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 are starting Chapter 11 this week! In Chapter 11, your student learns about two-dimensional shapes. At first, your student explores shape attributes, such as curves, sides, and vertices. Then your student uses those attributes to define shapes. For example, your student defines a triangle as a shape having three sides and three vertices. Then your student sorts and classifies shapes by identifying which of several shapes is a triangle, rectangle, square, circle, or hexagon.

Have fun with the following activities to practice with two-dimensional shapes:

• Play a guessing game. Take turns. One player secretly thinks of an object within view that has the shape of a triangle, rectangle, square, circle, or hexagon, for example, a dinner plate in the shape of a circle. The other player tries to find out what the secret object and shape are by asking only yes or no questions, for example, “Is the object hanging on the wall? Does it have a square shape?” Set a limit of 20 questions for each player's turn.
• If you have access to old magazines, work with your student to cut out photos of objects that are shaped like triangles, rectangles, squares, circles, and hexagons. For example, you might find a photo of a building that has rectangular windows and/or a triangular roof, or you might find an advertisement for a circular watch or ring. Suggest that your student trace over the shapes with a marker or crayon to make them stand out. Then sort the photos by shape.
• Have your student draw two-dimensional shapes by tracing objects. For example, your student might trace around the bottom of a can to draw a circle, or around the base of a box to draw a rectangle.

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.

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

Have fun with the activities below to help your student practice and understand numbers to nineteen:

• Make a number book using a notebook or by attaching ten sheets of paper with staples or a paperclip. 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.

This week in Math, we will be beginning Chapter 8 in our curriculum! 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.

We are continuing chapter 7, which is all about subtraction. We will be writing subtraction sentences, using the vocabulary terms: subtract, take from, and minus. We will also use a ten frame to model subtraction and show our work. The activities below are suggestions to try at home 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.

We are starting Chapter 7 this week in math. 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.