Landmarks in the Hundreds

In mathematics, our class has started a new unit called "Landmarks in the Hundreds." This unit will help your child learn about important numbers like 100 and 1000, that we use to find our way around the number system.

First your child will be working with 100 - an especially important landmark. Then we'll work with multiples of 100, 200, 300, 400, and so on up to 1000. We'll be doing "skip counting" -- that's counting by 2s or 5s or 10s, or any other number. The children will work in class, and sometimes at home, doing problems like this one:

If you count by 2s (2,4,6,8,10,12,14...) you eventually land on 100. What other numbers can you count by that will land you exactly on 100? What numbers don't work? How many 2s did you count to get to 100?

Children have very interesting ways to figure out these problems. You can help by asking your child to tell you how he or she got an answer. There are many ways of doing these problems -- and no single "right" way. What's important for your child to know is how his or her own way works. This is all part of developing good common sense about numbers.

We'll also be doing estimation. I may ask your child to find groups of things around the house that number 100, about 200, about 300, and so forth. You can help in your child's search. Talk about the number of things you both are finding, for example:

What about the nuts in the jar? Do you think that would be close to 100? What about the squares in the ceiling?

Finally, any time that you yourself need to estimate or deal with large numbers, please involve your child. Whether you're buying food, or deciding how many tiles to buy to patch the floor, your child probably has some good ideas about how to go about it.