This week, we talked about the election process, which was a review from our Citizenship unit from the beginning of the year. We followed up the discussion with a read aloud this week, Bad Kitty for President, which is a humorous (although scarily accurate) view of the whole campaign process.
We also finished our Community (Past and Present) unit with one of our students bringing in a washboard from the past, who told us what it was used for. I think overall, students have decided that although they might like to spend one day in the past, they'd rather live in the present. I think I agree with them! :)
In Math, we continued with our place value unit, building numbers in the hundreds place. Students seem to have a good grasp of this and we will progress in our unit to include problem solving, ordinal numbers, and related facts.
Speaking of related facts, several of you had questions about the fluency program that MNES has started. Students were given a pretest, where we were able to record their automaticity of basic facts, both addition and subtraction, through a timed Powerpoint. Like sight words in reading, we were looking to see which ones students knew just by "sight." To help students review their basic facts, I am going to be sending home flash cards that might seem a little unusual. They are triangular, with 3 numbers on them. Students will be using "fact families," or related facts, to help them learn their facts. Another great way to practice is by playing the math games in their folders! Games such as "Tens Go Fish" and "Make 10" help students find combinations of 10s, and the more they practice, the better they are about remembering combinations that make 10. You can also enhance this game by making another number ("Make 15" for example might include 3 cards).
Please let me know if you have any questions about this program. Our next "check" will be in January. I have tried to make the cards fun for students and will teach how to use them in class before sending them home. See below for a sample!
