I love starting work with young student when we get to discover the wonders of bigger numbers. With almost certainty once students think past the one thousands they go straight to millions. Explaining we need to go through tens of thousands and then hundreds of thousands is quite mind blowing for some.
It is important for students to make connections with the place value of numbers before starting addition and subtraction. When they only see numbers as single entities and not as holding a greater value based on its position in a number then they have difficulty adding and subtracting. The great thing this year is that I have some students who are quite confident reading, writing and ordering up to five digit numbers. Their challenge now is to see how well they can add them.
My own teenage kids still enjoy board games like Ticket To Ride, RISK and Monopoly, where skills in fast addition are still needed. They started playing them at a young age and I am reminded of how helpful these games are to teach children basic number facts and how to work with them quickly (especially if they're competitive and want to win!). I wish there was more time in class to get kids to play these games. If you have kids at home, play board games! They're fun for the whole family.
We're also keeping with the mini beast theme and exploring the components of an information report and applying this knowledge to new knowledge. We are learning all the gory facts about blood sucking insects and cow dung living critters.
The Sochi Olympic Games medal standings always spark our early morning conversations as students share what they've see of these fun but often unusual sports. Most students haven't even seen ice. We were glad to see Australia get off the bottom of the table and hold its 21st spot. We know just one gold would push us up the ladder by several spots.
Swimming carnival tomorrow is sure to be loads of fun :-)
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