• Curriculum Overview
• Afternoons
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• Service Learning and Partnerships
• Special Assemblies
• Mini Courses

"What are some of the big math topics covered in 3rd and 4th grade?" "How often do we 'do' math in the Main Circle?" "What do math activities look like for third and fourth graders?" These are just a few questions many current and prospective parents of third and fourth graders ask us.

We 'do' math in the Main Circle every day. In just these first three months of school, we have covered such topics as graphing (pie, line, picto, and bar), multi-digit addition and subtraction, money, telling time, word problems, and multiplication. The activities we use to teach these math topics make learning non-stressful, fun, and individualized.

Sometimes, this leads to seemingly 'hidden' math. About three weeks into school, one Main Circle student asked, "When are we going to start math?." We just had to laugh because at that point we had been surveying our classmates and friends at SRV and graphing the results of these surveys in various forms. We were also calculating the total number of birds migrating and graphing these results. In addition, we were playing addition and subtraction card games and reviewing the algorithms for multi-digit addition and subtraction.

Since the Main Circle children were so eager for math, we moved right into a study of multiplication. We first spent time looking at multiplication as an array. For example, arranging twenty color tiles into 20X1, 1X20, 2X10, 10X2, 5X4, and 4X5 rectangles. We then moved on to a grouping model of multiplication and Main Circle children created word problems such as: 'There are three walls. Each wall has thiry-nine bricks. How many bricks are there in all?' Currently, we are working on memorizing our multiplication facts. In addition to flash card practice, students are playing numerous fact games with cards, dice, bingo boards, cards, and array cards.

Our math, of course, wouldn't be complete without integrating it into our study of the Spanish language and Mexico. Counting in Spanish was just the beginning of integrating math into our social studies curriculum. Main Circle students reviewed how to tell time in English and learned how to tell time in Spanish. 'What Time is it Mr. Fox' ('Que Hora Es Señor Zorro') is a favorite game we play. You could also come to Rawson and see our Mexican Market. Students have created pollo (chicken) stands, panderias (bread stores), vegetale (vegetable) stands, and many others. We have a bank and a lot of buying and selling going on. Learning about conversion rates – converting dollars to pesos and pesos to dollars, speaking only in Spanish at the market, and creating the items to sell at the market are great ways to immerse our students in another culture.

So, we 'do' a lot of math in the Main Circle. It may not always look like the math you are accustomed to, but learning is going on all of the time. Below we have listed a problem to get you thinking. E-mail our students if you need help!

'Marco came home from el mercado with sententa y cinco pieces of candy for his family. If Marco tiene cuatro hermanos y hermanas, how many pieces of candy do they each get?'

Adios!

Lori y Scott