May 12 - 16

 Dear Parents,

After our successful week at City Hall School it was nice to get back into our own home classroom and return to our routines.

Please note we will be having a Celebration of Learning centered around our City Hall School work on May 28.  Please stay tuned for more information. 

Social Studies and Literacy

We have been hard at work reflecting back on our week at City Hall School and beginning to document our connection to the places that we visited.  Students reflected on their favorite places they visited and began to plan their story of the place they felt most connected to in their downtown community.

Learning Intentions:

• I can examine how I belong and am connected to the world.

• I can appreciate how stories and events of the past connect to my family and community to the present.

• I can appreciate how stories and events of the past connect my family and community to the present.

• I can examine ways that messages can be organized and presented for different purposes.

• I can develop listening and speaking skills through sharing stories and information.

• I can create messages through the application of writing processes.

Math

This week we returned to looking at subtraction and subtraction strategies.  The following is a summary of key ideas your child is learning.  

Subtracting by Counting Back

•	When you know a total amount and you want to figure out how many are left when you take some away, you can count back from the total. For example, if there are 14 birds and 6 fly away, you can count back to see how many birds are left: 13 (after the first bird flies away), 12, 11, 10, 9, and 8. Note that when you count this way, you say one number for each bird that flies away. You can keep track with your fingers to make sure you say the correct number of numbers. The number of birds remaining is the last number you say.
•	If you wish, you can count back by 2s and say 12, 10, and 8 as you think of 2 birds flying away at a time.
•	You can represent the situation on a bar model like this: The bar model shows that there were 14 birds in total; one part (the birds that flew away) was 6, and the other part (the birds that stayed) was 8.
•	You can count back to subtract the part you know from the total. For example, if there were 14 birds and now there are 8, you can count back 6 numbers from 14 to figure out how many birds flew away: 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8. You said 6 numbers and ended on 8, so you know that 6 birds flew away.
•	You can count back until you get to the part you know to figure out the part you don’t know. For example, if there were 14 birds and now there are 6, you can count back from 14 until you get to 6. The number of numbers you say is the number of birds that flew away: 13, 12, 11, 10, 9, 8, 7, 6. You ended up at 6. You said 8 numbers, so you know that 8 birds flew away.

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Subtracting by Counting On

•	Sometimes you know a total and a part, and you want to figure out the other part. This can be done by counting forward, or counting on, from the part you know. For example, suppose there are 14 people coming for dinner. If you know there are 6 plates on the table, you could count on from 6 to 14 to figure out how many more plates you need. It’s not the last number that you say that tells you how many more you need; it is how many numbers you say. You can keep track with your fingers. In this case, you said 8 numbers, so you need 8 more plates.
•	You can count on by 1s or 2s. If you count by 2s, you need 2 plates for every number you say.
•	You can represent the situation on a bar model like this:
•	Even though you are counting on, you are actually still subtracting the part you know from the total: 14 − 6.

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Helping Your Child

It is useful for children to continue to practise counting on and also to practise counting back from numbers less than 20. Some practice in counting on by 2s (not starting at 1) is also useful, but do this only when the child is ready.

Your child can practise at any time. For example, you can say, “Count on from 6,” “Let’s count back from 15,” or “Can you count back from 10 by 2s?”

Literacy

This week we continue to look at word endings.  We review ED endings, sorting words based on the sound each ed ending makes.  The following is some home practice you may use to support your child’s learning.