In our first two units in math, your child will be practicing basic multiplication and division. Flashcards will be coming home on Monday (more cards will be added as we introduce specific facts) that should be studied at least 5 minutes at home 5 times weekly. Please keep these in the nightly folder. There will be homework every Tuesday & Thursday (with the first assignment sent home today).

We will be thinking about multiplication in 3 ways:

• Repeated groups: Multiplication can be used to find the total in repeated groups of the same size.
• Arrays: Multiplication can be used to find the total number of items in an array (an arrangement of objects into rows and columns).

The children provide more written responses and are required to explain their thinking. This can be challenging for some because they are use to “knowing it.” Every day they respond to a written math prompt and after every lesson we check for understanding with written responses. Below are some examples of prompts:

• If 10 apples weigh about the same as 2 textbooks, how many textbooks weigh about the same as 25 apples? Explain your thinking.
• Jill used water from a 1-liter bottle to estimate the liquid volume of a container. She filled her container and had water left in the bottle. She said the liquid volume of her container was greater than a liter. Was Jill correct? Explain.

In this unit, students explore ways to measure things using customary and metric systems of measurement. The units of measure we will be working with include:

Students will solve problems that involve liquid volumes or masses given in the same unit by adding, subtracting, multiplying, or dividing and by using a drawing to represent the problem.

We made a measurement man to help us with the volume of cups, pints, quarts and gallons.

Students will also generate measurement data with halves and fourths of an inch such as hand spans and lengths of standing broad jumps and graph their data in a line plot.

You can help your child become familiar with these units of measure by working with measurements together. For example, you might estimate and measure the length of something in inches. You might use a measuring cup to explore how the cup can be used to fill pints, quarts, or gallons of liquid.

We have been solving addition and subtraction word problems involving a total and two partners. Our test will be on Thursday.

• If one of the partners is unknown, it can be found by subtracting the known partner from the total or by counting on from the known partner to the total.
• If the total is unknown, it can be found by adding the partners.

Math Mountains are used to show a total and two partners. Students can use the Math Mountain to write an equation and then solve the equation to find the unknown.

*Fact fluency will be crucial for your child! We will be starting multiplication next week. If your child has not mastered addition and subtraction facts, this unit is going to be difficult. I will be sending home information on xtramath.com soon, as well as, information regarding known/unknown facts. If you are interested in helping with fact fluency, please let me know.