Touch Math

The Touch Math program is a  multi-modal math program. It helps make math more accessible and fun for children.  The touch math technique is a dot notation method where dots are associated with each number from 1-9. Students count the dots on each number, which eventually will be removed and remembered. 


Please click on the picture above to access the Touch Math website.

How Can You Make Fractions More Meaningful?

In class we will begin practicing fractions. We will focus on halves, thirds, and fourths. Studying fractions will help your children to understanding equal parts. Practicing fractions at home can be extremely meaningful to your child.  

Here are a list of ways you can practice using fractions at home: 

1. Break a cookie in HALF. Show that both HALVES are equal parts. 

2. Peel an orange and split all the pieces apart. Show that the orange comes in equal parts and then count the parts. Eat one and explain, "I just ate 1/8 of the orange"

3. Cut a cake into 2 or 4 parts. Share the cake with your child and ask them 

to give you the same amount so that they can see the equal parts. Then save a piece for me :)

Click to play game

4. Order pizza. Show that the pizza is cut into 8 pieces. Each piece should look the same. Ask your child how many people can share this pizza if everyone gets one piece? How many people can share if everyone gets two pieces?

4. Play basketball on your driveway. Make sure you play with 3 people including your child. Get three balls. Everyone needs 1 ball, let your child see that he will get 1/3 of the balls. 

5. Play with Play-dough. Take out your favourite colour. Tell your child you want to share the colour. Roll out the play-dough and cut it in half. Now you have 2 pieces, each of you can take 1/2 (one half). Play-dough is great fun and you can even cut it into thirds or fourths.   

6. While reading a book that looks long to your child, show them, "we'll read 1/3 of the book tonight, 1/3 tomorrow night, and 1/3 the next night." Visually show the parts of the book that you will read. 

7. If you are working on telling time, break the clock into four parts. Show that 1/4 of the clock is the same as 15 minutes. 

8. If you are working on counting quarters, show that 1/4 of a dollar is the same as .25 cents. 

Books for your child about fractions: 

Give me half! by Stuart J. Murphy

Apple Fractions by Jerry Pallotta

The Doorbell Rang by Pat Hutchins

Fraction Action by Loreen Leedy

Perimeter

 

Today in math we learned how to find the perimeter of polygons!

Perimeter is a measurement of the distance around the outside of an object. To calculate perimeter of a polygon you must find the sum of the lengths of its sides.

Ex. This polygon has 6 sides therefore:

                Perimeter      = S + S + S + S + S + S

    = 4cm + 3cm + 3cm + 4cm + 3cm + 3cm

                                    =  20 cm

Click on the butterflies to practice some perimeter questions. 

Put on your thinking caps......

Nature Month - Toronto Botanical Gardens

Plants provide oxygen and food that other living things need to survive. As you can see from our caterpillar, Leo, he wouldn't be able to survive without plants. What ways can humans protect plants?

The Royal Ontario Museum (ROM) and the Toronto Botanical Garden (TBG) have joined together to educate all of us on how to make nature survive and thrive for the month of April. As we have learned during Earth week and during our Science class our ecosystems are in crisis, but we can help with one garden at a time.

Today in class we will be taking a virtual tour of the Toronto Botanical Gardens. I know we would all love to go visit but we are lucky enough to get to experience it together in the comfort of our classroom.

Butterfly Life Cycle

                                

Egg - The female butterfly lays an egg on a plant

 

Larva - The egg hatches and the larva (caterpillar) comes out 

 

Pupa - the caterpillar forms a cocoon

 Adult stage - The butterfly comes out!

Recycle Reduce and Reuse

I hope everyone had a Happy Easter and got the chance to visit the Toronto Zoo with their families for the Earth Day event.  I went and was happy to see many of your faces. I know today we all learned more about how we can live a more environmentally friendly life.

Over the past couple of weeks we have been discussing ways we can change our world for the better.

Remember -  Trash isn't always garbage, so know where to recycle, reduce and reuse. Click on this link to play a game to help remind you of what should or shouldn't be thrown out.

I am so proud of the class for participating in Earth Hour. We as a class did not turn on our lights for the whole week and made sure to conserve energy. You all can look through the National Wildlife Federation website to see how important it is to not only keep our earth clean for us but for our animals as well.

I hope everyone is excited to get started on our butterfly experiment. As promised we will find a caterpillar outside and hopefully watch it transform into a beautiful butterfly while we are working away on our plant unit.

See you all tomorrow :)