Read4Dyslexia

Today I am not blogging about math -- I'm blogging about reading.  The idea that reading has nothing to do with math, however, is a common misconception. STAAR, our state assessment, is coming soon. The test is problem based. If students have trouble reading or understanding the problem, they will have problems "doing" the math.  If you are the parent of a struggling reader, I found a resource that may interest you.  It is a local, parent based advocacy group called Read4Dyslexia (Reaching, Educating and Advocating for Dyslexics). Click here to go to their website. They are hosting a special event this Wednesday evening, April 10th from 7-8:30 at the PDEC called "A Day in the Life of a Dyslexic Child Simulation". If your child is a struggling reader, I would highly encourage you to reserve a spot at the event.

First Lego League Robotics Team

Is your child interested in Lego robotics? We have a great opportunity for students to be a part of the First Lego League Robotics team. Mrs Brenegan met with students yesterday to give them the details. The requirements are: students must be 9 years old by August 1st; be committed to the team -- they will meet on Thursdays from2:45 to 3:45 beginning April18th; complete the application and return it to school by the end of the day Monday, April 8th.

Things are looking up

You won't want to miss out on the opportunity for your child to have a personalized ceiling tile at Cannon.  The sales of the ceiling tiles will be a fundraiser for STEM materials that will be used as a part of our new STEM Academy.  Click on the pictures below for a copy of the instructions needed to be a part of this fun way for your child to be a part of Cannon long into the future!

How Can You Help?

Parents often ask how they can help their students with math at home. The answer is -- help them see how you use math every day.  I came across this chart that shows some easy ways to incorporate math into your every day lives and is an engaging way to reinforce math at home.  I hope this helps -- let me know if you use any of these ideas!

 

Seeing Double

Before spring break, I talked with our scholars about memorizing their doubles addition facts up to 12+12.  As we begin our journey into multiplication, knowing their doubles will be key to understanding, and eventually memorizing,  multiplication facts, such as the x 2 and x 4 facts. 

Today we took a short quiz (12 problems) to see how many of them had reached the goal of memorizing those facts. Ben R holds the new record of completing these 12 problems in 20 seconds!  Way to go, Ben! Ask your child how they did on today's quiz. There is no secret to memorizing the facts -- just hard work and practice.  Students will be given another opportunity next Monday to show they have these facts memorized.

Blogging about Blogging!

Today I am blogging about....blogging!  Yesterday was our first lesson on Kid Blog.  Talk about excited -- the room was buzzing with excited bloggers.  While our first blog was about spring break (everyone had something to say about that), future blogs will be about what we are learning in class.  Our lesson included the importance of using correct spelling and grammar, as well as using content area vocabulary correctly. We also talked about learning how to be good digital citizens. How do you leave an appropriate comment for someone? Students took home a bookmark with sentence starters to help them learn how to make thoughtful comments.  

I have included links to our Kid Blog sites here. Please take a few minutes to look at our blogs and please feel free to leave a comment -- we LOVE comments!

Real World Math

I was so happy and proud to hear from a parent this week about how their child was using their math skills in the real world. Madison, one of our scholars, was volunteering with her mom at the Special Olympics last weekend. They worked in the concession stand and her mom told me that Madison was adding up prices and correctly making change.  Way to go, Madison -- that's really using your problem solving skills outside of the classroom!