Goldfish math

Today, first grade mathematicians explored subtraction with real goldfish crackers! We had so much fun learning our subtraction facts while using our problem-solving skills together.  Ask your child to explain how we used pictures, diagrams and number sentences to solve subtraction problems.
Perhaps you can try it at home too?

Chunking by 5s and 10s

First grade mathematicians continued chunking by 5s and 10s this week.  In math, we think about different strategies to solve our number problems and sometimes, chunking our numbers into friendly 5s and 10s help us be more efficient.  Here is a picture of what it looks like on our number grid when we chunk, and count, by 5s and 10s.

Discovering math conjectures

Our 1st grade mathematicians are making incredible conjectures, generalizations, in class.  As we explore numbers together, they are starting to see the similarities and differences between different number patterns.  For example, through our daily explorations of number sentences representing the days in school, the students have started to discover the patterns of even and odd numbers.  Please see our attached picture.  Can you check on these generalizations at home and see if other number sentences also fit this pattern?

Math Update

In Math this week, students have created a beautiful Sea Star Quilt which we have used to focus on counting by 5's. Next week students will be focusing on counting by 10's. We are wrapping up our current unit, and we are excited to be moving onto a new unit next week!How many ways can you find to count by 5s? If you count by 5s three times, how can you write that in a number sentence? Can you write it in many ways?  Let me know.