Math Groups Have Begun!

Today we started "official" math groups. Although we have been doing math assessments and lessons since the beginning of the year, today was the day that children went to their math teacher - who may or may not be their homeroom teacher.

I have a lovely group of 14 students, keeping some of mine, and getting some of Elaine's group. They are all eager to learn.

I also have a group of parent helpers, and I'm so grateful to have their help. Karen (mom of Mason and Max) will help out on Mondays, Xianglei (dad of Jiajia) will help on Tuesdays, and Gabrielle (mom of Skye and Ariana) will help on Fridays. Thursday is the only day I do not have a parent volunteer, so if you can commit to helping once a week, please let me know!

This morning we learned how to use our Singapore Math Books (we will review this a lot until it becomes fairly routine), and then got to work. After about 10 or 15 minutes we were ready for a game. Many children are either learning about or reviewing number bonds, and this was a great place to start. After some board work, I told the students that we would become "human number bonds". This is done by playing the fantastically fun game of Salute!

You may want to ask your child to teach you to play. You will need a deck of cards with face cards removed, and 3 players. This is a game to practice number bonds, addition, subtraction, and the "part-part-whole" aspect of equations (pre-algebra).