Just wanted to send you a quick message of encouragement with our math program. This is a work in progress and the kids really are doing well. Some of these concepts are much, much harder than they have had in the past. Please know that we are working diligently in the classroom and that some of these concepts take a few days for them to really sink in and comprehend.
We reviewed yesterday’s math lesson before moving on to today’s lesson. Yesterday we had tried a couple different approaches to subtracting mentally. Today our class found an approach that they seemed to grasp a little better. Suppose you have the problem 43-18 and you were to subtract using mental math. We want to try to make 18 an even ten so that it is easier to subtract. We added 2 to 18 to come up with 20. Now, it’s not fair that the 18 got an extra 2 so we needed to be sure to give 43 an extra 2 as well. (I actually compared this to a sibling getting 2 more cookies than them. Then they understood that it’s not fair unless they get 2 cookies as well.) Now instead of 43-18 we have 45-20=15. Guess what? 43-18=15! We did several problems comparing it to food and someone else getting more than them. They seemed to get that idea a little better. Keep it fair, keep it equal and it will work out. J
Please know that you are able to log in to the site and see the video we watch and even the problems we do from their math text each day. Simply go to this site: https://www.pearsonsuccessnet.com/snpapp/login/login.jsp and log in as your child. Most kiddos have the first letter of their first name and then their last name as their username. A few had to use their whole first name and they can tell you who they are. Everyone has the same password of thirdpre and you should be in! Check around on the site and become familiar with the resources it has to offer you at home as well.
Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns at all. Breathe easy as today we only had to round to the nearest ten and hundred. Whew! J I told the kids we gave our brains such a hard workout yesterday that they got to take a little break today. Tomorrow we will be estimating; however, each day we will continue to work out some problems with our mental math until it is a skill that they have mastered. Thanks so much for your help at home and patience as we get our kids thinking about math in a different way and one that they can explain. We’ll get there together!
By the way, the kids have been doing well with their MAP testing. Only one more day to go!
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