Week Seven

Hi everyone,
We have moved into the exploration of Decimal Fraction Place value from this week. We have used the "Decipipes" as our initial model. You can see from the attached photos that the decipipes allow us to model tenths and hundredths easily.

 It did not take the children long to understand the concept of ten tenths equalling 1 whole. Another important aspect of our learning has been an indepth exploration of the decimal point. The fact that it separates whole numbers from parts of mumbers is very important, from there it is an extension of our whole number place value system, it certainly follows the same "Rules".

The children continually make links between this new learning and the "Song Videos" which use the same Place Value language .
Basic Fact learning is based around 2, 5 and 10 times tables. The 10 times tables are our "Ty" numbers anyway, so the job of the teacher is to make the link to the childrens existing knowledge of this.

The 2 times tables are there doubles (which they already know and have been practicing). The 5 times tables can be explored through number patterns on a hundreds board or a similar piece of Place Value equipment. It is also very useful to link the 5 times to their existing 10 times table.
EG   3 x 10 = 30
        3 x 5 = 15  and 6 x 5 = 30
I will explore this last idea in the next posting.

Week 6

This week we have started to introduce the ideas around decimal place value. it was important to establish whole number place value first however. The children are now far more confident at reading and saying very large numbers as well as identifying numbers 1, 10 and 100 before and after. The children have also found the videos very motivating.
We have still been focusing on addition and subtraction Basic Facts, particularly linking them using Family of Facts. We will shortly start exploring multiplication and division Basic Facts.

Place Value : Place Value Rap (Rockin' the Standards)

Place Value : Place Value Rap (Rockin' the Standards)

Week Five

We are continuing to work on place value understanding and are now finding numbers 1, 10 and 100 before and after. I have added 2 videos on place value to our blog. The children have enjoyed learning the songs that go with the videos. They are American videos and we have discussed the difference between how they say numbers and how we do. For example they say "Three hundred twenty four" while we say "Three hundred AND twenty four". They also give the commas names between the numbers. The "Thousands comma" and the "Millions comma". I do like the idea of putting the concept of place value to music though.
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