Student Modeling

Students at every grade level have been using modeling to prove and show their mathematical thinking and reasoning.  Below are some examples from first grade and third grade.



The first grade problem was the following:

John has 3 stickers.  Mark has 4 stickers. Anna has 5 stickers.  They each get 2 more stickers.
How many stickers do they each have now?  (Extension: How many stickers do they have in total?)

A grade 3 student was solving the following multi-step problem:

An artist plans to paint a wall in a room.  The wall is divided into six equal sections so each section can be painted a different color.

The artist goes to the store to buy brushes and small cans of paint.  He pays a total of $94.

He buys 8 brushes that cost $5 each.

The rest of the money is used for the cans of paint.  Each can costs the same amount.

How much does each can of paint cost?

Show your work and explain your thinking.

Ask your children about their mathematical modeling!  I think you will be impressed!

Research proves our previous methods of instruction don't work!

Check out this article!

What's this new math anyway?

Please join Mrs. Vittum, Ms. Welch and Mrs. Tenaglia as we unpack the Common Core State Standards and our new curriculum resource, Engage NY/Eureka.

There will be two sessions (the information will be the same at each session).

Session 1:  Thursday, October 13th at 6:30pm (during the PTO meeting)
Session 2:  Friday, October 14th at 1:45pm 

Each session will be about an hour long.

You can sign up online here!

Welcome Back Northeast!

I hope that you all enjoyed summer vacation as much as I did! My family took a great trip to the Grand Canyon and Sedona, AZ.  I can't believe how much math we encountered on our trip!  From tracking distance, comparing sizes and just paying for items (making sure they were within our budget!), we were doing real world math all the time! Check out this website for some fun facts about the Grand Canyon http://explorethecanyon.com/explore-learn/grand-canyon-facts/.

The staff at Northeast is excited to welcome so many new families to the building.  We hope that you find it to be a great place to learn and grow.

Throughout the year, I will be posting information about our math instruction.  There will be activities for students as well as fun projects for families to do at home.  In addition, I will be posting information about how and when parents should be helping students with homework, why it is important to let your child struggle and persevere through problems and more.

Please feel free to contact me at any time if you have questions.

Middlesex Math Madness Tournament!

Northeast Elementary sent two fifth grade teams to the Middlesex Math Madness Tournament in Burlington on May 14th.  These 10 students were selected after a tough try-out in March.  They had to work independently and as teams of 5 during the event.  

135 students competed.  While our teams did not place in the top 3 (there were 27 teams), they all persevered and did an amazing job.  Trying to problem solve with that kind of pressure is no easy task!  Ms. Bernard and I are incredibly proud that they took a risk and tried something new!

We DID have the overall individual winner from Northeast!  Cole Gaynor solved 9 out of 10 problems correctly to make him the highest scoring individual student.  We are so proud of all of our mathematicians!

Check out some pictures here!

Penny Drive and Math Night!

On April 14th, Northeast staff and families came together to celebrate math!  We had a wonderful turnout and were fortunate to provide every child in the building with a math toolkit filled with items like playing cards, rulers, dice, counters and more!

Thanks to an amazing Penny Drive and support from the PTO, there was no cost for families to attend this event.  We are looking forward to doing both of these events next year.  Keep saving those pennies!

Our pennies after only ONE WEEK!

Mrs. Vittum's car filled with over 100,000 pennies to bring to the bank!

Several students trying out the estimation station at Math Night.