Beta

2nd: Week of Dec 8

This week the Betas learned triple digit addition and subtraction with regrouping!! These are among the toughest skills we’ll tackle this year due to the number of steps involved. We’ll continue working to strengthen these skills all year, but having laid a strong foundation feels like quite an accomplishment. Book Clubs are wrapping up for the year! Flat Stanley has finished their first adventure and our Fly Guy girls are poised begin their third (and final) book from the Fly Guy series. Last but not least, our Ready Freddy group will continue with Yikes, Bikes! in the new year. In […]

2nd: Week of Dec 8 Read More »

Elementary student works on paper at table at school with small classes.

2nd: Week of Dec 1

The Betas are working so extremely hard in math! This week we cemented our addition with regrouping skills and introduced subtraction with regrouping!! We even applied our addition strategies to solve problems with 3 or 4 double digit addends! Though our double digit addition/subtraction math unit will formally end next week, these are skills we’ll continue honing all year in order to achieve mastery and automaticity. Book Club is rolling right along! Our clubs are into their second books of the quarter. The Fly Guy girls will soon be beginning their third (and final) book from the Fly Guy series.

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student demonstrates work at project based school.

2nd: Week of Nov 10

This week in Math we wrapped up our current unit by devoting a day to solving story problems with missing addends. We took our unit test on Tuesday and celebrated Wednesday with a game day. On Thursday we took our pre-test for the next unit, which delves deeper into addition and subtraction by introducing regrouping and working with larger numbers. We finally started Book Club this week!! The Betas are rocking it, per usual. They seem to be really enjoying their books, whether they’re learning about wolves with our first-ever nonfiction book for book club, reading about Tooth Trouble while

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Elementary student works at table in well lit room at micro school.

2nd: Week of Nov 3

This week in Math we learned many strategies for solving subtraction problems! Several carry over from our repertoire of addition strategies – such as fact families. We learned how to turn missing addend problems into subtraction problems and use tools like numberlines to help us find the difference between numbers. In phonics this week we learned exceptions to the closed syllable/short vowel rule. Specifically, we learned about word chunks: old, ost, olt, ild and ind. Let me tell you, these kids hit their Thursday dictation out of the park!! I am so proud of them. Our sight words were: both,

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Elementary student creates lever at STEM school in Austin.

2nd: Week of Oct 27

This week in Math we focused on strategies that we can use when adding numbers. After reviewing “Friends of 10” and the zero rule, we moved on to doubles and doubles +1. The aim is twofold: for Betas to understand the relationships between numbers in fact families and to develop fact fluency with addition and subtraction facts to 20 so that they don’t have to exhaust their brainpower solving smaller problems. Soon, we’ll learn to solve more complex problems and it will be beneficial for students to be able to draw on their fact knowledge or use mental math. In

2nd: Week of Oct 27 Read More »

Three elementary students pose for halloween picture at school with small class sizes.