The Bergblog: Snapshot Summary, December 12-18, 2012 week 14

Snapshot Summary, December 12-18, 2012 week 14

Snapshot Summary, December 12-18

This week we combined some scholarly activities with some advent learning fun.

Place Value, More Than/Less Than and Advanced Addition and Subtraction

Quentin and I have been working on addition and subtraction for the last few weeks. At this point I needed to take some time out to make sure he knew enough about place value that he could accurately identify the larger and smaller of two numbers so that when he make up his own addition and subtraction problems, he can be sure to put the larger number and small number in the correct places. We played a game to practice this skill, and was able to throw in the less than/more than symbol as well.

Division

Now, building on the work we have done in division and just to make sure he hasn't just learned a skill with the material, and not able to extrapolate a broader application from what has been learned, we continue with a third material to present the same series of experiences. This helps him to extend and review the knowledge he has already acquired. We can use the crossed lines, just as we did for multiplication. This time we can record the lines across to the left of the crossed lines and the lines down at the top. The crossed line joins can be counted and replaced by the total number. This forms a division problem we are used to seeing. We can play with this form just like we played with the previous form, writing any two parts of the problem and leaving the third to be discovered last. He can now make up his own problems to solve any way he likes.