Newsletter: May 4, 2012

Dear Families,

We've been very busy this week sorting, counting, and rolling the change we've been collecting for Rwandan Hugs (Help Us Get Started). This is a non-profit organization that works to support survivors of the Rwandan genocide. For $50 we can  provide a family with a goat. Goats provide income security, horsepower and fertilizer, milk, and an opportunity to breed more goats that are then passed along to other families in need. To date, we have raised about $185. We are trying hard to collect a few more coins and bills because an anonymous donor has offered to double our money once we reach $200. How amazing is that?

Of course, there's also a lot of great math to be found in counting money. There's the sorting by coin. Which coins would you expect are most common in our jar? The answer is pennies. But why?

Counting money also gives us opportunities to skip count, develop strategies to ensure we have the correct amount, and see a real world model of repeated addition (aka: multiplication). Stacks of five pennies, arrays of nickels, collections of quarter roles - these are all great opportunities to think about multiplication.

Rolling our money has provided an opportunity to talk about the necessity of accuracy in math. This is not a time for estimations or valuing a process more than the actual answer. No, the teller at the bank will expect us to work carefully and get it EXACTLY correct. To better our chances we are asking two different classmates to check our work before placing the coins into the rolls. I then line up the rolls to see if they all appear to be the exact same length. So far, so good!

Over the last few weeks of school we will continue to collect, sort, count, and roll. Thank you all for the support you've offered this project over the past few months. If you'd like to help the kids finish strong please consider helping them think of extra chores they might be able to do around the house to earn a little extra money to bring in. Better yet, help them count it first at home and then sort it into different piles to demonstrate how multiplication works to make counting money faster and easier.

One Other Note of Interest...

Each year I like to have a whole class outing to celebrate our year together. Next year we will head out to Sesqui for a campfire and camp out. This year I'd like to meet for a movie and pizza. On Saturday, May 19th we'll plan to meet at the Sandhills to see the new Chimpanzee movie and then head over to CiCi's for lunch. I'm not certain of the showtimes yet but I'll shoot for late morning/late afternoon. I know, of course, some families will have conflicts. However, if you're free please plan to join us!

Have a great weekend,
Chris