Math Learning & New Social Studies Unit

The students started the year with exploring multiplication strategies for basic facts. We have continued to practice these facts during class as well as during our Fact Power block at the end of the day with Mr. Willette, our Title One Math Coach. Initially, we started the year with many students practicing their addition facts during Fact Power. As of the end of November we have moved all students into practicing their multiplication facts during this time. Fact practice is so important to freeing up energy in their mind's when working on more difficult math concepts. Fact practice at home is always a great idea!

During math class we are now working on multi-digit multiplication using a strategy called the Open Area Model. The students have excelled with decomposing multi-digit numbers into simpler facts and then putting them back together at the end to solve. Students have also looked at patterns that occur with place value as numbers get larger and have used those patterns to solve problems focusing on number relationships instead of algorithms.

Lastly, we have spent a great deal of time working on multi-step word problems. Each week students are being asked to understand the problem, plan out a strategy for solving, solve and judge the reasonableness of their answer. During our MTSS time, which is outside of our regular math class, students are working on a differentiated math menu that is asking them to tackle many math skills, one of them being challenging word problems. These math menus will be coming home so that you can see the types of problems your student is working on.

You can click this link to see the math menus that the students have worked on.

In Social Studies we are currently working on Vermont history. We have learned about the geologic processes that shaped this region as well as the early native people that lived here. We are just beginning to dive into the Europeans, where they settled and how they impacted the area we now call home. The students have been working off of a site that I built that can be found under Important Links on our Homepage. The students are creating a book that goes along with the website as we move through each period in our state's history.