Rabbits blog 14
Date: 1st Feb 2024 @ 5:33am
Thursday 1st Feb. Blog 14
Finally it's February, right! Hoping to make it fabulous for the Rabbits with your continued support. Thanks!
I'm thinking maths focus for this blog. We are still on place value (What does a number really mean? What makes that number? How do we write that number accurately every single time? Have we learnt all its number bonds so we don't need to use our fingers for 8+ 1 or 6+ 3 or 4+ 5, we just know these are number bonds of 9). We are into teen numbers now. Have you thought about how hard these numbers are for learners? Here are the anticipated errors that Remarkable Rabbits will probably make at some point this term:
- say 'ty' instead of 'teen'
- hear 'ty' instead of 'teen'
- confuse the ones and the tens number (eg understand '16' but write 61 because of the 'six' then 'teen')
- confuse 61/16 in understanding, not 'seeing' that the tens number dominates the ones number in amount.
- be working so hard on one element of the maths (writing the numbers accurately in formation, understanding which number to write due to its place value, knowing its 'teen' not 'ty') that some other elements will get lost and wrong.
- they don't see that the 0 gets covered up by the ones number and write 106
- we say the ones number before the tens number for 13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19 unlike any other number above 20 (thank our historical linguistic divergence!)
- we have to learn to spell these numbers (think eleven, twelve, thirteen, fifteen)
So we are spending time really trying to embed all the elements we need to understand before we tackle + -.
Here are a few ideas of how you can support at home:
- see below image of a typical worded maths problem. This is the kind of thing I mean when say: try to do some maths word problems at home, not particularly in this written way but talking it through. I spend every lesson emphasizing "the answer is this -- important, the strategy is this ------------- important". Year 2 and beyond is all about writing their reasoning for an answer. In year 1 we must be confident in verbalising it (then we write it after a lot of help). Today we had lots of different answers for the below problem: he has 1 ten and 5 ones so it is 15 not 51/10 +5 = 15 not 51/he doesn't have 5 tens and 1 one, he has 1 ten and 5 ones etc etc
- Play games. Here's a new one: dice and a piece of paper with 10 on it. Roll the dice and write the number (accurately! Insist on this, so many Rabbits already have embedded errors of how to write some numerals) and place it over the '0' and say the new number and how you know. This is 18.I know this because it has 1ten and 8 ones. Repeat a few times a couple of times a week.
- Use the dice again and play a variation of Bingo/wipe out. Each of you have the number line 11-16 written down, roll the dice and add it to the ten, saying what it is. Turn over the card once you have it. Even though you are not using 17-19, understanding the place value of 11-16 will make the 17-19 dead easy.
- Choose a teen number and consider all its number bonds using Part Whole pictures or number sentences. Can they make more than 10? Bring them in for a sticker in their sticker book!
In other news briefly... we are ramping up to our final 'writeaway' (the assessment piece of writing at the end of each half term) of The Lion Inside. We will be writing a simple recount of the story, hopefully with one maybe two exclamation marks (although they are starting to go a bit wild with this, so rein them in with me!!!! #;) #UseWordsForEffectNotMultiple!) We will do this over 3-4 days and I will recap and model the paragraphs and give them a word bank and lots of verbal rehearsal time before they write independently.
We are growing our code SO much this term with loads of new GPCs. This week has been: al and le for 'l', se for 's' and 'z' (cheese), ce for 's' (nice) . Tricky words have been (wait for this ...)- school, friend, through and thought. We got very excited learning a quadgraph - ough. (I didn't want to crush them with thorough/though/tough...year 2 can deal with those!)
Next week is a Grow the Code revision week before our half termly assessment so keep reading daily please.
Speak/See you soon for our parents' evenings.
Mrs H
