engaging and an important part of their lives!! Please do not hesitate to email or call me with any questions or concerns that you have.

Summer Math

You've worked hard all year....you don't want to lose or forget everything over the summer...so the best thing to do is to practice your math skills when you can over the summer. There are lots of ways you can practice! Here are some ideas.....

*Go to any of the websites listed on this page and practice your facts/skills for a few minutes a day. Here are a couple of new ones that I found that you might want to try out: 

                        www.mathcats.com (great for logic and problem solving)

                                               www.suduko-online.com

*Play simple math games. All you need is a deck of cards or a pair of dice and you can play addition, subtraction or multiplication war.  

*Play board games that involve math skills such as Yahtzee, Money Bags, Math Noodlers.

* Remember math is all around you!  At the beginning of the year we talked about how we use math in our everyday lives. Here are some examples of activities that are a part of the activities that you might be doing this summer and how you can incorporate math into it:

• When you go to the grocery store, try to estimate the cost of a few items. Do you have enough money to buy everything?
• Use the scale and weigh a piece of fruit.
• Use an analog clock to see how much time is left until you have to leave for your playdate.
• When baking or cooking, use fractions for the recipe.
• When you order a pizza, see how many pieces it is cut up into. Tell your parent what fraction of the pizza you ate!
• Look around your house and in nature for shapes and patterns that you see.
• After your ball game, compare the scores of the two teams, and count the total runs or the difference in runs between the two teams.
• At the park, estimate, then measure to see how fast you can jump or how high you can climb on the monkey bars.
• Get a container and put a few coins in it each day. After a few weeks, count to see how much you have. At the end of the summer, count to see how much you collected. How much can you trade in for dollar bills?   Most of all....enjoy your summer and keep up the great math!!!!

There's a reason why they call them word problems...they can be hard, and therefore a problem for most students! In our 4th and 5th grade groups, we have been focusing on how to tackle these. We started talking about the Fantastic Five Step Process, using our hand (5 fingers) as a visual. The Fantastic Five Step Process to word problems includes 1. Identifying the facts 2. Knowing the question and what is being asked (this is key!) 3. Figuring out what information, if any, can be eliminated 4. Choosing a strategy and solving 5. Asking yourself at the end, does the answer make sense?

From what I am seeing, one of the biggest problems is going too fast and jumping to solve the problem without thinking through what the question is asking, and therefore, what operation should be used. For this reason, we have been doing a lot of work identifying the parts and whole in a problem (ask your child about part, part, whole). This is a concept taught in Singapore Math, where problem solving is at the heart of the curriculum and the foundation for the model drawing approach.

Our focus in 3rd grade has been on mastering our multiplication facts as well as understanding the concept of division. We will also start tackling word problems, especially as we start to prepare for the 3rd grade NYS math test.

In 2nd grade, we have worked on counting money, place value and subtraction (with and without regrouping). Here is a subtraction poem that we have used to help us understand when we need to regroup.

More on top? No need to stop!

More on the floor? Go next door.

Get one ten. That's ten ones more.

Numbers the same? Zero's the game! 

In our 1st grade groups, we continue to focus on increasing our number sense. We watched a music video and counted by 5's. We also continue to practice adding and subtracting by 1. Ask your child about our song "I know a song called add one more... you add one number, just one more more...."

Progress reports will be coming home this month. As always, if you have any questions, please do not hesitate to call or email!!

Welcome to my math page!!! 

I started this blog to provide parents with information about what we do during our group times as well to share sites and other useful tips to help you best help your child at home. I've listed several sites on this page that I've found to be useful for kids to go on to help them with their math skills. As you know, it is essential that students know their math facts automatically!! Many of these sites have games that your child can play to help them become more fluent with their facts. No matter what your child's level, a few minutes EACH day of fact practice will make a huge difference!!!

I'm happy to have been able to add 1st grade groups recently! My main focus in these groups will be to increase the students' understanding of numbers. We will engage in many hands-on activities, using manipulatives, to help them build their awareness of numbers and  number concepts. 

We will also be working towards improving number sense with the 2nd grade groups, with an emphasis on place value. We use place value blocks to help build this understanding, which is critical as they work on addition and subtraction with regrouping.

The emphasis in the 3rd grade groups has been on multiplication. It is important that the students not only know their facts, but understand what 4 x 6 means (4 groups of 6). This is crucial as we move towards division.

During the 4th and 5th grade groups, it has become very apparent that they need to know their facts in order to be successful with double digit multiplication and long division. A great site to help with the complicated steps of long division is kidsnumbers.com. When you go that site scroll down and click on division and then click on Snork's long division. This is a fun and interactive game that will also help your child learn the steps!