Numeracy & Math Skills
Welcome to our Math and Numeracy Page!
Here you will find out new concepts we are working on in each grade, as well as the previous concepts and skills which we are continuing to practice.
At this level, gaining a strong mathematical understanding and skills base really depends on students' understanding mathematical value, and what those values are doing as they interact together.
This means that students need to know what a "2" or "4" (for example) actually means, whether it is applied to amounts of concrete items (such as chicken nuggets - a favourite in our class! ) or along spectrums such as temperature on a thermometer. We then get to use these understandings to build up our skills in using these values in adding, subtracting and problem solving, and become Math Masters!
So, building a strong math foundation involves both:
- exploring and using values in many ways
- thoughtful and repeated practice of those skills and ideas.
In our class, we do this by having a daily math time, where we focus on our practice of repeated and necessary skills, such as basic facts and number bonds (sometimes called fact families). We then have a focused instruction time where we get to explore, understand and master new skills, such as addition and subtraction in Grade One, or 2 digit addition and subtraction with regrouping in Grade Two.
Following you will find the various concepts we are currently focusing on.
Grade One Math Focus
We have covered both addition and subtraction to 20 using multiple strategies.
Now we are:
Showing our understanding of both addition and subtraction in three different ways:
- using pictures
- using a ten frame
- using a number line
Each of these ways helps students gain a deeper understanding of what the values are actually doing as they add and subtract. This makes more advanced concepts such as adding and subtracting with regrouping (Grade 2 concept) or multiplication and division (Grade 3/4 concepts) much easier to master.
We have become fact family masters, and are well on our way with our problem solving skills. Our students are continuing to practice quick recognition of our operation symbols during Daily Math.
Place Value: We've moved on to our place value unit! Learning how and why we organize our numbers and values in groups of 10 are important skills and concepts in mathematical understanding. They provide the foundation for more advanced concepts like 2 digit addition and subtraction, and regrouping.
Number of the Day:
Each day students work with a different number between the values of 1 and 20 to practice multiple skills.
Skills practice:
representing numbers in multiple ways
-digit
-ten frame
- word
-pictorially (using pictures)
-positing and comparing numbers
- number before
-number after
- greater than/less than
-counting on strategy
Grade One Skills Development & Practice: Daily Math
Grade Two Math Focus
Current Focus:
2 digit addition with and without regrouping
2 digit subtraction with and without regrouping
This unit contains the most complex math concepts in the Grade Two curriculum. In both operations, we begin by using place value (blocks and pictures) to understand what values are doing (and how we organize them) as we add and subtract without any regrouping.
We then move to fluently adding (or subtracting during that unit) 2 digit numbers (without regrouping) without the assistance of place value blocks or pictures.
We then go back to our understanding of place value, and use both place value blocks and pictures to begin regrouping.
After students have gained a solid understanding of regrouping using these supports, we move on to adding and subtracting without them, using only equations.
We then practice paying attention to the various rules and being able to complete a variety of different equations (adding, subtracting, regrouping, no regrouping) on one page. This shows their strong understanding, but is by far the most challenging learning activity in math this year.
Grade Two Skills Development & Practice: Daily Math
Number of the Day:
Each day students work with a different number between the values of 1 and 50 to practice multiple skills.
Skills practice:
-addition to 50
-subtraction within 50
-expanded form up to 100
-representing numbers up to 100
- digit
- tally marks
- place value pictures/chart
- word form
- expanded form
-positing and comparing numbers
- 1 greater
- 1 less
- 10 greater
- 10 less
- greater than/less than
