Math Class Descriptions

Can your child sit in a circle for story time? Line up for lunch? Take turns talking? This one-day, 3-hour (half-day) program is a "taste" of kindergarten for 5- year-olds. Start your child's week off right with "Monday mornings with Miss M" at Compass Kindergarten. Children will work in a small group with an experienced early elementary educator for this dynamic, play-based program that offers regular interaction and socialization.

This fun, activity-based program will create rhythm and routine in a homeschooled kindergartner's week and give them a sense of community and a peer group. Children will practice routines and transitions as they move through the morning. Each session will include some simple structure such as a daily arrival song/greeting, circle time, story, snack time, activity, lunch, active game, and closing/goodbyes. Through games and activities, they will also practice key childhood social skills such as sharing, taking turns, and entering play with others. Academic basics such as the ABCs, days of the week, colors, shapes, and number sense will be integrated into activities involving fairy tales, nature and art. The teacher will provide ideas for parents to work on at home with their child during the week.

Compass Kindergarten is offered in three weekly sessions: Monday, Wednesday, Friday. Registration is stand-alone for each day so parents can register for one, two, or all three. While each kindergarten class will give children the opportunities for learning and playing in a social environment along with classroom routines, each of the three days will focus on a particular area of study and discovery of how each is connected.

On Wednesdays, the focus will be on Math where students will be exposed to basic mathematical concepts such as adding, subtracting, skip counting, ordinal numbers, and time through stories and play.

Parents can choose to drop children off for this program (different than Compass's school-year policies for 55 minute classes.) Children should bring a bagged lunch and water bottle to each session. There is a $40.00 material fee for class consumables due payable to the teacher on the first day of class. Registration for this program is by 16-week semester with priority registration for continuing students. Students must be age five (5) at the start of the program. Parents who are shopping around or applying to alternate kindergarten programs should review the Compass withdrawal policy.

Kids encounter fractions everyday but may not realize it! They intuitively understand half of a cookie, one quarter of cake, or a third of a pizza. Each week students will use real world examples to illustrate fraction concepts such as part of a whole, part of a set, number lines, comparing fractions, and more. For example, have you ever wondered where music notes get their names? Explore fractions as part of a whole by examining a measure and how different notes make up the whole. Students will create rhythms and be able to explain the math behind the music. Enjoy games? Learn a new version of the game War and dazzle your friends with tricks to quickly compare fractions in your head. Do you like to cook? Fractions are found in recipes that kids like to bake. Explore what it means to buy three quarters of a pound of cheese at the deli, be half way to grandma's house, and express that there were 72 red Legos in a package of 500. Fractions even pop up in telling time- half past ten or quarter 'til one. Fractions can be learned through hands-on experiments with everyday objects. Students will cut, chop, slice, and separate to see that 2/6 is the same as 1/3. They will experiment with combining fractions, such as doubling or tripling a recipe. These activities will provide a real-life understanding of different denominators and equivalent fractions. Students will practice problem solving skills, reasoning, and basic math in this class. Demystify fractions and enjoy math in your daily life!

Dates: Please note that this is a 6-week class that begins on November 2 instead of October 26

Topics in this Series: Measurement Madness (Quarter 1); Fun with Fractions (Quarter 2); Geometry Games (Quarter 3); and Simple Statistics (Quarter 4)

Without geometry, life might be POINTless! Shapes are everywhere! We will sort them into categories and answer questions like, "Is a square always a rectangle?" Design a hidden picture puzzle to share with your friends, learn about edges and vertices by building 3-D solids, use cubes to fill containers and explore volume, discover Pi for yourself by measuring circles, create Cartesian art by using a coordinate grid and ordered pairs, and more! Each week, master a new concept with hands-on, real world math! Topics will include angles, polygons, triangles, circles, three dimensional solids and more. Students will practice problem solving skills, reasoning, and basic math in this class.

Topics in this Series: Measurement Madness (Quarter 1); Fun with Fractions (Quarter 2); Geometry Games (Quarter 3); and Simple Statistics (Quarter 4)

Questions and more questions! We will be creating our own surveys and deciding the best ways to display our data. Maybe you want to quantify the types of extra curricular activities of Compass students, or maybe you'd like to find out the average bedtime of students of different age groups. Are you into sports? Let's talk about baseball stats and measures of center! We will even learn how to use statistics to support an argument. Students will formulate questions and conduct investigations, learn about gathering data, represent data in a variety of tables, charts, graphs, and plots, and analyze and interpret data by making inferences, observing trends, drawing conclusions and making predictions. Students will practice problem solving skills, reasoning and basic math in this class

Topics in this Series: Measurement Madness (Quarter 1); Fun with Fractions (Quarter 2); Geometry Games (Quarter 3); and Simple Statistics (Quarter 4)

Each week, students will tackle math puzzles, challenges, and learn new "tricks" and techniques to solve a variety of math problems, all while learning about the masterminds behind founding principles of modern mathematics. Students will learn about the life and times of a great mathematician and then explore key concepts, principles, and formulas introduced by the featured master. Students' problem- solving skills will be honed as they examine the historical, cultural, and personal context for discoveries in mathematics. The class will work sample problems and use experiments and manipulatives to demonstrate the formulas, theories, short-cuts, or alternate approaches suggested by famous mathematicians.

, Third quarter, students will be exposed to a wide variety of mathematical terms and concepts from the ancient scientists Archimedes, Newton, Keplar, and Galileo.

Topics in this Series: Geometry Challenges (Quarter 1); Pattens & Problems Solvers (Quarter 2); Great Discoveries (Quarter 3); and Modern Challenges (Quarter 4).

Each week, students will tackle math puzzles, challenges, and learn new "tricks" and techniques to solve a variety of math problems, all while learning about the masterminds behind founding principles of modern mathematics. Students will learn about the life and times of a great mathematician and then explore key concepts, principles, and formulas introduced by the featured master. Students' problem- solving skills will be honed as they examine the historical, cultural, and personal context for discoveries in mathematics. The class will work sample problems and use experiments and manipulatives to demonstrate the formulas, theories, short-cuts, or alternate approaches suggested by famous mathematicians.

Fourth quarter, students will be exposed to a wide variety of mathematical terms and concepts from the Modern Thinkers including Fermat, Euler, Galois, and Noether.

Topics in this Series: Geometry Challenges (Quarter 1); Pattens & Problems Solvers (Quarter 2); Great Discoveries (Quarter 3); and Modern Challenges (Quarter 4).

Each week, students will tackle math puzzles, challenges, and learn new "tricks" and techniques to solve a variety of math problems, all while learning about the masterminds behind founding principles of modern mathematics. Students will learn about the life and times of a great mathematician and then explore key concepts, principles, and formulas introduced by the featured master. Students' problem- solving skills will be honed as they examine the historical, cultural, and personal context for discoveries in mathematics. The class will work sample problems and use experiments and manipulatives to demonstrate the formulas, theories, short-cuts, or alternate approaches suggested by famous mathematicians.

Second quarter, students will be exposed to a wide variety of math terms, concepts, and patterns from the great problem solvers including Eratosthenes, Napier, Polya, and Babbage.

Dates: Please note that this is a 6-week class that begins on November 2 instead of October 26

Topics in this Series: Geometry Challenges (Quarter 1); Pattens & Problems Solvers (Quarter 2); Great Discoveries (Quarter 3); and Modern Challenges (Quarter 4).

Does your child learn best by hands-on activities, crafts, games, and stories? Number Ninjas is based on the belief that children need to work with mathematics in a concrete, physical, and tangible way in order to learn fundamental concepts. Young students will love learning numerical concepts in this interactive, exploration-based class where work with numbers feels like a game.

Third quarter, students will play games, complete puzzles, and examine riddles as an introduction to logic, critical thinking, and reasoning skills.

This class covers many of the 1st and 2nd grade Standards of Learning for math. Weekly update e-mails to parents will include suggestions for practice at home and extension activities.

Topics in the Series: Patterns & Properties (Quarter 1), Money Math (Quarter 2), Learning Logic (Quarter 3), and Math in Nature (Quarter 4).

Does your child learn best by hands-on activities, crafts, games, and stories? Number Ninjas is based on the belief that children need to work with mathematics in a concrete, physical, and tangible way in order to learn fundamental concepts. Young students will love learning numerical concepts in this interactive, exploration-based class where work with numbers feels like a game.

Fourth quarter, students will look to nature for mathematical patterns and shapes. The class will examine: radial patterns such as those found in flowers, sea stars, and snowflakes; tessellations (repeating patterns) such as in a bee honeycomb, crystals, or a snakeskin; concentric tree rings, fractals (branching) of ferns, trees, lightning, root systems, and river deltas; symmetry in leaves, flowers, butterflies; and the Fibonacci sequence (spirals) in sunflowers and snail shells. Through a variety of hands-on projects, students will draw or create forms and patterns to replicate and remember the mathematical phenomena found in nature.

This class covers many of the 1st and 2nd grade Standards of Learning for math. Weekly update e-mails to parents will include suggestions for practice at home and extension activities.

Topics in the Series: Patterns & Properties (Quarter 1), Money Math (Quarter 2), Learning Logic (Quarter 3), and Math in Nature (Quarter 4).

Does your child learn best by hands-on activities, crafts, games, and stories? Number Ninjas is based on the belief that children need to work with mathematics in a concrete, physical, and tangible way in order to learn fundamental concepts. Young students will love learning numerical concepts in this interactive, exploration-based class where work with numbers feels like a game.

Second quarter, students will learn all about the denominations of US money, starting with coins then currency then both. Students will learn to recognize each US coin and bill, name the value, understand which is greater or less, and which combinations are equal and interchangeable (5 nickels = 1 quarter). They will practice combining coins and currency to make different numbers and will learn to read written symbols for money. They will make simple play transactions in the imaginary classroom store. The concept of "making change" will be discussed, but may be limited by students' subtraction skills.

This class covers many of the 1st and 2nd grade Standards of Learning for math. Weekly update e-mails to parents will include suggestions for practice at home and extension activities.

Dates: Please note that this is a 6-week class that begins on November 2 instead of October 26

Topics in the Series: Patterns & Properties (Quarter 1), Money Math (Quarter 2), Learning Logic (Quarter 3), and Math in Nature (Quarter 4).