Dear Math parent,
I (Mr. Smith) will be your child’s math teacher this year and I’m looking forward to it. My goal is for all students to work hard while in class, resulting in learning progress and minimal homework. I believe families are busy in the evenings and have many other activities to be doing. Having said that, two areas that will give us the best value for our time at home will be to help students master basic facts if they have not already done so, and to discuss problem solving questions with them as we just don’t get as much opportunity to hear every child explain their thinking in the classroom setting as we would like. For basic facts, use a deck of cards and remove cards that are already mastered. Many students would benefit from just using the 5 – 9 cards. Students should be encouraged to create groups of 10 when doing addition or subtraction. Ex. 9 + 6 = can be seen as 10 + 5 = . To solve 17 -9 students may think 1 added to 9 makes 10 and 7 more is 17 so 1 and 7 is 8. For students who have mastered facts up to 20 for addition/subtraction, use 4 dice and roll two, 2 digit numbers. Encourage students to add them mentally and to begin with the larger tens place instead of the ones as we would with paper and pencil. As well multiplication from basic facts up to 2 digit by 2 digit mental math. I will begin sending some practice problems home in a couple weeks and students will have some time to work on them at school as well. Calculators are encouraged for these problems. Please phone me at school or at home with any concerns or questions. Thanks, Mr. Smith |
Skill OneDraws and explains patterns and relationships using graphs and tables.
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Skill TwoUnderstands and uses relationships in tables of values to solve problems.
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Skill ThreeCreates and solves equations with letter variables representing an unknown number.
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