February 15

What a great day for Carnival.  We had lots of fun trying out the many winter activities.  I sure had fun at human curling.  Most of our morning was taken up by Carnival.  We also enjoyed some hot chocolate when we came in from outside.

After lunch we continued on with our normal routine.  We had a session of DEAR.  During this time I am working one to one with students on a mental math assessment.  Here is what I have noticed.  As a class we need practice on double digit subtraction using mental math.  Here is what I mean.  If I asked your child to give me the difference between 73 and 35.  I would like to hear them say.  "I would leave 73 alone (not break it up) and then I would do 73-30 which is 43.  Then I would do 43-5 which is 38."  

I have also noticed that when I ask students to estimate the answer to an addition question such as 34+29 most want to give me the actual answer. Here is what I would like to hear them say.  " I would round 34 to the nearest group of 10 which is 30.  Then I would round 29 to 30 and add 30 to 30 and the answer to 34+29 is about 60."    Caiden says this is how you estimate.

At the end of the day we worked on our S4 skits.  I got a couple of them videotaped but we quickly learned that most of us are not speaking loud enough.  We also need to remember to not turn our backs to the camera.  We will get there.  

Have a wonderful long weekend.