Today was Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Shrove Tuesday always falls on the day before Ash Wednesday when Lent begins. It comes from the old custom of using up all the fattening ingredients such as eggs, milk and oil in the pantry so that people were ready to fast during Lent. So, why not make pancakes with those ingredients? All classes in our school today celebrated by either making pancakes or having them provided. Thanks to all the parents who helped make this happen for our students! They were scrumptious.

In multiplication, we are learning not only about single digit multiplication as in 8×5, but also double-digit by single digit such as 45 x 3.  We understand that multiplication is repeated addition and we’ve been learning how to represent the numbers using addition sentences as well as multiplication sentences.

5 x 4 = 20      or     4+4+4+4+4 = 20

In the pictures below we were building arrays using square tiles to represent a number, such as 20. We discovered that there are sometimes more than one way to build an array to represent a number.

For instance, we learned that 20 can be built in rows and columns as in:

1 x 20

2 x 10

4 x 5

Students will continue to build on this foundation in the upcoming grades as they learn about prime and composite numbers.

In our class, the students are asked to know their times tables up to the 9s…especially our grade 4s! However, I know many of our grade 3s are up for the challenge, too!