Weekly review

Homework:

Some of you may have noticed that the homework does not say study math facts but instead it says practice time and money. Everyone has loose change so money is fairly simple to practice. Most of the kids can count money. They still have some difficulty accurately changing from one type of money to another while counting. For example if they are counting by quarters and suddenly must move to nickels. That is hard stuff. Here are some ways you should be helping your child practice money.

Counting:
Have them pull out a handful of change. Have them sort the coins from greatest to smallest and count the amount. On a piece of paper have them draw the coins and write the amount. Have them take that amount and make it in a different way. Once they have a grasp on this have them use the fewest coins.


Problem Solving:
Tell them you have ___ coins in your pocket. None of the coins are bigger then a ___ which means you would have ____ in your pocket. Tell me the different combinations of coins I could have and how much each value is worth.

EX: I have three coins in my pocket. None of the coins are bigger then a nickel. What kind of coins are in my pocket? Answer: Pennies and nickels
Tell me the different combinations of coins I could have and how much each value is worth.
Answer:
1. two nickels and no pennies= ten cents
2. two pennies and no nickels= two cents
3. one penny and one nickel= six cents


Making Change:
You have fifty cents and you bought a piece of candy for forty-seven cents. How much change would you get back?
Help your child find the answer to questions like these by having them count on from the cost of the item to the amount of money used. This is the way you are supposed to count on change but most people don't do it that way. You can make it more complicated by having them use nickels, dimes, and quarters. If you really want to challenge your child use change and dollars. DO NOT DO THIS UNLESS THEY HAVE MASTERED COUNTING ON IN CHANGE IN THE FIRST TWO WAYS.

Money in action:
Give your child a budget. Have them use a catalog or a newspaper add to spend pretend money on things. I would recommend only using a dollar at this point but you can try for more. Please remember that they cannot regroup at this point. Regrouping is what we learned as borrowing and carrying. It is not called that anymore. Please make sure you are using the proper language if you are going to work on this with your child.

We are also working on telling time. Right now we are making time to on the hour, half-past, quarter after, quarter to, twenty-five to, and twenty to. This is a REALLY hard concept that most of the kids are not developmentally ready for. You might see a very big difference in your child being able to do it and understanding what they are doing. This is okay .This is very age appropriate. They might not get it now but as we keep working on it they will get it. Although many of the kids won't get the twenty to or quarter after business. They should all be able to tell you which is the minute hand and which is the hour hand. They should all be able to read a digital clock, write on an analog clock, read an analog clock, and make a specific time on the clock when give that time.

Show me 8:30
Show me 8:45
Can you think of another way to say 8:45?
How many minutes are in an hour?
How many minutes are in a half-hour?
How many minutes are in a quarter of an hour?

Language Arts:
We finished our unit on Kindness and are not moving on to Animal Camouflage. We will be working on lots of non-fiction reading. It should be very fun and interesting for them.

When we are focusing on comprehension questions for our kids we only ask the very basic ones. Meaning we only ask them to think on the most basic level and not have to take a concept out of the passage, mix it up in their brain and then put it back out again. A standardized test does ask them to do this. Here are some words I am encouraging them to use when asking questions or thinking about texts. Here are some questions that you can use to encourage a deeper way of thinking for your child. Some of you may recognize this as Bloom's Taxanomy of Higher Level Questioning.

Remembers: This is when we check for basic facts about people, places, or things.

When does the story take place?
Where did ________ live?
Who is the main character in the story?

Key words: who, what, where, when, how, describe, define, choose, and select.

Understands: This checks understanding and memory.

Describe what happened after ___________.
Explain how ___________ arrived at __________.
How are ______ and _______ related.

key words: give an example, explain, summarize, demonstrate, infer, show, classify, facts/opinion, and condense.

Applies: This shows the ability to check knowledge of the facts, rules, and principles.

How would you feel if_______?
Predict what will happen next.
Do you think _________?

key words: predict, identify results of, judge the effects of, tell how, when, where, and why, tell what would happen if.

Analysis: break into smaller parts

Compare _________ to __________.
Analyze how ___________ lived or acted.
Which event was most exciting? Why?

Key words: distinguish, conclusions, identify, theme, main idea, relationships between, and point of view.

Evaluates: help you decide the value of the information gained.

Predict what will happen next.
Recreate an event in the story using animals instead of people.
What is your opinion of __________.

Key Words: appraise, h=judge, criticize, defend, compare, and find the errors.

Creates: Use basic information and combine it to create a new pattern or whole.

Which character in the would you like to be? Why?
How would story be different if it were to take place in another country?
Create a different ending for this story or event.

Key Words: create, compose, develop, propose an alternative, how else would you, do, make, design.



This is all information I got from the conference I went to right after Thanksgiving. I will be sending home another sheet with more Bloom's words on it for you to have a copy of at your house. I hope this helps!