Math Update

We continued to work on “start, change, end” story problems this week. After reading the story problem, the children first decided if it was a “change to less” problem, or a “change to more” (addition vs. subtraction.) We reinforced the start, change, end, concept looking at the changes in temperature on a variety of thermometers. The children counted up, they counted back, and some preferred to use the hundreds chart to help them find the correct answer. We went on to talk about what it means to estimate, and we practiced either rounding UP or rounding DOWN based on the digit in the ones place. We noticed it is easy to add numbers that end in 0, and the children learned to round up those numbers with a five or greater in the ones place, and round down if the number is 4 or less. We estimated the cost of a variety of items, and the children were then asked to decide if they could purchase a random combination of items for $1.00- using on the estimating skills we practiced. The children did a nice job with their first time working on this concept!