What do you do with these? (Singapore Math)

[blendergal]

We're working through Singapore Math 2A, using the CC edition. There are mental math pages (slips, really) in the back of the teacher's guide, but I can't find guidance anywhere about how to use them. I was using them for "sprints" in the early, easier lessons, but now that we're adding three-digit numbers with renaming, I think they're too challenging to use that way. (My kiddo has anxiety as it is!)

 

Is this specific to the CC edition? Does anyone know how these pages are meant to be used?

[Petrichor]

Not specific to CC edition, since I have them in the standards edition HIGs.

 

I rarely use them. I make a copy of a page if DS needs extra practice with a certain exercise. Sometimes he will complain about a lesson being too difficult, and I realize it's because he has forgotten some basic facts, so I pull out an earlier mental math sheet, sometimes even from level 1, and we are on 2B presently. 

 

Sometimes I make a copy of one of the sheets for DS to work on in lieu of doing a new lesson that day. He can do a column or two on the way to a field trip, for example. 

 

We used the mm sheets a lot more in level 1 than we do now.

 

 

[Petrichor]

double post

 

 

Edited September 29, 2017 by Dust

[blendergal]

Very helpful! It's definitely my personality to DO. EVERY. PAGE. But I know I need to relax about that. I like the idea of doing a couple of columns each day over holiday breaks, just to keep things fresh. That may be how we do it.

[Alice]

I didn’t do them with my oldest or with my youngest. My middle son needs more reinforcement and needed to work on math facts more. I gave him a page a week most weeks. It was his choice how to do it...all in one go or break it down and do something like 5 problems a day. I didn’t time him because that would have led to more math anxiety in this kid. I also usually used them behind whatever lesson we were on. So it was kind of a review/fact practice. 

[Finlandia]

I wondered the same thing when I first started with Singapore. I think they are there mostly for extra practice, specifically with the various mental strategies that the textbook introduces (like making tens). So it's not so much practicing the computation or formal algorithm as it is practicing moving numbers around mentally to make the computation easier. I don't use them that much because my DD does most of the textbook or workbook mentally already, so at this point she doesn't need the extra practice. I like the idea of using them during breaks or when your not quite ready to move on to the next unit.