Over the next couple of weeks, your child will be learning about addition and subtraction. We will relate subtraction to addition, use mental math, estimate and add and subtract to 2-digit numbers. We will be using a variety of strategies and the goal will be for your child to be able to apply a strategy to any task at hand.
Throughout this time, you and your child can practice some activities such as the following:
- Your child could place different numbers of items on a chair and on the floor, then write or tell you all the fact family sentences about each situation. For example, 7 toys on the floor and 6 toys on a chair has the fact family 7+6=13, 6+7=13, 13-7=6, and 13-6=7.
- your child can examine game boards to find ones where strategies for adding and/or subtracting can be readily applied rather than always counting.
- your chid might act out a stair-climbing problem. For example, if you take 3 steps up and 1 step back, how many steps will you take to get to the top of the stairs?
- your child could measure stuffed animals and other toys. Then, estimate how much space 2 or 3 of them would take if placed end to end and how much space would be left on a 100 cm shelf if different toys were placed on the shelf.
- Your child might set up a penny sale, giving various items prices less than $1. Then they can find the cost of different pairs of items.
- Your child could look up basketball scores in a newspaper and show you how to find the difference between winning and losing teams' scores.
You may want to visit the Nelson Web Site at www.mathk8.nelson.com for more suggestions to help your child learn mathematics and develop a positive attitude toward learning mathematics, and for books that relate children's literature to addition and subtraction. Also check the Web Site for links to other sites that provide online tutorials, math problems, and brainteasers.
JAK,
Reminder: tomorrow students will take their end of unit test
Tr. Hajer
