Spring is in the Air (Part 1)

Oh my word you guys!  I am feeling so super lucky to live in this beautiful place.  The green hills and tall grass gets me EVERY year! Ahhh Spring!  Welcome March. :) Wait what?! Welcome MARCH!? EEEE how did that happen so fast?  We have definitely kicked things into high gear in room 8, here's some of what we have been up to!

Double Digit Subtraction

We have actually been doing this for quite some time now using strategies we know such as number line, hundred number chart, and base ten blocks, but last week was pretty huge for us because we learned the standard algorithm for double digit subtraction.  (You know the way we all learned to subtract:) We have been working through these wonderfully helpful flap books (please excuse my typo with number's, should be numbers... but anyhow:)  I love using this tool because the kiddos get in the habit of assessing each problem before attempting to solve.  The chant we use is, "More on the top, no need to stop.  More on the floor, go next door and get ten more.  Numbers the same, zero's the game."

We used base ten blocks to show how and why we need to regroup on certain problems.  For example for 91-74, you can't take 4 away from 1 so, we regroup.  We change the 9 to an 8 and the 1 becomes 11.  It is super important that the students understand that  we still have 91 with our 8 tens and 11 ones, we just regrouped so we can subtract.

Along with showing concrete models to solidify understanding, we also learned how to check each problem using the addition fact family.  This helps catch those common mistakes of regrouping when it's not needed, or forgetting to regroup when needed.

Here is a subtraction rap we learned to help us too!

Time

Our second graders are becoming quite good at this and should now be able to tell any time on the clock.  We built our own clock in the classroom to practice this skill.

 We played scooted around the classroom and played a lively game of time scoot.

 We also made these happy flowers and played a great game called I have, who has to practice this oh so important math concept.

Matter

We have been learning all about the three states of matter and to make our learning come to life we witnessed the lifecycle of a snowman! I filled three balloons with water and let them freeze overnight so we could build our snowman and see water in its solid form first thing in the morning.

Throughout the day we watched as our solid snowman turned into a liquid.  We accelerated the process just a bit by placing him in the sun and swishing him around with our fingers.

At the end of the day I poured our liquid snowman into my teapot and we observed him turn into a gas.  The ohh's and ahh's at this point were just too cute!

At each point in the process we discussed and recorded the different states of matter and their properties.  So much fun and learning!

 Happy happy birthday to our adorable fun-loving Piper!