Room 4 @ CPDS

Word Rumble can be a fun way to practice spelling and build fluency in writing. In class, children use a whiteboard and whiteboard pen but they can use any writing materials (and I mean any - get creative!).  If you're working together, you can facilitate by showing each slide for 5-10 seconds while the children write. At first you might allow longer, eventually you can see how quickly they can write the words. At each slide, the child should  say the word, then write the word, saying the word as they write it. Alternatively, it could be an independent activity. The children move to the next slide when they have finished writing the word. Below are sets A-E. "Let's get ready to rumble!"

This group has been learning how to count on to solve addition problems. We have been trying to move from using materials (physically counting our fingers, the numbers, etc) to using imaging, where we count and keep track inside our head.  While we were practicing today, two other great strategies were used: "tidy numbers" and using basic facts. "Tidy numbers" is where the smaller number is split to take the biggest number to the nearest 10. For example, 9+5 could be worked out as 9+1+4. A child might use basic facts in a problem like 12+5 because they know 2+5=7, so 12+5=17.  When children know the answer to a question, we will always ask "how did you know?", "why do you think that?" or "how did you figure it out?" This builds metacognition (thinking about our own thinking) and benefits others in the group because they can learn from each other.   .    .    .  

After an instructional maths group with the teacher, the children are often encouraged to show their learning and practice the skills through an independent task or game. This group has been working on adding and subtracting numbers to 10. These questions are called "change unknown" because they're trying to determine the missing number. They can be tricky to work out! A word problem we might use to accompany these number problems would be something similar to "Miss Russell had 6 lollipops at the start of the day. Now she only has 5 left. How many did she eat?" :)