Problem Solving

Yesterday we talked about checking to see if your answer is reasonable. Reasonable means it makes sense.
We can check using rounding or compatible numbers.
Compatible numbers are numbers that go well together.
For example, 6 and 4 are compatible because they make 10.


Today we're talking about multi-step problem. This means that a problem requires more than one operation.


Ms. Jefferson has 10 candies. Ms. Dower has 15 candies. Then Mr. Ramirez comes and eats 3 of those candies. How many candies do your teachers have left? 
In the above problem a student has to first add the 10 + 15 and the subtract 3.

When we took the graphing assessment I noticed so many of my students missed the questions that required two steps. 

 In the above problem the child has to be able to read the graph, figure out how many are on Tuesday and Wednesday combined. Then subtract the number on Thursday from that.

So my bar model would look like this!

Number Lines

Today we really dived into using number lines as a strategy for solving subtraction.
There are two ways to do it.
We can start at the big number and then make jumps back until we've jumped the whole number.
We can start at the little number and make jumps until we get to the big number.
I personally like the second method because I think it is easier to add than subtract.

First Week

We all survived the first week!
I have to say, fourth graders may be bigger/taller than second graders, but they certainly don't have any less love to give! I was a bit nervous about making the grade level change but I am so in love with all my new students, I have no worries about it anymore!
Sure…. some of my students are taller than me, but they're still a bunch of sweet, fun-loving kiddos, ready to learn!

This week I really just focused on classroom management and setting up how we will be using our math journals.
Our school uses CHAMPS as a school-wide system.
For those of you who don't know….

Conversation: Can students converse during this activity? About what? With whom? For how long? 

Help: How do students get your attention for help? How do students get questions answered? What should they do while they wait for you? 

Activity: What is the expected end product of this activity? What is the task or objective? 

Movement: For what reasons can students get out of their seats during this activity? Do they need permission to do so? 

Participation: What behavior shows that students are participating or not participating? 

Success: There are no questions for this one. When CHAMPs expectations are met, students will be successful. 

I have a CHAMPS board in my classroom to remind students what the expectations are for a particular activity. It's a great tool and I love that no matter what classroom they walk into, the CHAMPS are the same.

As far as setting up the math notebooks…. it's all about problem solving skills.
I don't want my students to just write down the answer to a problem and move on. I want them to really dig deep!

I have six steps to my problem solving.
1. Reading the problem.
2. Underline the question.
3. Representation (picture, graph, tallies, ten frames, chart, etc.)
4. Number sentence.
5. Answer the question in words.
6. Explain your thinking, step-by-step.

About 3-4 times a week I will give students a short word problem to glue in their math journal. They then have to follow the six steps of problem solving in their journal. I walk around and give help as needed and take notes.
I was very impressed with how fast my students picked up on the steps and how easily they filled up a single page. :)

Overall, first week was WONDERFUL.