Have your ever heard the expression, Math phobia? It may not be a medical term, but it is one that many of us can relate to. For many people, the idea of having to do math creates not only an emotional reaction, but a physical one! While this is somewhat true of other areas of study, nowhere is it more prevalent than in math. For some reason we consider it acceptable to say things like, "I am not good at math." or "I can't do math." If the same statement was made about reading, the reaction would be very different than the smile or agreement that often meets those who say this about math. When most of us were in school, if you arrived at an incorrect answer the teacher simply identified it as incorrect, and moved to a student who got the expected result to explain. We used to think that hearing the correct way to "do the math" was the best way to teach. I remember as a student being told that the fact that I had reached the correct answer didn't matter because I had done it wrong. This kind of reaction has resulted in many people having a fear of math - of forgetting a math fact, a formula, or a process. This year we have been working very hard at our school to change our culture around Mathematical learning. That's right. We encourage making and sharing mistakes! Brain research shows us that it is through making and learning from our mistakes, our brains actually grow. Now we know that arriving at an incorrect answer is the beginning of the conversation, not the end. Talking through the process we have used (whether the answer is correct or not) can help us identify and learn from our misconceptions. Sometimes it can even teach us that there is a more efficient way of getting there. We have been inspired by the work of Jo Boaler, the Stanford professor featured in both videos shared today. If you are curious and want to know more, there are FREE resources and online courses available at the Youcubed website - https://www.youcubed.org/parents/. School UpdatesThis amazing annual event allows parents to find free or very reasonably priced bikes for their children! You can sell your child's used bike and get them a new one that fits them this year! ProHAB Helmet Society will also be there! This is the organization that helped us put so many great helmets to protect the brains of our students last year! They ask for a donation for each helmet. VOLUNTEERS NEEDED We are still looking for lots of volunteers for the rest of the year. If you have not completed your police clearance, there is still time to get it and help out before the end of the year. Please call the office for details. We have been fortunate to receive donated swim classes and a show for the whole school at Children's Festival on May 26. Many classes and grade teams have planned field trips before the end of the year as well, and we need you. If we cannot get enough volunteers for these opportunities, we will have to cancel. YMCA SWIM TO SURVIVE This week and next week all of our students from kindergarten to grade 6 will be going swimming! Swimming is an important life skill and we are very appreciative of the opportunity to offer this important part of the Physical Education curriculum to our students free of charge due to a generous donation. The cost of busses will be covered from the $20.00 field trip fee charged to each student at the beginning of the year. Thank you to everyone who has paid this $20. per student fee. If you have not paid this fee, please do so immediately so we can continue to take advantage of this type of opportunity. Grade 1/2 UpdateDavid Bouchard is an author of over 70 books. We have read many of David’s stories in our classroom. One of our favorites is, If You’re Not From the Prairie because we relate to a lot of the things that David writes about living on the prairie. We also enjoy the story, The Song Within My Heart about the importance of story telling through song and music from the drum. David made a special visit to the Kindergarten, Grade 1 and Grade 2 students this week. He captivated us with the beautiful sound of the flute and his stories. David told us the story about how the raven received its beautiful, sheer, black colour and why no other animals will eat the meat of a crow. David reminded us that not all stories are written in books. Some of the best stories are told through speaking and sharing. Ask your child: What could possibly make you laugh harder than TV, cry harder than TV, and is better than TV? STORIES! David asked us to get as many stories as we can from our Grandmother (and to only trust some of Grandpa’s stories…). If we can’t get anymore stories from our grandparents than we should ask our teachers, and to start this ask our teachers about their telephones! This started a very interesting conversation in our classroom about telephones. Students could not believe that our telephones looked like the one to the right. They were convinced this was a fake telephone – a toy! This led us to an even more interesting classroom conversation about Calgary in the past. Last, if you can’t get any more stories from your Grandma or from your teacher, David encourages us to get our stories from books in the library. David inspired us with his passion for stories and we are very excited to share this passion with our parents. Since we are learning about our families in the past it would be a great time to share a story or two about your family or what it was like for you growing up as a child. In David Bouchard’s words, “put your hands on Mother Earth, close your eyes, open your heart, and listen to a story.” Math Challenge from Ms. MaskNatalie’s bike shop has a number of bicycles and tricycles for sale. Natalie counted a total of 60 wheels. How many bikes and how many trikes were for sale? Show how you got your answer in more than one way. Curricular Connections -patterning -counting by 2’s, 3’s, 5’s, 10’s -knowledge of base ten -number sentences -operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication) Draw your response in your journal. Using pictures, numbers and words. Explain your thinking. Use manipulatives to show your answer. Modifications /Extentions -A total of 20 wheels? 80 wheels? -There are unicycles sold at the bike shop. -There are quads sold at the bike shop. Weekly UpdatePE FOCUS - Swim to Survive program - be sure to have your child wear their bathing suit and bring a towel and underwear to change into.
Remember to check us out on Twitter for updates and important information. -@DHarknessCBE or search for our hashtag, #DHSCBE.
Don't forget to check our school website - schools.cbe.ab.ca/b347 We welcome your feedback on this blog. Please let us know how we are doing and what you'd like to see here.
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