NAME ______________________________ DATE _______________

FAMILY LETTER

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Related Activities to Try at Home

Dear Family,

The activities suggested below are related to the mathematics we are currently studying in school. Doing them with your child can enrich your child's mathematical learning.

Counting We continue to focus on strategies for counting accurately and are practicing counting sets of up to 20 objects. This is more challenging because there are more objects to keep track of, but also because the number sequence in the teens doesn't follow the same pattern as the rest of the numbers. For example, think about 21, 22, 23 (or 31, 32, 33 or 41, 42, 43), and then consider the fact that we don't say ten-one, ten-two, ten-three for 11, 12, 13. You can support your child by finding lots of ways to count together at home.

Solving Story Problems In this unit, students have many opportunities to solve problems about combining (addition) and separating (subtraction) small amounts. At home, find ways to present problems about common situations: “There are six people in our family. But Grandma and Grandpa are joining us for dinner tonight. How many people will there be?”. Or, “Usually, we have six people at our dinner table, but José is eating at a friend's house. How many people will there be?”. Or, “If James wants three tacos, and Maria wants four, how many tacos do I need to make?”. Encourage children to explain how they solve such problems. Most kindergarteners count from one. Some may count on (or back) or “just know” some combinations.

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