LOGOS SCHOOL UPDATE – 2016 – #24
General
Logos Summer Camps/Classes: We are excited to be offering more summer camps and classes than ever before. Check out the academic classes (English, math, Latin, logic) and the new camps (girls basketball, photography, engine camp). Enrollment is open and the brochure can be found here.
Easter/Spring Break: Just a reminder that Easter/Spring Break will last two weeks and a day this year, March 14-28. Have a wonderful time celebrating with your family!
Elementary
2nd Grade Play: This Friday Miss Courtney’s class will be on stage performing By The Great Horn Spoon! The show will open at 8:35 with a recitation by the secondary choir. This performance will be in the gym.
Parent/Teacher Conferences (March 31 & April 1): Families with three or more students in the elementary will receive an email this week with details on how to sign up. If you fit this category, and don’t receive an email by Thursday evening, please contact the front office. All other families will receive an opportunity to sign up next week.
Secondary
Rhetoric Speech Meet (10th-12th Grade): The meet will take place this Friday. All are welcome to attend the awards assembly at 2:30 in the auditorium.
Spring Sports: High school lacrosse and track begin February 26. Both teams have had preseason meetings. See Mr. Carnahan if you need more details.
Mock Trial Regionals: Our Mock Trial teams head to Coeur d’Alene this Saturday for the regional competition. Please keep them in your prayers as they travel and compete.
Why do Kids Need to Learn Math Facts?
(Excerpt taken from k-5 Learning.com)
So what’s the big deal with math facts? Why in today’s day and age – with calculators and computers – do our kids really need to rote learn their basic addition, subtraction, multiplication and division? Isn’t this just ‘old school’? In this article we’ll touch on why kids need to learn math fact fluency. But first, what do we mean by math fact fluency?
Math facts fluency refers to the ability to recall the basic facts in all four operations accurately, quickly and effortlessly. When students achieve automaticity with these facts, they have attained a level of mastery that enables them to retrieve them for long-term memory without conscious effort or attention. Brain imaging studies have shown how the progression from effortful processes, such as finger counting, to automatized retrieval is associated with actual changes in the regions of the brain involved in mathematical computation (Rivera, Reiss, Eckert and Menon, 2005). So why focus on math facts?
Math facts fluency leads to higher order mathematics
Through automaticity students free up their working memory and can devote it to problem solving and learning new concepts and skills (Geary, 1994). Quite simply, a lack of fluency in basic math fact recall significantly hinders a child’s subsequent progress with problem-solving, algebra and higher-order math concept.
Fluent math facts mean less confusion
Math facts are important because they form the building blocks for higher-level math concepts. When a child masters his/her math facts, these concepts will be significantly easier and the student will be better equipped to solve them faster. If the child spends a lot of time doing the basic facts, he/she is more likely to be confused with the processes and get lost in their calculations.
Math fact automaticity affects performance – not only in math
In later elementary, students have longer and more complicated computations to complete to check their understanding of various concepts. At this stage, if a student does not have his/her math facts committed to memory, he/she will spend a disproportionate amount of time figuring out the smaller calculations and risk not completing the test. This not only affects their performance in math class, but will also in other subjects, such as science and geography.
Less math anxiety
Math can be compared to languages in some ways. Just like you have to learn to combine letters into words and words into sentences – and we have strategies like phonics and sight words to help kids to learn to read – math facts are the foundation blocks for learning the next level of math. There is rote learning involved in both language and math mastery. Math anxiety starts when children fall behind and can’t keep up. To avoid these anxieties, students’ early elementary years should focus on learning the foundation math skills needed for later years – math facts are among those important math skills.
The Logos arithmetic standards can be found here.
Cheers,
Matt Whitling
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