2: It's in the details

In this first math block, students have been taking a deeper look at what the four operations (addition, multiplication, subtraction, and division)  do and also how they do their jobs.   

We've compared this to how someone does a chore like feed the dog or load the dishwasher, there are lots of steps to completing the job and lots of ways to get the job done.

All student work starts out with physical experiences; moving gems, moving people, hearing stories that are reenacted etc. and this work is gently moved into conceptual (thinking and writing) avenues.

This week students investigated and discovered some of the properties of addition by testing ideas like:

What happens when zero is added? (Additive Identity property)

Does the order you add in change the answer? (Commutative property)

What about if you're adding more than two numbers, does order matter then? (Associative property)

These ideas are important for our continued work through the elementary years and having working knowledge of these behaviors will certainly come in handy when tackling algebra in later years.

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The saint story for the week was about Moling (Maw-ling), a kind and spirited Irish boy who grew into a thoughtful and caring friend to animals.

Moling's story was counterbalanced by the story The Fox and The Farmer, a compilation of an Aesop fable and a Chinese fable.

Here's a snippet of the fable, shown through students' clay modeling:

A rascally fox catches the scent of the hens,

sneaks past the farmer,

                                         

and tries to nab a snack.

Closer and closer ... 

The fox never guesses the farmer has laid a trap!

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Week 1: Settling In

The first week of second grade was spent remembering and building on old habits, starting some new class traditions, getting to know the new classroom space and everyone's new desk neighbors. We jumped right back into the world of numbers: counting, calculating, story problems, and checking-in on number sense and subitizing skills. Utilizing glass gems, students began to work with equations that prrompted looking at addition in new ways. The beloved daily practice of dictation began again and practice on many new songs and verses was part of the week too.

Also, the two types of stories we will utilize this year were introduced. 

 Our saint stories began with Anna Wang, from the Hebei (huh-bay) province in China. Despite famine and hardship, she cared for others who were being persectued because of their ethnicity. She did not give in to those who used tried to use power and violence against others. They tried to persuade her to help get rid of anyone who didn't belong. But she was tenacious, she wanted to have a free mind; a mind that was open to caring about everyone, no matter their background. Instead of harming others, she comforted and cared for those in danger.

If you're near the classroom afterschool one day, pop in and check out the print of handmade painting of Anna, its in the frame near the chalkboard.

Our fables started with Fox and the Grapes. Mrs. Magee delivered a wonderful rertelling of the classic tale. Students drew pictures and later in the week, used clay to model curious foxes who just couldn't quite get  to those luscious grapes.

A quick group game or puzzle is a wonderful way to start the day!