Last week, we officially ended our curriculum with Big Ideas! I can’t believe how fast the year is passing by! This week, we will take a short assessment to evaluate the skills we need to work on before going to first grade. After that, we’ll dive a little deeper into place value and work on creating 10 with two sets of numbers (ex: 4 and 6, 7 and 3, etc.). 

A cool car game you can play with your kiddo is ‘let’s make 10!’ You will start with a number and they have to figure out the other number they need to make 10. Remind them how many fingers they have for support. If you want to get really wild, you can remind them how many toes they have, but that may get rowdy in the car.

This week in math, we will be finishing our measuring unit. We will still measure and compare objects! We will finish this chapter with weight and capacity.  

Try these activities to have fun with measurement. 

• On laundry day, have your student help you sort the clean socks into pairs using length as an attribute. As you work, talk about which socks are longer or shorter than others and how sock makers determine lengths based on the age (size) of the wearer and style. For example, anklets are shorter than knee socks.
• When setting the table, have your student show you spoons or forks that have two different lengths. Ask your student to tell which is shorter and which is longer. Discuss their purposes, for example, for serving, for salads, or for main courses.

This week in math, we will be starting a brand new chapter! In chapter 13, we will dive into measuring and comparing objects! We will begin by comparing heights and lengths and then on Thursday, we will move onto comparing weights! 

Try these activities to have fun with measurement. 

• On laundry day, have your student help you sort the clean socks into pairs using length as an attribute. As you work, talk about which socks are longer or shorter than others and how sock makers determine lengths based on the age (size) of the wearer and style. For example, anklets are shorter than knee socks.
• When setting the table, have your student show you spoons or forks that have two different lengths. Ask your student to tell which is shorter and which is longer. Discuss their purposes, for example, for serving, for salads, or for main courses. 

We will finish up Chapter 10 in our math curriculum this week!

Use the activities below to help your student practice and use numbers through 100.

• Have your student count by ones to 30 on a yardstick or tape measure, and to 50 or 100 on a tape measure or by reading page numbers in a book.
• Count by ones as high as you can by taking turns saying the number that comes next. For example, you say, "one." Your student says, "two." You say, "three." Your student says "four," and so on. Vary the game by counting by tens ("ten," "twenty," "thirty," . . .).

We will continue to work on chapter 10 in our math curriculum and count to 100! 

Use the activities below to help your student practice and use numbers through 100.

• Have your student count by ones to 30 on a yardstick or tape measure, and to 50 or 100 on a tape measure or by reading page numbers in a book.
• Count by ones as high as you can by taking turns saying the number that comes next. For example, you say, "one." Your student says, "two." You say, "three." Your student says "four," and so on. Vary the game by counting by tens ("ten," "twenty," "thirty," . . .).

On Wednesday, student’s will have their chapter 9 post test. We will introduce chapter 10 with students on Thursday. In chapter 10, students will be working towards counting to 100! First, we will begin by counting to 30, then to 50, and then to 100! We will also work towards counting by 5s and 10s, to make counting objects quicker. For example, if there are 43 objects, they can count 10, 20, 30, 40, 41, 42, to 43! 

Use the activities below to help your student practice and use numbers through 100. 

• Have your student count by ones to 30 on a yardstick or tape measure, and to 50 or 100 on a tape measure or by reading page numbers in a book. 
• Count by ones as high as you can by taking turns saying the number that comes next. For example, you say, "one." Your student says, "two." You say, "three." Your student says "four," and so on. Vary the game by counting by tens ("ten," "twenty," "thirty," . . .).

We will be finishing our work with Chapter 8 in our curriculum this week. This chapter is all about counting, representing, and writing the numbers 11-19!

Have fun with the activities below to help your student practice and

understand numbers to nineteen.

• Give your student up to 19 pennies or other small objects to count.
• Have your student write the number, for example, 12. Then ask your student to verify that 12 is correct by grouping ten pennies together to see if there are 2 extra pennies, making 12.
• Take turns. One player shows ten fingers and the other person shows up to nine fingers. The player holding up ten fingers names the total number of fingers showing.
• Make a number book using a notebook or by attaching ten sheets of paper with staples or a paper clip. Help your student number the pages 11 through 19. On each page, have your student draw as many objects (or dots) as that page's number.
• If you have access to magazines, invite your student to find pictures of objects that illustrate one or more of the numbers to 19.

Use these activities as often as you would like. You might start by focusing on

the numbers 11 and 12 and gradually work your way up to 19.

In chapter 5, your student began to learn about subtraction concepts by taking apart a number. For example, your student might take apart 6 into 4 and 2. In this chapter, your student will use a subtraction sentence, which includes a minus sign, to show this relationship. Your student will subtract numbers within 10 to take away from a group of objects or animals and find how many are left. Your student will also subtract to take apart a whole and find the part that remains. Your student will discover subtraction patterns: When subtracting 0 from a number, the answer is the number. When subtracting 1 from a number, the answer is the counting number before the number. Finally, when subtracting a number from itself, the answer is 0. Your student will learn about the relationship between addition and subtraction by studying related facts, such as 2 + 3 = 5 and 5 − 3 = 2. This will help your student determine whether addition or subtraction best represents a situation. The vocabulary words for the chapter are left, minus sign, separate, subtract, subtraction sentence, and take away. Use the activities below to practice and apply subtraction with your student. 

• Look for opportunities to talk about subtraction with your student. For example, perhaps you bought six bananas and now there are two. How many bananas did your family eat? There were ten people in line in front of you. Now there are four people in front of you. How many people left? 
• Take turns subtracting 1. One person names a number up to ten, the other person says the number that is one less. 
• Help your student practice writing subtraction sentences. Toss five coins on a table. Ask your student to write a sentence that uses the whole (all pennies) minus one part (heads) to find the other part (tails). 
• Scatter up to ten pennies on a table. Have your student count the pennies and write the number.

Ask your student to look away while you cover some of the pennies with your hand or a sheet of paper. Challenge your student to name the number of hidden pennies using the number for the whole and the number of pennies that are showing.

In the previous chapter, your student learned that two parts make a whole. In this chapter, your student uses an addition equation, called addition sentence, including a plus sign and an equal sign, to show two parts and a whole. 

Your student learns two different ways to apply addition. One way involves groups of people or animals actively joining. For example, 2 students may join 3 students to play a game so there are 5 students playing in all. Another way involves non-moving objects, such as counters, to focus on parts and a whole. 

Your student discovers patterns: When adding 0 to a number, the answer is the number. When adding 1 to a number, the answer is the next counting number. Finally, your student finds a missing partner number (addend) by adding or counting on to the given partner number. For example, for 5 + ? = 9, your student might use counters to figure out that 5 and 4 more equals 9. The goal of the chapter is to build an understanding of addition, not to memorize facts, so don’t worry if your student needs to count objects to find answers. Here are some activities you can use to practice with your student. 

• If you have two number cubes, change the sixes to zeros by covering the sixes with masking tape. Invite your student to toss the two cubes to make partner numbers. Encourage your student to name the partner numbers and the total, or the number in all. Expand the activity to include writing an addition sentence to show the parts and the whole. 
• Play “Get to Ten” using fingers to find missing partner numbers. One player holds up any number of fingers. The other player names the number of fingers and how many more fingers are needed to get to ten. For example, if a player holds up 7 fingers, the other player might say, “Seven fingers; it takes three more to get to ten.” 
• Make two sets of cards, numbered 1 through 5. Mix up the cards and spread them facedown on a table. Players take turns flipping over two cards to find partner numbers that make 6, for example, 2 and 4. If a player finds partners, the player gets to keep the cards. If not, the player turns the cards facedown. The player with the most cards wins! 

This will be our last week of Chapter 5. We are creating numbers 8, 9, 10 by forming number bonds. We have been practicing this skill with numbers 5, 6, and 7. In addition to this, we will also be decomposing a group of five. Students will be learning that decomposing a number is to break a number apart. 

In this chapter, In this chapter, your student will put together two small groups of objects (parts) to form a larger group (the whole). They will also take apart a whole group to form two parts. They will use a number bond to show the numbers of objects in the parts and in the whole. 

Learning how two parts make a whole is the first step in learning to add and subtract. The vocabulary words for this chapter are put together, take apart, part, whole, partner numbers, and number bond. Use the activities below to help your student practice putting together parts to make a whole and taking apart a whole to make parts. 

• Drop up to ten pennies on a table. Have your student name the number of heads, the number of tails, and the number of all pennies. 
• Make a line on a tabletop with chalk or tape. Invite your student to drop up to ten dried beans or other small objects on the table. Ask your student to write the numbers of beans that fell on each side of the line and the number of beans in all. 
• On the count of three, you and your student each show up to five fingers. Have your student name the number of fingers each person is showing and the number of fingers in all. 

In this chapter, your student compares numbers up to 10 as equal to, greater than, or less than each other. Your student also learns to classify objects into categories. You can use the activities below to practice and review number comparisons, sorting and classifying, and data collection. 

• Place up to ten pennies on a table. Ask your student to place an equal number of pennies on the table. After you have played for a while, vary the game so that your student sets out a number of pennies that is greater than or less than the number of pennies you place on the table.
• Help your student make a chart to tally and compare the number of cans of vegetables that are peas and the number of cans of vegetables that are not peas.