Wednesday, November 16, 2011

Fact Families

During Calendar Math each day, we have been working on Fact Families. Fact families are a set of facts, each of which relates the same three numbers through addition or subtraction. Examples: 3 + 7 = 10, 7 + 3 = 10, 10 - 7 = 3, 10 - 3 = 7. Click here to read a very helpful and informative article by Amanda Moran.

Our Fact Family board we use in Calendar Math.

Here is a link to a Fact Family game we play during Calendar Math.


Tuesday, November 8, 2011

Reading, Reading, Reading!

We had such a great Awards Ceremony today! We are so proud of all of our students and how hard they work through out each nine weeks. As promised for our "Million Word Campaign" reward, our principal, Mrs. Phillips was duct taped to the wall for two hours as she read a book!



Your child should be reading every night, logging in the title, level and whehter they liked the book or not.

Reading nightly is so important! Please read the following to truly understand it's importance:

Did you know one of the most prominent indicators of a successful reader is the amount of time spent actually reading? Let's figure it out -- mathematically!

Student A reads 20 minutes five nights of every week
Student B reads only 4 minutes a night...or not at all!

Step 1: Multiply minutes a night x 5 times each week.
Student A reads 20 min. x 5 times a week = 100 mins./week
Student B reads 4 minutes x 5 times a week = 20 minutes

Step 2: Multiply minutes a week x 4 weeks each month.
Student A reads 400 minutes a month.
Student B reads 80 minutes a month.

Step 3: Multiply minutes a month x 9 months/school year
Student A reads 3600 min. in a school year.
Student B reads 720 min. in a school year.

Student A practices reading the equivalent of ten whole school days a year.
Student B gets the equivalent of only two school days of reading practice.

By the end of 6th grade if Student A and Student B maintain these same reading habits, Student A will have read the equivalent of 60 whole school days.Student B will have read the equivalent of only 12 school days.

One would expect the gap of information retained will have widened considerably and so, undoubtedly, will school performance. How do you think Student B will feel about him/herself as a student?

Some questions to ponder:
Which student would you expect to read better?
Which student would you expect to know more?
Which student would you expect to write better?
Which student would you expect to have a better vocabulary?
Which student would you expect to be more successful in school....and in life?

Wednesday, November 2, 2011

Contraction Action

Contraction Action
(Tune: The Hokey Pokey)
You pop some letters out!
To put apostrophes in!
You pop some letters out!
That's the way you must begin.
To do contraction action is as easy as can be!
Come on and dance with me! Oh Yeah!

We have been having a lot of fun learning about contractions in school! Here are some fun online games to play and learn more!