Math Matters in December !
Let's Talk About Problem Solving!
Problem solving is perhaps the most important part of your math learning! It is where you use the concepts you are learning in class in real life situations. Students need to be able to pull apart the information in word problems the same way they might handle situations in real life as they grow older.
One of our goals at Barkhamsted School is to have students "dissect" their word problems by underlining important words, circling important numbers, crossing out unnecessary information, and double underlining or highlighting the question(s) being asked. This forces students to look at every word and determine its importance within the problem. Mistakes can be avoided such as forgetting "John and his 12 friends..." where the actual number to work with is 13 and not 12.....
An example of this might look like this:
Mary and her friend went to the movies. The tickets cost $7.50 each. How much will it cost them to go to the movies?
The student working on this problem has carefully looked at the entire problem, determined what information was needed and can now begin to solve the problem.
Please encourage your child to continue this practice/strategy at home when doing homework, even if not just word problems. The same strategy can be used with directions to homework as well!
Math Joke of the month!!! Q. Matt had 60 cookies. He ate 30 of them. What does he have now?
A tummy ache.
One of our goals at Barkhamsted School is to have students "dissect" their word problems by underlining important words, circling important numbers, crossing out unnecessary information, and double underlining or highlighting the question(s) being asked. This forces students to look at every word and determine its importance within the problem. Mistakes can be avoided such as forgetting "John and his 12 friends..." where the actual number to work with is 13 and not 12.....
An example of this might look like this:
Mary and her friend went to the movies. The tickets cost $7.50 each. How much will it cost them to go to the movies?
The student working on this problem has carefully looked at the entire problem, determined what information was needed and can now begin to solve the problem.
Please encourage your child to continue this practice/strategy at home when doing homework, even if not just word problems. The same strategy can be used with directions to homework as well!
Math Joke of the month!!! Q. Matt had 60 cookies. He ate 30 of them. What does he have now?
A tummy ache.
- “You will always miss 100% of the shots you don't take” – Wayne Gretsky