April 14-17

Hello Kindergarten Families!

I hope you had fun learning about capacity last week!  I also hope you had a wonderful Easter weekend.  Did the Easter bunny come?

It has been so wonderful to see photos of so many of you tackling the capacity problems last week! I'm so happy you had fun with these tasks!

 

Some of us even tried to solve the tricky challenge problem!

 

Well done!

It is important to remember that at this early stage of problem solving your child will need support in learning where to start to solve the problem and they will need objects to use to support them in solving the problem.  Also, when asked to draw and write about their solution to the problem it is important to remember that your child may need your help to learn how to show their thinking.  Their drawings do not need to be detailed, or coloured like their journal drawings.  The emphasis is on showing their thinking rather than a polished finished product.  Over the last few months of kindergarten this would be a big focus for us.  So, if your child is challenged by this, that is what we would expect at this point in the year.  They simply haven't had many opportunities to show their math thinking this way.  Every week I will be sending home a math problem so they will have lots of opportunities to practice this skill, with your support!

Please continue to send photos in to me when you can!  If there is ever anything that I definitely need a photo of, or feedback about, I will let you know.

Moving forward, you will find a Weekly Schedule for math in our google drive.  You can use this to plan your week.  I will always send math for 4 days a week and I will break it down into 4 days.  Of course, you can work at your own pace.  Please always read the blog to know more detail about what to do with each task and to find the links that you will need.  I will be posting the blog on the weekend from now on so that you have it ready to go for Monday morning.

This week our math focus is on the number 8!

Here is what we will work on this week:


Day 1

• Watch this video about the number 8

• Ask your child to count to 8 and to show you 8 fingers.  Ask them if they can show you 8 fingers another way.  Make several groups of 8 objects.

• Next watch this video that is all about ways we can represent the number 8.

• Print out the Number 8 Sheet from the google folder or recreate one by copying.

• Use this rhyme to practice printing the number 8:

• Make an S, then close the gate and now you have the number 8!

• Have your child use a pencil to complete the number 8 sheet, 
• Print the 8's:  copy the first few and then complete the line with your own.  If they are tricky then practice some more on the back of the paper.
• Tally marks:  remind them 1,2,3,4 Number 5 shuts the door (a line across), then a space 6,7,8
• Number line:  start at zero and do 8 bumps.  Circle the 8
• Domino they need to come up with a way that 8 can be broken into two parts (4 and 4, 6 and 2, 5 and 3 etc.) and draw the dots
• Ten Frame:  Colour in 8 squares on the ten frame
• Draw 8 things that are the same (8 suns, 8 flowers, 8 bunnies etc.)

Day 2

• Watch this video to learn about breaking number 8 into it's parts

• Find 8 items that are the same in your house (blocks, beads, pennies)

• Experiment with different ways the items can be grouped and then have your child write number sentences for as many ways that they can make 8.  Some children will need help to remember what the + and = sign are and how to use them and write them.

• Some examples of number sentences are:
• 4 + 4 = 8
• 7 + 1 = 8
• 6 + 2 = 8
• 5 + 3 = 8

• Some more challenging number sentences they may come up with:
• 2 + 2 + 4 = 8
• 3 + 2 + 3 = 8
• 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 + 1 = 8

• The whole point here is to experiment with ways that 8 can be broken into its parts!  Some kiddos may want an extension to this activity and may even come up with subtraction sentences as well (9 - 1 = 8 or 10 - 5 + 3 = 8 etc.)...but this is not an expectation at all.

Day 3

• Have your child solve this math problem.  Be sure to provide them with 8 beads/blocks/pennies to use when solving the problem.

You went on an Easter Egg Hunt!  You found 8 eggs.  What were the colours of your eggs?  Some might have been the same colour and some might have been different colours.  Draw a picture, write some words and write a number sentence to show your work.  

Day 4

• Make a number 8 Octopus.  He has 8 legs with 8 cheerios on each leg.  If you don't have cheerios then you can use beans, stickers, buttons, or just colour eight circles for each leg!  

• Play this card game called Quantity Match found in the math games folder of our google file.

Other activities that can encourage math play at home:

• playing board games or card games (Uno is a real favourite with my kids right now...even my 3 year old has learned to play and they are learning so many numeracy concepts from it...sorting, matching, bigger/small numbers, counting etc., as well as turn taking and learning to loose!)

• puzzles, blocks and lego are all building on spacial reasoning which is part of mathematical thinking

• baking involves measuring ingredients

• measuring furniture and other items with tape measures (always fun!)

• keeping score of something.  My son built a marble tower and was racing his marbles down and I gently suggested he kept track of which colour marble was winning.  This led to tallying, and eventually adding up the scores.  We even touched on some multiplication naturally!  Now he is doing this with car races as well!

• sorting laundry and laying the table...and some extra help is always great!

• sorting toys and making patterns with little items...they LOVE to sort and make patterns with their food!

Math is EVERYWHERE...look for opportunities to gently add suggestions to your child's play...some they will take and some they won't (or they will a couple days later when it becomes 'their' idea!).  Have fun with it!