Day 137
For one year, 365 days, this blog will address the Common Core Standards from the perspective of creating an alternate, ambient learning environment for math. Ambient is defined as “existing or present on all sides, an all-encompassing atmosphere.” And ambient music is defined as: “Quiet and relaxing with melodies that repeat many times.
Why ambient? A math teaching style that’s whole and all encompassing, with themes that repeat many times through the years, is most likely to be effective and successful. Today’s post will feature the next Grade 2 Common Core Math Standard listed in blue, followed by its ambient counterpart as practiced by Waldorf Education and Math By Hand.
Number and Operations in Base Ten 2.NBT
Use place value understanding and properties of operations to add and subtract.
6. Add up to four two-digit numbers using strategies based on place value and properties of operations.
In the Math By Hand system, after place value is learned in a very concrete way using large, color-coded columns with manipulatives, confidence levels are high and allow much greater than four two-digit numbers to be computed. Long columns of three- and four-digit numbers are added, three- and four-digit numbers are subtracted, three- and four- digit numbers are multiplied by the numbers 2-12, and short division is computed with three- and four- digit numbers divided by the numbers 2-12. See below for practice suggestions taken from the Math By Hand Grade 2 binder.
Knowledge ensues in an environment dedicated to imaginative, creative knowing, where student and teacher alike surrender to the ensuing of knowledge as a worthy goal. Tune in tomorrow for more Common Core, and its ambient, Waldorf/Math By Hand counterpart.
