Showing posts with label brain snacks. Show all posts
Showing posts with label brain snacks. Show all posts

Thursday, November 19, 2015

Growing Patterns

In Math our current focus is on Patterning. We previously worked on understanding repeating patterns. We talked about the pattern rule, the pattern core and the changing attributes. We learned a lot of new attributes and created our own patterns.

Students are now working on growing patterns. We are using number lines, hundreds charts and materials to create, identify and describe growing number patterns. We are recognizing pattern rules in words and matching them to growing patterns using numbers and objects.

Our morning brain snacks are filled with great math problems. Students are beginning their day with growing pattern questions that challenge them to figure out the pattern rule and use many strategies to solve their problem. Our principal Mr. Gautreau gave us some great math questions to think about during our Brain Snacks. It was really neat to discover so many patterns in one question. Hundreds charts have so many patterns in them...who knew? Ask your child about it!


Students had a lot of fun completing growing number pattern activities this week. We worked with partners to figure out the pattern rule to a problem. We also used materials to build pattern rules in a game we created. They all did a great job of collaborating together.
For homework this weekend, students have some math problems to review. They will need to read each question carefully to determine the pattern rule or the missing numbers in the growing number patterns. The questions are similar to the type of questions your child sees each morning during our Brain Snack activities. Please work with your child on these math problems. Next week we will have a patterning math test. This homework will help them prepare for next week's test!

Friday, September 11, 2015

Brain Snacks


We began our first week in school by focusing on math thinking activities that we call Brain Snacks. Students come into the classroom each day to a math problem on the board. They work on the problem by themselves in their notebooks and then we discuss the problem as a class. During our discussions, we get to know what our different strategies are. The discussions this week helped us to build our first criteria chart on Representing Numbers. Take a look at what we know so far about representing numbers!

Additionally, we have been playing number games and challenges to build on our knowledge from Grade 2. Ask your child how to represent a number. We are working on 2-digit numbers and will soon work towards 3-digit numbers. We will also be looking at Place Value and Skip Counting soon. Please review with your child how to identify the value or place of a digit in a number. Here is a game that we will play next week to get started: http://www.abcya.com/base_ten_fun.htm