Sunday, March 31, 2013

What Every Parent Should Know...

We all know that our children do better when schools, teachers, parents and children are actively collaborating and working together.  I recently ran across an article that speaks to this.



Friday, March 22, 2013

Addition Games - Friendly Ten!

To go along with our work with "friendly tens", here is a list of games for you and your children to experience.  Have fun!

Sunday, March 10, 2013

Make it a Friendly Ten!


Make it friendly!  When you add two numbers, it is easy to make it a friendly ten.  Then, do your adding.  Let’s try this problem…
5 + 7 =
5 + 5 + 2 =
10 + 2 = 12
If you know that 7 is made up of 5 and 2, you can make a friendly ten (5 + 5), then add the 2.  Your answer is 12.

Our Math In Focus trainer was here for three days last week working with our classroom teachers, grades K-5.  We went to all of our six elementary schools where she did demonstration lessons, and the other teachers at that grade level viewed the lesson.  We had an opportunity to talk about the planning of the lesson prior to the demonstration lesson.  After the lesson, we had time to reflect and debrief, as well as ask questions, share what is working well and challenges.  

The first grade lesson, (thank you Glacier Valley for having us), was all about "making tens."  As this was a new concept for our first graders, the first step is to utilize concrete materials.  Children used a double ten frame and two colors markers working with addition problems such as 8 + 6 or 6 + 7.  The students are working on building conceptual understanding of making a friendly ten.