The math homework may seem a little confusing this week, but with a little explanation every one can do it.
One of the things I learned at my math conference is the developmental stages of multiplication. It's easy for adults to understand that multiplication is groups with an equal amounts of items in each group. However, this is a very abstract concept for students to understand. A lot of children have just managed to understand that the number 4 represents an amount of items: 4 roses, 4 gym bags, or 4 soccer ball. But, it's not an easy transition to go from number of items to 4 groups with 7 items in each group: 4 gym bags with 7 balls in each bag means there are 28 balls altogether.
Understanding multiplication as groups of items is the step to mastering the basic multiplication facts.
For this reason, all fourth graders are looking around their environments trying to find things that come in groups. a six pack of pop is '1 group of 6,' if you have 4 six packs of pop then you have '4 groups of 6' which is 24 cans of pop altogether.
After school, Luke was able to find several examples of groups in the library. There were 5 groups of tables with 6 chairs around each table. Altogether there are 30 chairs in the library. He found posters in 2 groups of 6 or you could look at the posters as 6 groups of 2. His sister, Elizabeth, even saw 4 groups of 3 and 3 groups of 4 [Ellen was too busy doing her homework =)].
Students can draw a picture of the groups they find, take a picture and print it off to go with their math, or they can take a picture with a cell phone (if they have access to one) and send me a picture text.
To the right are a couple of pictures of groups sent to me by students. Britni say 1 group of 3 lip glosses (at list that's what I think they are) and I can't wait to see what groups Sophie sees with the blue bottles (and she has a flower of vases not included on the blog).
Help you child notice equal groups of objects and discuss how many equal groups there are and how many items are in each group.
The kids say thank you for typing about them! They were tickled pink to be mentioned on the famous Mrs. Jagla's blog!
ReplyDeleteAmy & the kids