Rounding demonstration

Rounding is challenging....if your child is struggling, hang in there....it will get better as the week progresses!

ROUNDING

Rounding is a math concept that is sometimes tricky for students. Some students will master the concept with ease, while others are often stumped by its more abstract nature. I encourage my students to think about rounding in conjunction with a roller coaster or a hill with a car. Numbers either roll over the hill (rounding up) or fall back down the hill (rounding down). The trick is to teach students to look, like a detective, at the CLUE the number leaves for you. This clue is the digit to the RIGHT of whatever place you are rounding to. For example:

Round 62 to the nearest TEN.

Look at the TENS place (6, value 60)

Look at the digit to the right of the tens place, in the ones place (2)

If the number to the right of the place being rounded is 5 or GREATER, round the number up. If the number is less than 5, round DOWN.

I ask students to always lay out two possibilities or choices. See the example below:

45 - round to the nearest ten

Choices: 40 or 50 (since rounding to the nearest ten, my choices must end in zeros)

Look at the tens place (4, value 40)

Look at the ones place - the digit is 5, therefore I will round up

The answer is 50

It often helps students to have a visual of a hill and even a paper car to move up and down the hill. The important steps to remember:

1) Think through both choices (rounding up or down)

2) Look at the place you are asked to round to

3) Look at the secret number to the RIGHT of the place you are rounding to

4) Decide if you should round UP or DOWN

I will post a video later in the week.

Alligator song video

Along Came Mr. Alligator (Greater Than and Less Than)

TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES..........

I am having issues with my Flip camera, which is why my video posts have been delayed. I apologize for that. It is supposed to be plug-n-play, but apparently isn't cooperating with my Mac computer. I will keep working on it and hopefully post math instructional videos regularly VERY soon!

Here is a description of the video I was GOING to post....

My daughter inspired me with a song for our math lesson on greater than and less than. Using the children's song, "5 Little Monkeys Sitting in a Tree," I used the lyrics from this song to engage my students and tap into their interest during an introduction to comparing numbers. Students were given two numbers to show to the class. As the class sang the following lyrics, "5 little monkeys sitting in a tree...teasing Mr. Alligator, can't catch me.....along comes Mr. Alligator quiet as can be.....and SNAPPED that monkey out of that tree!" Using a slapstick musical instrument, the alligator had to "snap" the number that was GREATER than the other. The shape of the slapstick simulated a greater than and less than sign. We had a lot of fun and I hope it will be a memorable lesson.

MATH UPDATE

We have been working hard on place value - all the way to the ten thousands place! I have been so impressed at the number sense my students already have demonstrated. Very refreshing and encouraging! The next logical skill to work on in the world of number sense is comparing and ordering numbers. Today we worked on greater than and less than. We discussed comparing simple, 1-digit numbers, all the way to 4 and 5-digit numbers! We enjoyed some hands-on game activities in small groups, discussed real life applications (comparing items when shopping), enjoyed a fun song/visual representation of comparing numbers (stay tuned for a video clip) and then practiced through written notation using <, >, and =.

TIP: When helping students compare numbers with multiple digits, always compare each place value, one at a time. Also, always start with the LARGEST place.....not the ones place.

For example:

5, 679 ____ 5, 782

Compare the 5's first (thousands place)

Then compare the hundreds (6 vs. 7)

Students should know that 7 is greater than 6, so 5,782 is GREATER than 5,679.

MATH CURSE

Today we read the book, Math Curse, which gave us a wonderful introduction to our math curriculum for the school year. If you have never seen the book, you should definitely check it out! In the book, a female student is told by her teacher that "you can think of everything as a math problem." Sure enough, the next day, she wakes up and experiences math through every facet of her daily life! I used this book as a springboard as we discussed ways we use math in our everyday lives....with the recurring theme being "we cannot escape math!" We solved some of the girl's "math curse problems" together as a class, and then students demonstrated their own mathematical skills by solving problems individually (applying addition, subtraction, counting by 2's, 10's or repeated addition, and fractions).