Hello boys and girls!  I hope you had fun with all the snow we got on Friday and the Easter Bunny was able to find you on Easter Morning!  My plan is to check in with you on Wednesdays so if you have any questions or concerns you can ask me then or you can contact me anytime via e-mail.  So here goes for another week:

Math

I want to emphasize that the work I gave last week should not just be forgotten but rather continue to be practiced this week and in coming weeks.  The more familiar you are with these concepts the better prepared you are to build on them.  So keep skip counting, choosing a number of the day, etc.

Money- Students should be able to identify Canadian coins by name and value of the coin.  (ie. nickel=5cents and has a beaver on it).  They should be able to add coins together by skip counting (ie.  5 nickels = 5,10,15,20,25cents)

Helpful Hint- Always begin with coins that have the greatest value. ( ie.  one quarter, two dimes and two nickels = 25,35,45,50,55cents)

Grade Two should work with coins up to $1 (quarters, dimes and nickels)  Record amounts as 55 cents

Grade Three should work with all coins including loonies and toonies.   Record amounts as $4.35

Grade Three should be able to create a monetary amount in at least 2 different ways.  (ie.  55cents could be two quarter and a nickel OR 55 cents could be five dimes and one nickel, etc.)

Playing Store is always fun.  If pencils are 10 cents each and I am buying 4, how much will they cost?  (This store has no tax, hooray!)  You can take this even farther and say you have a loonie to pay for your purchase, what will your change be?  This would be an enrichment activity.

Time

Grade Three has already learned to tell time on an analog clock but should be practicing at home if you have such a thing.  Grade Two was just beginning to learn about skip counting around the analog clock by 5's landing on each number.  Again, Kahn Academy is great for tutorials where the children can watch a lesson in progress about telling time.

With extended learning time at home it would be a great time to teach your child how to tie shoe laces if they do not already know how to do so.  Velcro has ruined us all on this time honored skill.  It is a great time saver if they can do this themselves.

Ordinal Numbers  (ie. First, Second, Third...Tenth)

Students could line up stuffed animals or pokemon cards and be asked to point to or identify the third card in the series.

Equalities and Inequalities  (ie. equal/not equal)  

It should be noted that the unequal sign is simply an equal sign with a slash through it.  I can not demonstrate but can give you the two symbols which you can envision overlaid.      = (equal)        =/  (not equal)

7+5  equal/ not equal 18-6                         13+7  equal/ not equal 5+8                  87-12 equal/  not equal 14+61

12      =                   12                            20            =/       13                         75           =              75

Two - Digit Addition

Continue to work on "Tens and Ones" and "Compensate" methods but now you can include the way you were likely taught "Ones and Tens."

12+ 15 =                              OR                 12       Make sure your tens and ones are lined up and your _____ means =

Ones 2+5 = 7                                          + 15

Tens 10 +10 = 20                                    _________

Now add the two together 20+7=27                27

The children know that if the ones add up to 10 or above they must put the zero in the ones place and the 1 in the tens place.  We call this "regrouping" because we are trading in ten ones for a group of ten.  You likely called it "carrying."  It is the same thing but the new term is actually more specific.

Grade Two can try these with 2-digit numbers while Grade Three can try 3-digit numbers.  This is not a new concept for either group.

Multiplication (Grade Three)

Hopefully, you were able to look at Kahn Academy for a tutorial in this.     Factor X  Factor = Product

         (number of groups)            (number in each group)

           Factor                 X                Factor              =          Product

          3 groups              X        4 in each group          =            12

           0000       0000      0000       =    12         (Three groups with 4 in each group)

            4      +     4      +    4         =    12   (Repeated Addition)

Try some of these up to 5X5.  Have fun with them.  Make "equal groups" of smarties, marbles, bread tags, etc. 

Language Arts:

Reading

Grade Two - 15 mins. per day

Grade Three= 20 mins. per day

Our reading comprehension this wwee will be on the setting in your book.  Where is the story taking place?  ie. city,town, kitchen, backyard, etc.  How does the author describe the setting?  Do you get a clear picture in your mind from their description?

Writing

Describe the setting of your room.   Include colors, textures(ie. soft, rough) sizes ( enormous dollhouse), etc.  We always want the reader to be able to picture where your story takes place so they can feel like they are there too.

Fun Challenge:  Find a picture of a room in a magazine or picture book and describe it to your parent/sibling and have them draw it from your description.  Don't let them see the actual picture until the end then see how close they were.  This doesn't just help you descriptive powers but helps their listening skills too.

Home Story #2

Again this week you can write a story about something that you remember doing in the past or you can write a make believe story or you can write about something you know alot about (ie. Lego, dinosaurs, tractors, baking).

We had been working on plurals (more than one) when we finished school.  You could practice some of these with your child.  Here are the rules but unfortunately in English you can always find an exception to a rule.  This makes English one of the most difficult languages to learn.  Most of the time these rules will work.

+s

chair- chairs

+es if word ends in x, ch, sh, z, s

box-boxes  church - churches  bush - bushes  buzz-buzzes  glass-glasses

Change "y" to "i" and add "es"

baby - babies   body - bodies

Change "f" to "v" and add "es"

shelf - shelves    

Some words do not change at all from singular to plural

moose - moose

deer - deer

sheep- sheep

Some words change completely from singular to plural

tooth-teeth   

goose-geese

mouse - mice

Website to check out:  www.abcya.com         www.prodogymath.com

I hope you have fun with these activities and concepts.  You should also continue to work on your Dreambox and Epic.  I have been in touch with Ms.LeBlanc and she has loaded all kinds of "key math skills" into your Dreambox and we will both be watching your results from home.  I look forward to speaking with you on Wednesday.  Meanwhile make sure you play outside every nice day to get some fresh air and vitamin D.  Try to contact one or two of your friends from school to see how they are doing.  Stay safe at home and I will too.  

Miss you all,

Mrs. Vickers