August 8th, 2017 - I was shopping for school supplies today at Walmart and ran into one of my former mathematicians! I thought I would repost the Leopard Team School Supply List that we sent home on Step-Up Day in June...because that was June! HA! If you have any questions, please feel free to send me an email. The Leopard Team tried to link some of the items to photos to avoid confusion. How many times as a parent have you scratched your head in the supply aisle trying to figure out if you were getting the right item?
The Leopard Team has four core teachers! Mrs. Burne teaches language arts, Mrs. Bernier teaches social studies, Mr. Moy teaches science, and I teach math.
I am eagerly getting ready for the 2016-2017 school year! Our math classroom is bright and cheerful! The desks are set up in a large horseshoe so that we can all see each other as we discuss and solve math problems.
We have a wonderful math program called "Math In Focus" which was adopted last year.
During the first week in August, I spent a week with math guru, Mahesh Sharma, in Kennebunkport. I will be implementing many of Dr. Sharma's practices into our daily math routine. It was a wonderful week of learning! My favorite part was working with students for two-hours each day and watching each child's math brain grow!
What can I do over the next couple of weeks to grow my math brain and to get ready for 6th grade math you ask? Well, there are many things you can do! Start by making sure you know all of your math facts: addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division! If you know all of your math facts orally in less than two seconds per fact, or written in less than three seconds per fact, you are in good shape. Take this 5 minute timed fact quiz to see how much practice you may need on your multiplication facts. You can practice for free at Math Magician. If you know all of your facts well, you can move onto instant recall of the perfect squares up to 15 squared. As you move into algebra, these facts will allow you to solve many problems mentally. Do you know all of your divisibility rules and can you apply them effectively?
You can go onto Khan Academy and start working in 6th grade math. I will be demonstrating the many features of this website during the month of September. You can have some fun playing math games either alone or with your friends and family!
Play math games!!!!!I recently wrote and was awarded a YEF grant for educational board games which will be housed in the YMS library for all to enjoy! My family has been excitedly opening up Amazon boxes and trying out new games together for the last week! Here are some of the new titles with links to how each game is played.
I will be starting the school year working with students to create an environment where growth mindset flourishes. Below is a quick five minute video on growth mindset.
Growth Mindset in Math! It's a revolution!
"HELP! I left my Math In Focus textbook at home! How do I use the online textbook to complete my homework?" No problem mathematician! Go to my.hrw.com User Name: YOUR Google email (example: [email protected]) Password: YOUR Google password (example: Yorks345)