Mathematics.
We also had our assessment for addition and subtract to 20 this week and it was incredibly hard. A couple of questions stood out in the test, particularly sums that required more than 1 step to solve and equivalent sums. For example:
1. 19 - 9 = O (circle), O (circle) + 2 = Square
Question: What is square.
The students had trouble with this one as it required finding out the value of the circle first, then using the result to find the value of the triangle. The use of symbols also threw them off as it is basically algebra.
2. 19 - 8 = 12 + __
This caused no end of problems as the students had to use the knowledge that the equals sign can mean the same as. So they would have to solve 19-8 then use that answer to figure out the missing value in the sum. Nasty!
To help the students with these kind of questions in the future (they feature heavily in an upcoming unit in term 3) I will be practicing these kinds of questions in our morning circle time and maths warm ups. We will also start a new maths test every Friday to help acclimatise the students to working to a time limit!
Writing.
Reading.
We have also started to read the BFG during our story time and I am very happy to hear that it has inspired a lot of students to start reading Roald Dahl books! He is one of my favourite author and his books really motivate children to push the limit of their reading skills.