March 20, 2011 Good afternoon parents and guardians of Grade 5 and Grade 6 Math students.  .. Hope your week went well.  We are very busy in our classrooms as we prepare for the upcoming report cards by finishing units and writing tests.  It is hoped that both grades revisit daily activities on a regular basis.  This helps to reinforce concepts and helps to bind together the strands.  All areas can be improved upon by practicing the outcomes.....making connections makes a difference. The Grade 5 students are looking at writing explainations on how a question or problem is solved.  This requires knowing the key words and math vocabulary in order to show complete understanding of the operation.  An example of this style of questioning is.... Explain how to solve...,  9 - 2.5, by using words and pictures.       This is the focus taken for our students in today's math curriculums.  It is not important enough just to know the answer but to know the how of a question.  Please do some of these with your son/daughter.  We have finished our unit on Decimals and fractions and I was so impressed with the results... WAY TO GO