Math

What a busy week!  We didn’t have math on Wednesday (field trip), but we crammed a lot into the other four days!  We started using slates for part of our math time (to work out problems or to show quick answers) and even managed to get a quick (25 second) portrait in! 

Area

To help kids remember what AREA means, we talked about area rugs – a quick and easy way for kids to remember which is which.  They learned the formula to find area (length times width) and practiced in their journal pages, math boxes, and an activity. 

Facts

We are really beginning to use our multiplication facts a lot.  It’s essential that kids spend some time practicing these facts if they don’t know them pretty automatically at this point.  There are a myriad of ways to practice and I encourage them to spend a few minutes every day practicing. 

Factors and Factor Pairs

Two factors are multiplied together to get a product. 

32 (product)

1 x 32 (factors)

2 x 16 (factors)

4 x 8 (factors)

1 and 32 (factor pair)

2 and 16 (factor pair)

4 and 8 (factor pair)

To find them, you can search systematically to find all the factors (starting with 1 x the number).  Once you begin to see turn-around facts, you do not need to go any further.  You can also use divisibility to find factors.  How do we find the factors of 14 using division?  We can divide 14 by every number up to 14 and find all of the numbers that divide evenly into 14.

Multiples

A multiple of a number is the product of that number and another whole number.

4 x 9 = 36 (36 is the multiple)

Find the multiples of 4…

4 x 1 = 4

4 x 2 = 8

4 x 3 = 12

4 x 4 = 16

and so on!

Prime and Composite Numbers

A prime number has exactly two different factors: 1 and the number itself. 

A composite number has more than two different factors.