Monday, October 20, 2014

First Math Block of Second Grade

We started our first math block of second grade at the beginning of October.  During this block we will cover even and odd numbers, roman numerals (because we skipped them last year) and a general review of the four processes. 

We started the block off with roman numerals.  I introduced them in a circle (day one I-V, day two VI - X) through a simple story about children counting apple trees in orchards. As I told the story, we used toothpicks to create the roman numerals and then added the jewels and number cards to further reinforce the meaning of each roam numeral.


At the table, my son created a list of all the roman numerals with all the equal identifiers.  We included number words in this because my son has a tendancy to not recognize the words at sight, with the exception of a few, so we added them in for practice.  Then, he wanted to do his daily situational problems with roman numerals instead of arabic, so I said go for it!  So fun!




The next week we focused on even and odd numbers.  We had two knights on the table who could only keep bags of treasure if it could be equally shared.  My son would count the total in each pile, divide them between the two knights and depending on the answer would write the total under even or odd in his main lesson book.  Each day we used a different "treasure".
 






At the end of each lesson, he circled the even numbers on a hundreds chart.  I actually wish I had used a 0-99 chart because the placement of the tens in a hundreds chart isn't in the correct place, but I digress.  I brought this to him in hopes that he would see the pattern of even numbers on his own, which he did by the third day. 


 These last two weeks of the month will be deticated to reviewing roman numerals, even and odd numbers and reviewing the four processes.  We will do this through situational stories that are then transfered to the main lesson book. Today we used our knights again and gave them jewels to share and add together.  My son also expanded roman numerals to show how they are really all just addition and subtraction. He figured this out on his own and used his main lesson book to illustrate while he was explaining his findings to me.

Expanding our situational problems.  We did whole to parts last year, and have switched this year.


We have had a lot of fun with this block, and I'll be honest saying that I was a bit worried about it.  Last year we used mostly JUMP math workbooks, which my son still loves and will do a page or two each day, and this is the first time we have done math with a more waldorf feel to it.  I have been pleasently surprised at how he has really taken to the way things are brought to him and I think he has much better retention this way than with the worksheets. 

Next blog post I will share some of the simple stories we use for our situational problems.

Cheers!

Marina

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