SUBTRACTICIANS AND MATHEMATICIANS

Today we became subtracticians.  That's a made up word for learning subtraction and becoming experts all in one day.  We practiced making fact families and learned that addition problems can quickly be turned into subtractions problems.  Can you use the number 4, 6, and 10 to find two addition and two subtraction problems?  We sure can!

4+6=10        6+4=10        10-4=6        10-6=4

With addition you always add the two parts together to find the whole.  With subtraction you always start with the whole and take away one of the parts.

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In other news, today was also a sad day because we finished the popular read aloud, The BFG.  We loved this book and the author Roald Dahl. Many of us would like to read some more of his novels later this year!  That's the sign of a great author.  SPOILER ALERT!  We were blown away by the ending.  Turns out the BFG was the author of this book all along.  Sophie taught him to speak and write properly and he became a writer.  He was too shy to use his own name, which is why we thought Roald Dahl was the real author.  None of us saw that coming :)

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In even more news, we read the hilarious The Hair of Zoe Fleefenbacher Goes to School. This book had us holding our bellies it was so funny!  But once we got past the giggles, we realized this book was all about community and the things we are working on in first grade.  A great community works together, respects each others differences, and values those differences too.  We talked about how a class of 18 identical students would not be very interesting.  Instead, we each bring our differences to class and that's what makes coming to school everyday so much fun.