Our Class Blog: February 24

ARRAYS!

Arrays are a wonderful way to visualize repeated addition, which is the beginning step of multiplication. We have been working on problems such as the one below, and using examples such as rows of tomato plants, rows of desks in a classroom, etc. Arrays are all around us and learning to use them is a life skill that we use even as adults. Ex. "How much tile will we need to retile the kitchen?" The children had many examples such as these and I encourage you to help them continue to make those connections at home and point them out when you see them!

Real life examples of arrays:

Another example of repeated addition / multiplication, looking at how many sticks of gum in three packs of gum:

This week we played a game that was very similar to dealing cards: Start with a large number of counters, and pass one counter to each child until you have used all the counters. The important part was that each group needed to be equal. Any extras / leftovers were put in the "remainder" pile. In the example below, the children chose to begin with 13 counters. They had three children in their group, so each child ended up with four counters, and there was one leftover. As adults, we can see this as:

12 divided by 3 equals 4, with a remainder of one

While some of the students are excited about multiplication, there other children who are intimidated by even the words "multiplication" and "division". The goal for now is to help them see the connection between repeated addition and multiplication, and that they've been doing multiplication in this way for a long time without really realizing it! In the example below, the children can see:

4 + 4 + 4 = 12

and the next step is recognizing that this is the same as:

4 x 3 = 12

This week we have also been using base ten blocks to help us with two digit subtraction. Having a visual is very helpful for the students to make sense of place value:

This week in Social Studies we began our next unit on the environment, including how people use their environment. We will be learning about natural resources and pollution. On Friday the children brainstormed all the things we "catch, gather and grow" (they decided many things belonged in more than one category, hence the arrows!) and we made the following list of things we use for food, clothing, and beyond.

GUEST POST FROM ITALIA!

We were so excited this week to receive some photo updates from Conrad,

all the way across the ocean in Florence, Italy:

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Hello everyone! Hope you’re having a good time. I am going to show you these pictures from Florence, Italy. We are living here for the next few weeks.

This is the view that we can see from our window. It’s almost 100 steps up to our apartment: we’re on the fifth floor, high up.

In this picture in our apartment I am dressed as Sergeant Bob. My Mama thinks this is an

awfully silly picture to include, and she’s typing this.

This is one of the biggest crystals that I’ve ever seen, in the Crystal Museum in Boboli Gardens. It is three feet high.

Here we are in the Uffizi. We are pretending we are judges and saying “order in the court!” (“Uffizi” means offices: this is the City Hall of Florence. These offices have been in use since the 14^th century.)

This cannon is in the Bargello, which is the National Museum, but used to be a prison where they executed criminals. Casimir and I, who are in the picture, wish we could fire this cannon. It is humongous.