Math
Our primary math resource is called Math Expressions which links mathematical ideas to a child’s everyday experiences.
While using this resource, your child will learn math by
· Working with objects and making drawings of math situations.
· Listening to and working with other children and sharing ways to solve problems.
· Writing and solving problems and connecting math to daily life.
· Helping classmates learn.
Below are listed our units for the year. The current unit being studied will include a description of the skills we are working on.
Unit 1: Addition Within 20
In this unit, students analyze a variety of addition and subtraction word problem structures: Add To, Take From, Put Together/Take Apart, and Compare. They extend this learning to solve two-step word problems involving addition and/or subtraction. Students model, draw, or act out the actions or relationships in the word problems as a strategy for engaging in the problem and creating understanding of the relationships among the numbers in the situation. Students use reasoning strategies to solve for the unknown in the part whole relationship. Additionally, students explore the properties of "even" and "odd" and generate several strategies for determining if a given quantity is even or odd.
Questions for Students:
How do I use information from a story problem to create a model showing the known amounts and the unknown amount and the relationship between them?
What is known? What is unknown? How are they related to the parts and whole
How can I use my model of a problem to help me when I get stuck?
How can I explain my reasoning in a way that others will understand?
Why is it important to use strategies other than counting?
Why are counting on and back strategies not the best choice for simple number combinations?
How can reasoning strategies be more accurate than counting strategies?
How do number relationships help in developing reasoning strategies?
What are the ways numbers can be broken apart and put back together?
What math ideas do I know that would help me think to find the answer
Unit 2: Addition With in 200
In unit 2, students work with place value, representing numbers in different ways, and comparing numbers. They add two, three, or four 2-digit numbers, choosing appropriate tools and representations that help them think about groups of tens and hundreds in the problem. Students use visual models to represent two and three digit numbers, and they apply their addition strategies to problems involving money.
Questions for Students:
Why are partitions of tens and ones useful when manipulating numbers in the base ten number system?
Why can a number be broken into hundreds, tens, and ones in more than one way?
If I change the number of hundreds, tens, or ones in a quantity, how does the representation change?
How do I break apart numbers so that they are easier to work with?
Why does breaking numbers into tens and ones make solving addition problems easier?
What strategy can I use to solve this problem?
How can tens and ones models, number line models, and equations with a symbol for the unknown all show the same numbers and relationships?
What makes one strategy better than another?
What strategies for addition are efficient? accurate?
Unit 3: Lengths and Shapes
In this unit, students measure and estimate lengths using standard units of linear measurement (inches, centimeters, feet, meters.) They represent lengths on line plots, and analyze the relationship between the size of the unit and the number of units needed to measure a given object. Students also use attributes to identify and model shapes. Visual models and real world situations support students' understanding of shapes and length measurements.
Questions for Students:
How can we describe geometric figures?
Which attributes are useful in identifying this shape?
Why can't each person just use their own size unit to measure objects?
How can I be sure my measurement is accurate?
What tool is best for measuring this object?
How does the size of unit I measure with impact the measure of the object?
How can I use my mental image of the size of an inch/centimeter/foot/meter to estimate the length of an object?
Unit 4: Subtract 2-Digit Numbers
Students build fluency with subtraction strategies based on breaking apart numbers in useful ways. They use tools such as place value models and empty number line models both to guide thinking and to communicate reasoning. Strategies include breaking numbers apart by place values, keeping one number whole and subtracting parts, using known number relationships and compensating, or using addition. Students continue refining addition strategies developed in Unit 2, and they apply addition and subtraction strategies when solving one and two step addition and subtraction problems of all subtypes. Students apply addition and subtraction strategies in solving problems about money. This work is shown in two Organizing Concepts: one describing work on word problems, and one describing computation strategies. In their work with addition and subtraction of larger quantities, students solidify fluency with all addition combinations with sums up to 20 and related subtraction combinations.
Questions for Students:
What strategy can I use to solve this problem?
How do I break apart numbers so that they are easier to work with?
What strategies for addition or subtraction are efficient? accurate?
Why does breaking numbers into tens and ones make solving addition problems easier?
How is subtraction like addition? How is it different?
Unit 5: Time, Graphs and Word Problems
In this unit, students read and show time to the nearest five minutes on digital and analog clocks. They display data using bar graphs and pictographs, and they interpret the data in graphs by asking and answering questions about the data. Students use what they know about solving word problems to find answers to questions posed about data.
Questions for Students:
How can I use what I know about counting by ones and fives to tell time?
Why is it useful to use am and pm when telling the time?
What can data tell us about the people we survey?
What kind of graph could show this data?
What are the ways data can be displayed?
Why would this graph be useful in showing this data?
Unit 6: 3-Digit Addition and Subtraction
In this unit students use the structure of place value to represent numbers up to 1000 with models of hundreds, tens, and ones. They compare quantities and numbers, and they use knowledge of place value to count forward and back by 1s, 10s and 100s, leading to mental computation with 10 and 100. They apply previously developed computational strategies to make sense of adding and subtracting numbers up to 1000. Students demonstrate addition and subtraction strategies through writing and justify the accuracy of their strategies.
Questions for Students:
How do I look for patterns in a number sequence?
How do I use place value to tell which number is greater or less?
How does the position of a digit in a number affect its value?
Is one always one? When can one be a different amount?
How does the representation of a number change when ten/hundred is added/subtracted from it?
How can I use strategies I know for addition and subtraction with numbers in the hundreds?
What patterns do I see as I add or subtract hundreds, tens, and ones?
Unit 7: Arrays, Equal Shares and Adding or Subtracting Lengths
Students explore the structure of rows and columns within rectangles and use counting, grouping, and addition and subtraction strategies to determine how many squares make a rectangle. This provides important foundational understanding that supports students' development of the array model for multiplication and conceptual understanding of area. Students will also break shapes into equal shares and develop language for fractions.
Questions for Students:
How do we create a model to use in problem solving?
How are math symbols and systems used to communicate information?
How do you know where to start with a problem?
What do problem solvers do when they are stuck?
How does flexibility with models support you with problem solving?