Shopping, Story Problems, and Making Change

This week we have been doing some shopping at our make-believe classroom store so that students have practice counting money, exchanging money, and making change. Change is a difficult concept for many first graders, so don't worry if your child needs extra practice. You can help by pointing out price tags while you are shopping together and then having your child count the coins for the cashier if possible. You can also point out when you get change from the cashier. Because of the common use of debit cards, some children did not realize that if you give the store too much cash, they give you money back! They thought the store just keeps the extra.

Here is one student being the cashier.

We are also working on writing number stories (story problems.) When they shop at the store, students had to write a number story for the items they were going to buy and calculate the total.

This student had one dollar to spend at the store, so he found as many items as he could that would add up to less than one dollar so he could buy them all!

Here he is calculating his total on the number grid. Nice work!!!

These two chose to finish their math during recess. They worked on a challenge problem then helped each other finish math pages. Way to go!!!

I absolutely love this time of year!! Students have grown so much, and we can work on more and more challenging concepts. They have truly formed a community in our classroom, and working together is one thing this class does well! Great job everybody!

Parents, you have a lot coming home in backpacks lately.

Please remember to return book orders and field trip permission forms by tomorrow, April 15. Have a great day!