The second grade mathematicians have been working hard as usual, and have just completed our third unit, Stickers, Number Strings, and Story Problems.  Much of the unit emphasized using what the children know to make problems easier to solve, by thinking about known combinations, and noticing that order doesn't matter in addition.  They continue to work on different types of addition and subtraction story problems and on developing efficient strategies for solving problems.  In this unit the students thought about the relationship between the two operations of addition and subtraction and the way one undoes the other and how multiplication is related to addition.  It is quite impressive!
The second graders continue to learn from one another as they represent and share their work in a number of different ways.

 

The second graders also investigated even and odd numbers, using the context of partners and teams, and thought about which numbers made groups of 2, and which numbers made 2 equal groups.  This work then extended into counting by groups of 2s, 5s, and 10s.  We took a real-life approach as we skip counted our shoes, legs, and fingers and noticed patterns within these numbers. In the Counting Bags activity, they counted a set of objects in at least two different ways.  Keeping track while counting by groups is a complex task, which requires focus and organization.  The pictures show the children demonstrating these skills.

                   

There are always opportunities for a little role reversal. Here is our teacher instructing her students, :)

 

Next up, Pockets, Teeth and Favorite Things, a unit on collecting, representing, describing, and interpreting data!