Chet the Eagle

We have a new school blog that is being written by Chet the Eagle. Chet is going to help us highlight some school wide events and positive happenings that go on every week. Parents and kids are encouraged to leave comments for Chet. This is a great way to access photos from school events.

http://cheteagle.blogspot.com

Split It

Split It

This is an easy strategy to split a number like 7,758 in half.

What I look for is a way to make splitting the number easy by using simple mental calculations. Usually, the first step is to decompose the number into its place values. So, 7,758 becomes

7,000 + 700 + 50 + 8 .

Then, I ask that a student rewrite any number that they cannot readily split. Usually, these numbers start with odd numbers. We'll look at 7,000.

7,000 could be rewritten as 6,000 +1,000 (both of which are easy to split).

After that, it's all down hill.

The whole number could be rewritten as
6,000 + 1,000 + 600 +100 + 40 + 10 +8,

and finding half of these numbers should be EZ!
3,000 +500 +300 + 50 +20 +5 +4 = 3,879!

Try it!!

Power Tower

Here's how to build a Power Tower:
A Power Tower is a list of the first nine multiples of a number, which can be very helpful when beginning multi-digit division. To be super efficient, there is a strategic way to build the tower so that it doesn't take much time. Here's the top secret strategy:

Example: Let's build a Power Tower for 37 so that we can solve the problem 2886 divided by 37.

1 - 37 (This is the number we are dividing by)
2 - 74 (Double the first multiple, 30 + 30 = 60; 7 + 7 = 14; 60 + 14 = 74)
3 - 111 (The sum of the first 2 multiples, 30 + 70 = 100; 7 + 4 = 11; 100 + 11 = 111)
4 - 148 (Double the second multiple, 70 + 70 = 140; 4 + 4 = 8; 140 + 8 = 148)
5 - 185 (Split the tenth multiple in half, 37 x 10 = 370; 1/2 of 300 = 150; 1/2 of 70 = 35;
150 + 35 = 185)
6 - 222 (Double the third multiple, 100 + 100 = 200; 10 + 10 = 20; 1 + 1 = 2; 200 + 20 + 2=
222)
7 - 259 (The sum of the sixth and first multiples, 222 + 30 = 252; 252 + 7 = 259)
8 - 296 (Double the fourth multiple; 140 + 140 = 280; 8 + 8 = 16; 280 + 16 = 296)
9 - 333 (The sum of the eighth and first multiples, 296 + 30 = 326; 326 + 7 = 333)

Note: Complete the green multiples first, the orange second, the red third, and the blue last.

Looking at our tower, we know that the 7th multiple of 37 is 259, so the 70th multiple will be 2590. This is the closest we can get to 2886 without going over, using a landmark multiple of 37. The difference in 2886 and 2590 is 296. Looking at our Power Tower, we can see that the 8th multiple of 37 is 296. So, 2886 divided by 37 equals 70 + 8 = 78.

Entertainment Books - PTA Fundraiser

Entertainment Books - PTA Fundraiser

Everyone should have received their book this week. The sale of these books goes through September 9th. 50% of the sales goes directly to your PTA to help sponsor anti-bullying programs, Internet Safety training, and other activities all year long.

All books that are not sold should be returned to your student's teacher by Monday, September 12th. All orders placed will be filled & returned to your student promptly. If they are large & too heavy for the child to carry, we will notify you of their availability so that you can stop in to pick up the books for your customers.

Thank you for your support.