Today we used a fabulous book called Two Of Everything by Lily Toy Hong as our focus in our math lesson. This book retells a Chinese Folktale with great humour. The story is about Mr. Haktak who digs up an ancient brass pot and brings it home to his wife. While the Haktak's can't find any particular uses for the pot, they discover it has magical powers. The magical pot doubles everything. In the end, the Haktaks find a way to wield the magical pot powers. After enjoying this book and discussing items that we would love to have doubled, we used the concept to practice double addition facts. For example, When Mr. Haktak accidentally drops his coin purse containing 5 coins in the pot, the 5 coins are transformed into 10. The grade one practiced their double facts up to 6+6, and then 10+10 as an added challenge. The grade two's practiced their facts up to 10+10 and then an added challenge of any number up 50 using addition with regrouping when required.
Today our grade two class started to learn how to add two-digit numbers with regrouping. To break this task down into simple steps that are tactile as well as visual we started by learning the process using math manipulatives.
As part of our science unit; exploring liquids, our class participated in an experiment that focused on our water quality and the responsibilities we have for maintaining clean supplies of water. The students were amazed at how impactful oil can be when it affects our water quality and what a great detriment an oil spill can have on our bird and marine population.