Here are links to a few websites that you can use as a family. These sites have information to help caregivers with concepts and ways to keep kids excited about math (and other subjects) and fun games and activities for students.
https://figurethis.nctm.org/fc/family_corner.htm
And this one is just as much for parents as it is for students - Sal Kahn is amazing at helping anyone remember concepts and to learn new ones!
I want to make sure that we are all using this blog to help all of the kids love math. So, if you find something that your student loves to do at home or a connection that they made that you want to share, please leave a comment here in this post. I'll get a notification any time someone leaves a comment so I'll be sure to come over and check it out. Twice per month I will combine the ideas and shares into a blog post to share with everyone.
In the same way, if there is anything that you or your student find confusing, please either leave those comments or shoot me an email. I will also do a twice per month (as needed) post that works to clear up confusion on concepts. More immediately I will look through these questions and clarify the process with students in class and I will also update my weekly newsletter with information that can help, but through the posts you will have an easy place to come back at any time to find reminders and clarification on concepts without having to search for old newsletters or through old assignments.
Often families want suggestions for things that they can do at home to help their students grasp math concepts. Really there are SO many things that you can do. One thing that I did with my own kids at this age was work on "more and less". We did this at the store a lot. It could be, "This pack of mac and cheese bites has 20 pieces in it. This pack of potato skins has 8 pieces. Which is more?" You can do the same with the prices. "The mac and cheese bites cost $11. The potato skins cost $13. Which costs more?"
You can do the same with their toys, "How many Squishmallows do you have? How many Hot Wheels? Do you have more Squismallows or Hot Wheels? How many more? How many toys do you have all together (of Squishmallows and Hot Wheels?"
When you start to look, you see math everywhere. You can have your kids tell you what spheres they see at home, what cubes, what squares, etc. This helps them solidify their understanding of 2D vs 3D shapes.
Here are some videos of other ideas of things that you can do at home:
I don't know about you, but when I learned about numbers and adding or subtracting it was all about how to count (1 - 2 - 3 - 4 - etc) and learning how many items that "number name" represented. Then I learned to count one number and add on more. When adding and subtracting was taught it was all about carrying and borrowing with no real explanation of what I was doing when I "carried" or "borrowed", and by then I was expected to just have all my addition and subtraction facts memorized. I knew on some level what I was doing, but I honestly had never really thought much about it until my kids were in elementary school and then more when I took a math class while working on my master's degree. What we are doing now helps to ensure that our kids know WHY they carried that number or what is happening when they borrow.
Let's look at this standard (one of the expectations for first graders in Georgia to learn):
MGSE1.NBT.2 Understand that the two digits of a two-digit number represent amounts of tens and ones. Understand the following as special cases: a. 10 can be thought of as a bundle of ten ones – called a “ten.” b. The numbers from 11 to 19 are composed of a ten and one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine ones. c. The numbers 10, 20, 30, 40, 50, 60, 70, 80, 90 refer to one, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, or nine tens (and 0 ones).
The way that math is taught now is that students by kindergarten are taught about the "one's place" and "tens place", maybe even the "hundreds place". When they look at the number 25 they can tell you it is "two tens" and "five ones". Further, they can show you with manipulatives. That would look something like this:
"cube": 
Thanks for stopping by my blog, I'm so excited for this year and all of the amazing things that we will get to do as a class!
First things first - we are a team! Please reach out to me if you ever have any questions about assignments, activities, how your child is doing, or anything else.
A little about me. I'm a mom of 3 "kids" - my girls are both in college (one majoring in physics, the other in chemistry) and my son works at a ski resort in Wyoming. I grew up in Georgia and have always lived here. Teaching is my second (actually third) career. I worked in corporate for years, then opened a photography business that I ran for six years while my kids were in elementary school. In 2020 I realized that I had an interest in working in education and worked first in an elementary school front office and then as a kindergarten parapro. It was here that I realized that I love teaching and I decided to become a certified teacher. As I worked on my master's degree I came to realize that I love teaching kids to read and that I absolutely LOVE the "new math".
A little about me and math... I was always pretty good at math, but I never loved it. When I chose a major for my undergraduate part of what I was considered was that I did NOT want to take calculus! When my kids were in elementary school I would get so frustrated with trying to understand the new ways that math was taught and I'll admit - I taught my kids the "standard algorithms". I didn't understand WHY things were being done this new way when the "old way" seemed so much faster. And then I spoke to my twins' 2nd grade teacher and she broke some of it down for me. She assured me that my kids would be able to do mental math that I could never imagine, to trust the process. Then, I homeschooled my twins for middle school and I started to see the value in how they did things. Finally, I did my master's program and took a few classes on how to teach math and I SAW it! Suddenly, math has become my favorite subject to do and to teach. I seriously love this "new math", it really helps students understand the WHY behind so many things I'd just been taught rules for. So please, if what we are doing in math ever seems ... odd... to you, please reach out to me. I'd love the chance to talk it through with you and share my new found love of math with you!
-Ms. Landa
