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**Parent help is now available for the homework in each session in the current
units at first, second, third, fourth, and fifth grades! Click below for the grade you need:
First Second Third Fourth Fifth
**Quick Time videos with explanations of major concepts/skills from
each grade are new to this site! (9/20/07)
To
download Quick Time for PC (free), click here. To download Quick Time for Mac (free),
click here. You may need to check the system
requirements for your computer. We
are working on ensuring as much accessibility to the videos as possible.
Skip counting (grades K-5)
- 1 min., 34 sec.
Number Strings
(grade 2) – 2 min., 24 sec.
Adding double-digit
numbers (grades 2-3) – 8 min., 45 sec. (includes pictures, 100 chart,
and numeric strategies; please note: picture example could also be done
using symbols for tens, like squares, instead of sets of 10 marks)
Subtracting
double-digit numbers (grade 2) – 9 min., 43 sec. (includes pictures,
number line, and numeric strategies)
Multiplying
double-digit by single-digit numbers (grades 3-4) - 5 min., 51 sec.
(includes repeated addition and the distributive property)
Coordinate grids (grades 3-8)
– 1 min., 46 sec. (identifying and graphing points)
Multi-digit
multiplication and division – alternate efficient strategies (grades
4-8) – 5 minutes (*NOTE: this is a Google video; SMFCS assumes no
responsibility for the content of this page or links from it)
Polygons and angles – basic
concepts and terms (grade 5) – 4 min., 57 sec. (includes angle measurement)
Basic connections between fractions
and decimals (grades 4-6) – 5 min., 53 sec. (one brief reference to a
6th grade unit toward the end)
**Here, you can
download a Microsoft Word document that provides more suggestions for helping
with the different types of homework problems at each grade. (If you find
you are unable to download this document, please contact your teacher for a
copy.)
Kindergarten First Second Third Fourth Fifth
When helping with homework, ask your
child questions that will help him/her to work through the problem:
·
What is this problem asking you to do?
·
How might you get started?
·
What do you know so far?
·
Does this remind you of other problems? How did you solve those?
·
How can you organize the information?
·
Would drawing a picture or diagram help?
·
What would happen if ( )?
·
How does this relate to ( )?
·
Can you think of anything you worked on at school that connects
to the problem?
·
You said you do not get it.
What part of the assignment is confusing to you?
·
How can I help you (without giving you the solution)?
·
How do you know your method and answer make sense?
·
Has the question been answered?
·
Can you explain it in a different way?
Finally, if your child is still unsure about how to complete an
assignment after a reasonable amount of time, write a short note to the teacher
on the homework page, and the teacher will help the child on the following
day. The assignment
is the responsibility of your child, not you. Do not allow the homework to become a source of great stress
or anxiety. Follow the suggestions
on this page as best you can, and then let the teacher know that the student
had trouble with the assignment.
Final thoughts about homework:
You will see fewer problems in homework than you are used to
seeing. This is because the program
is aiming for a much deeper understanding of mathematics, so children are
expected to spend their homework time thinking about fewer problems. It is often not immediately obvious how
to solve the problems (which makes them real problems), and there
are usually several possible methods of solution. Often assignments require several solution attempts, the
refining of strategies, and a picture or diagram showing the problem and
solution. When children find ways
to clearly explain a strategy, they must articulate – and therefore
further clarify – key mathematical ideas.
Other general suggestions and
ideas
First, it is vital for you to be aware of how your thoughts about
the program affect the success of your child:
Children will, when encouraged to explore, to be curious, and to
be persistent, adapt very well to the program. However, if children are aware of negative feelings that you
may have, they will sense that there is a problem, and thus they will have more
trouble adapting. Children are
well aware of the emotions of their parents, and in the elementary years,
parents are still the most important people in a child's life. The more you can model the love of
learning and finding out new ways to understand ideas, the more your child will
follow your lead.
Second, it is important to be aware of the thinking and reasoning
of your child:
·
Listen to how your child makes sense of the math he/she is working
on in school. Let the focus of
your interaction be your interest in his/her ideas. Try to display a positive attitude about mathematics, even
if you found it difficult or unpleasant as a student.
·
It is OK to say that you never learned it this way but that you
are interested in learning about math in this new way. The strategies that you use to solve
problems are valid, but they may not be strategies your child is
developmentally ready to learn and understand.
·
It is OK not to entirely understand what is expected in homework
your child brings home. On this
page (below) are questions that you can ask your child to draw out what was
discussed in class and what your child might do to approach the problems.
·
Be aware that it takes time and work to learn a concept. Struggle does not indicate failure or
inability – it is the best precursor to real learning. Encourage your child not to give up!
·
You may find that you understand more of the math than you think
at first. You may also find that
you will learn from helping your child with assignments.
·
Ask your child to explain his/her strategy to you – let him/her
teach you.
Also, keep in mind these criteria for mathematical thinking for students
(Greenwood, 1993):
1. Everything you do
in mathematics should make sense to you.
2. Whenever you get
stuck, you should be able to use what you know to get yourself unstuck.
3. You should be
able to identify errors in answers, in the use of materials, and in thinking.
4. Whenever you do a
computation, you should be use a minimum of counting. [That is, since counting is inefficient, students should be
able to do the computation with a more efficient strategy.]
5. You should be
able to perform calculations with a minimum of rote pencil-paper
computations. [That is, the more
students can do mentally, the better.]
6. When the strategy
you are using is not working, you should be willing to try another strategy
instead of giving up.
7. You should be
able to extend, or change, a problem situation by posing additional conditions
or questions. [This is especially
helpful for challenging students who need the extra challenge.]
How can I help my child become more
comfortable with writing to express solutions?
One easy way to help your child start to get thoughts on paper is
to provide verbal prompts, such as I think the answer is ( ). I think this because ( ). Another way to provide prompts could
be, First I did (
); then I did ( );
next I did ( ); last I
did ( ). I know my method of solution makes
sense because (
). Have the child
leave his/her work for 15 minutes, then return to it and read it aloud to see
if it makes sense. This gives
him/her a way to check the work.
Praise your child's efforts and perseverance, and let him/her know that
his/her thinking is valued by you and by the teacher. It is true that many students will find the process of
writing in math very difficult at first, but it is a valuable skill for them to
learn for life and, pragmatically, for our state tests, including the Ohio
Graduation Test.
In 1989, the National Council of Teachers of Mathematics wrote:
Young children learn language through verbal communication; it
is important, therefore, to provide opportunities for them to talk
mathematics. Writing about
mathematics, such as describing how a problem was solved, also helps students
clarify their thinking and develop deeper understanding. Opportunities to explain, conjecture,
and defend ideas orally and in
writing can stimulate deeper understandings of concepts and principles. Writing and talking about their
thinking gives the teacher valuable information from which to make
instructional decisions.
Teachers learn a great deal about each student through his/her
writing – much more than the teacher would have learned from scoring a
page of 20 problems. This helps
the teacher to work with each student much more effectively than would have
possible in the past.
About the games in Investigations:
Games are a central part of the math in the units, not just
enrichment.
Games develop familiarity with the number system and with the
landmarks in the number system, such as 10s, 100s, and 1000s, and provide
engaging opportunities for practicing computation (different than traditional
paper and pencil practice).
Playing games encourages strategic mathematical thinking as
students find an optimal way (rather than just any way) of solving a
problem. This strategic thinking
develops over time, so the games must be played on an ongoing basis.
You can learn about the mathematical thinking of your child by
playing the games that are sent home.
Encourage your child to share his/her thinking and strategies during and
after you play.
Suggestions
for helping your child to become mathematically powerful at home
|
|
Grades K and 1 |
Grades 2 and 3 |
Grades 4 and 5 |
|
Money |
Use
money to help your child recognize coins, know the value of coins, count
coins (less than 50 cents) |
Help
your child make change; find coins that make amounts up to $5; save his/her
own allowance by opening a passbook savings account |
Help
your child participate in making family budgets or a budget for
himself/herself, participate in grocery shopping, manage his/her allowance,
decide how much allowance can buy. |
|
Counting/ Numbers |
Involve
counting and numbers in everyday activities: count fingers and toes; count
things around the house; count past 10; identify numbers on elevators and on
street signs. Also, setting the
table (and similar activities) helps to build spatial sense and reinforces 1
to 1 correspondence (I need 4 plates for 4 people, for example). |
Encourage
your child to count by 2s, 5s, and 10s. Count
past 100. Look
for patterns in everyday life and in numbers. |
Encourage
your child to practice skip counting by 3s, 4s, etc. Count
past 1000 (e.g., count from 650 by 100s). |
|
Math facts Click here for a
document that includes many good strategies for fact learning. |
Help
your child work with combining and separating various numbers of objects
(less than 20 total) to develop the notion of addition and subtraction. |
By
the end of 2nd grade, your child should know addition and
subtraction facts to 20 (1+19, 2+18, 10+10, etc.) and addition pairs that
equal 10 (3+7, etc.). By the end
of 3rd grade, your child should know multiplication and division
facts to 10x10. See the page on math facts and algorithms
for ways to help your child. |
In
fourth grade, students should continue to develop better fluency in all basic
facts. By fifth grade, students
should be fluent, and facts will not be an emphasis in class. |
|
Time |
These
are some of the time concepts that you can help your child learn at home: Days
of the week, months of the year, seasons, minutes in an hour, hours in a day,
how to read an analog clock (with an hour and minute hand), how to schedule
time (if you need to do four things, how much time will you need?) |
||
|
Measurement |
Involve
your child in activities that encourage measurement, such as: Cooking
(fractions, volume, cups, teaspoons, etc., following step-by-step
instructions), reading a thermometer (measuring body temperature and
measuring temperatures outside) |
||
Click
here for a complete list of the literature for children recommended for use
with Investigations (PDF file).
Also, click here for a PDF version of an excellent article called
Parents Can Help Children Learn
Mathematics from Involving Families in School Mathematics (NCTM,
2000). This article includes
dozens of great suggestions for fun activities involving math.
Click
here to download Adobe Acrobat Reader (free) in order to read these PDF
documents.
Other articles available (PDF versions):
Helping Your
Children Learn Math (Plano Independent School District; Plano, TX)
Tips Parents Can
Use to Help Their Children (Wherry, 1997)
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