11/3/25

We are working in our life cycles of both animals and plants unit. Kids will get to explore how an understanding of life cycles can aid in solving problems that occur when there are too many or too few organisms in a particular environment.  

We have a classroom economy where kids earn points for doing their jobs, completing extra work, or being a Brookside PROUD student, then use those points to pay rent on their chairs/table spots.  They also choose to spend points on a variety of rewards.

We are just starting Unit 3 in our math curriculum.  We will learn how to round, estimate, and use strategies to add and subtract three-digit numbers.  You can read more about the unit here in English and here in Spanish.

Through our Number Corner routine, I will introduce unit fractions to students.  We will continue building on this knowledge throughout our math this year.  First up, we'll just be getting used to equal shares of ONE and how 8 equal shares must be smaller shares than only 2 equal shares.

Reminders about multiplication facts:

Kids do NOT need to memorize multiplication facts.  They should understand how to use patterns and strategies to solve efficiently.  As we continue to use these strategies, students will begin to increase their automaticity with the facts.  

Automaticity is not always synonymous with memorization.  Some students will memorize facts, while some may struggle with rote memorization.  Using strategies allows all students to build their number sense.  

A great comparison is that teaching students these building blocks is like teaching them phonics during reading.  They need the building blocks to put it all together.  So you can think of these strategies as their math "phonics."

See below for strategies with examples to help explain them.