Mathematical Thinking

Mathematical Thinking
We are learning to share our ways of looking at mathematical situations and ways of solving mathematical problems with each other. We are noticing that most of the time there is more than one way to solve a problem or look at a situation. When we listen to each other explain how we figured something out we learn new ways to think about things. This helps us to be mathematically flexible which helps us not "get stuck" when working on math problems. Below are some photos of one way that we look at a mathematical situation - seeing dots on dot cards - in different ways.

We do a short (5 minute) daily activity that involves looking at dot cards. I flash a dot card picture (as seen below) to the crew for a few seconds. After I cover the picture, I ask the crew what they saw. They then tell me how many dots they saw and how they saw it. We have several students share how they saw the dots. Here are a few examples:

One student saw this as the same configuration of dots on a domino. She knew that this was 8 because this is how 8 appears on a domino.

Another student saw this as a row of 3, a row of 2 and another row of 3. He said that 3 + 3 + 2 = 8.

Another student saw the 6 dots on the sides like they are arranged on a 6 domino. She then added the two dots in the middle to get 8.

The next student saw the 3 + 2 + 3 =8 pattern but she saw it in columns instead of rows.

Another student remembered that we had previously seen a 9 dot arrangement on a previous day and noticed that this was the 9 dot pattern with one dot missing in the middle so it had to be 8.

Why do we do this? I explained to the crew that it is similar to reading - we can "sound out" every word we read but that would not be efficient. We need to have a bank of words that we just know so reading can move along quickly. This is true in math, too. We need to have strategies to deal with numbers so we don't have to count every dot to know how many dots there are in a pattern. We become more efficient using numbers.


This activity also helps us be able to break numbers apart into chunks that are easier to work with in our head. This makes us more flexible when adding and subtracting numbers. We will eventually begin to move on from dot cards and to visualizing numbers and basic addition and subtraction facts. Having the dot patterns in our minds can help us make that transition.

One other reason to do this short, daily activity is that it stimulates our creativity. We begin to look at things in more than one way. This helps us be open to finding more than one solution to our problems.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.

Information, Please

There are now many great places to find the information that you might need about the happenings at our school. All of these sites are linked on the sidebar of our crew blog so that you can find them easily.


Our Crew Blog

Our Crew blog is where you will find daily posts about what is happening in our classroom. This blog has tabs across the top that have more information about various topics from Adventure Ed to Math to Literacy and more. One the sidebar there is a search box so you can simply search for what you are looking for, too.

Also on the sidebar, you will find links to other important blogs, an archive of previous posts, a cluster map that shows where our blog's visitors are from, and a list of labels. Labels are another quick way to find what you are looking for because this is a alphabetical list of topics that are on our blog. Be sure that you have subscribed to this blog by email or RSS feed so you will always have the most up-to-date information. (Information about subscribing is on the Information page of the crew blog.)

Renaissance Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound School Website

The Renaissance Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound School website is where you will find information about our school and school-wide events. You can find information about our philosophy under the About Us tab. You can find information about each crew under the Parent Central tab. Calendar information is under the Calendar tab. Please take some time to browse this site. It is beautiful and well-organized.

Our Kidblog Page

Our Kidblog page is where you will find individual student blogs written by the students in our crew. The most recent posts will be in the middle of the page and along the sidebar are student names so you can easily find your child's individual blog.

The Douglas County School District Website is where you will find district related information. You will find things like school closure information, curriculum and standards and much more. You can find information alphabetically by clicking on the letters below the photos on the main page.

Ponderings of a Principal

Ponderings of a Principal is Ms. Deborah's blog about our school and its philosophy. You can find links to crew blogs on the sidebar of this blog and you can also follow it by email.

Renaissance Art

At the Renaissance Art blog written by Ms. Pam, you can learn all about her philosophy of teaching Art along with updates about what each crew is learning. An added bonus is that this blog is filled with beautiful photographs of Art and life.

Thursday Folder Newsletter Archives

Also on the sidebar of our crew blog, you will find a link to the archives of the Thursday Folder Newsletters that are created by the front office staff. These newsletter will have details about all of the latest happenings and events at Renaissance.

Other helpful links:
Ms. Jill's Crew on Twitter
Renaissance Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound School  on Twitter
Renaissance Expeditionary Learning Outward Bound School on Facebook
Renaissance Student Activities

 Information is all around, you just need to find the sources that work best for you.

Hopefully all of these sites and blogs will help you stay well-informed about our classroom, school and district. Remember, most of them are linked on the sidebar of our crew blog so you can always find them easily.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.

Important Dates
9/22-9/23 ~ Fall Voyage
9/24 Day of Rest for 1st grade
9/25 No School ~ Professional Development Day for Teachers
10/2 Boot Camp
10/3-10/18 Fall Break
10/19 No School ~ Teacher Work Day

Picking Tomatoes in the Garden

We have a second blog post for today. Some tomatoes were ripe and ready to pick today so we went out with Ms. Marla and picked some. We had a great time picking tomatoes. There will be more things to pick next week. We can't wait! When we returned to the classroom we drew a picture of the garden and the tomatoes in our Expedition notebook to help us keep track of how the garden is changing over time.

Lining Up in Number Order

One activity we did this week was to line up in order. Yesterday we each had a card with a number on it and we had to count by 2s to get in order (we also tried to do it counting by 5s). The tricky part was that we were not allowed to talk to each other while getting in order. We had to communicate in other ways in order to be successful. This was a team building activity and a math activity. We were so proud when we did it as you can see in the photos below.

IA
Our IA next week is Sustainability. (Yes, Art and Music are coming soon!)

Independence

One of the things that will help your child most at school is a growing sense of independence. Being able to do things on their own gives children confidence to try other new things and to take risks. This is a good thing in many areas. If a child will take a risk, they will be more willing to try to figure out an unknown word or to try solve a more complicated math problem. They become what we call self-extenders which means that they begin to learn on their own and this makes them feel great. You can help your child with this by asking them to do things that they are capable of doing on their own. I know that it can take way more time and patience on your part (believe me, I know) but it really does pay off in the long run.  So ask your child to do those little things that they are capable of doing on their own.

Some suggestions might be:
learn to write their last name
learn their address
learn a parent's phone number
tie their own shoes
zip their coat
turn their coat right-side out
put on their own band-aids
make their own sandwich or bowl of cereal

These little things will help them become more independent and feel more confident and this will carry over to their academic growth as well.

Homework
Reading ~ Read a good book or two.

The Beat

Our all school meetings are called, The Beat. ambassadors are chosen from various crews and grade levels to set up and run each meeting. When we meet we sit in a circle with an elevated stage in the center of the large group in the gym. Today was the first Beat of the year. Lincoln, Tori, Jackson, Halle and Alex represented us well. More of our crew will be chosen to lead as we progress through the year. You will be notified by Ms. Chelsea when your child is chosen. As always, you are invited to attend any meeting. The Beat happens every other Wednesday at around 9:15 am. The next sentence should say "Enjoy the photos below" but I forgot to take my iPad to the meeting so you will have to use your imagination.

Homework
Read a good book or two.

Sign Language

We are so lucky to have Ms. Wendy as our Educational Assistant - for many reasons - but this post is about how she is teaching us sign language. We have spent a few minutes each day learning the sign language alphabet and a few other signs. We will continue to learn more signs as the year progresses. This year we are using the sign language alphabet as part of our word work learning. We are using it when we listen for sounds in a word, when we are spelling words and as we work on blending sounds in words. It is helping some students to have this kinesthetic way to practice hearing and recording sounds and learning new words. Thanks, Ms Wendy!

Homework
Read a good book or two. Your child is bringing home a book in a ziploc bag each day from Monday through Thursday to read to you. You can also read aloud to them or they can read books you check out from the public library.