March

• World Water Day is March 22! Designated by the United Nations, this annual event is a means of focusing attention on the importance of clean water and advocating for the sustainable management of freshwater resources. This is an opportunity for students and families to talk about protecting our water supplies, reducing water-wasting activities and reducing (or eliminating) our use of disposable plastic water bottles. As the warm weather approaches, please equip your child with a re-usable water bottle to use at school.

• Earth Hour takes place on Saturday, March 28th at 8:30 p.m. This is another opportunity to help students learn about small (or big) changes we can make in our lives to care for the planet.​​

Making Math Connections

The past month has been an exciting one in math class. After skip counting by various numbers, we noticed the connection between skip counting and multiplication (2+2+2 is the same as 3x2). Then, as we studied area, we noticed the connection to multiplication. We took some time to play with the idea that areas of square shapes always show up in a diagonal line in a multiplication chart (i.e., 1x1, 2x2, 3x3, 4x4,...).

​Now we are studying fractions, beginning with the concept of equal halves. Immediately students notice the connection to area: fractions are all about equally dividing the area of a shape! Currently, we are working on dividing groups of objects in half. We are starting to see some patterns emerging:

• even and odd numbers of objects cannot be halved in the same way;
• halves remind us of addition doubles (1+1, 2+2, 3+3, 4+4,....);
• fractions are related to division (e.g., 12 divided into halves is the same as 12 divided by 2);
• fractions are related to multiplication (e.g., 2 groups of 6, or 2 x 6, shows 2 halves of 12)

While these "discoveries" may seem obvious to parents, they are SUPER COOL for students (and teachers). We love finding out that a new topic in math is actually something we already knew!