Need help moving to Singapore Math

[Danestress]

I think I am going to transition my boys to Singapore math next year for 5th grade. I reserve the right to change my mind, though. This is a HARD decision!

My boys are good at math - not gifted but not struggling. They tested into Saxon 7/6, but I don't think I will use Saxon. We are finishing RightStart E this year and also have done significant portions of the "Keys to" serious in fractions, decimals, and percentages.

I looked at the Singapore placement tests but haven't administered them to the boys. Significant portions of 4a and 4b would be painful review for them. On the other hand, significant portions would be new, and they need to cover those things before going onto Singapore 5 (which also would be a bit of review).

Does anyone have advice on how I could sort of plow through the 4s pretty quickly in the fall so we could maybe start 5a in the spring? I'm honestly not really good at skipping things. I like checking the boxes:) Would you just order the text and workbooks, the CWP and skip the teacher manuals? Has anyone actually done this, and how did it go?

[Jenny in Atl]

You might try just using the IP and CWP for 4a&b and see if you can find the WB used, so you can easily skip anything that they know well.

hth's

[Pam "SFSOM" in TN]

I think I am going to transition my boys to Singapore math next year for 5th grade. I reserve the right to change my mind, though. This is a HARD decision!

My boys are good at math - not gifted but not struggling. They tested into Saxon 7/6, but I don't think I will use Saxon. We are finishing RightStart E this year and also have done significant portions of the "Keys to" serious in fractions, decimals, and percentages.

I looked at the Singapore placement tests but haven't administered them to the boys. Significant portions of 4a and 4b would be painful review for them. On the other hand, significant portions would be new, and they need to cover those things before going onto Singapore 5 (which also would be a bit of review).

Does anyone have advice on how I could sort of plow through the 4s pretty quickly in the fall so we could maybe start 5a in the spring? I'm honestly not really good at skipping things. I like checking the boxes:) Would you just order the text and workbooks, the CWP and skip the teacher manuals? Has anyone actually done this, and how did it go?

I did this, sorta, only I did 4A&b and 5A&B between Jan and May in dd's fifth grade year.

She did the parts she already understood VERY quickly -- say three problems on the same day as a new section. I simply didn't linger if she knew it. But I'm a box checker, too, so I checked those boxes.

I did begin teaching word problems wrong, though, without diagrams, and had to stop and back up at one point. So just be careful that although your boys know how to do the problems, they do it the Singapore "way." Take the time for the rods. Take the time for the mental math. Take the time for the multiple approaches. This is setting a foundation for later work, which I wasn't aware of when I began (blindly) using the Singapore materials.

[Danestress]

I did begin teaching word problems wrong, though, without diagrams, and had to stop and back up at one point. So just be careful that although your boys know how to do the problems, they do it the Singapore "way." Take the time for the rods. Take the time for the mental math. Take the time for the multiple approaches. This is setting a foundation for later work, which I wasn't aware of when I began (blindly) using the Singapore materials.

Where are these teaching methods first introduced? If I order the 4s and 5s, will those concepts be in the teacher's manuals?

[littlefamily]

Mental math really is incorporated from the beginning. It has exercises such as 98 + 47 = and mentally you should be able to convert it to 100 + 45 = and they just get more involved.

As for the word problems using graphs, I think that starts in 3A & 3B. So to solve a problem such as: After giving 16 coins to Jeremy, Sally had twice as many coins as Jeremy. If they had 144 coins altogether, how many coins did Sally have at first? (yes, this is from CWP3 - stumped me until I got the hang of it as well...)

l------------------------------l = 144 coins
l--------l-----------l---------l = 1 section = Jeremy 48; 2 sections = Sally 96
48 48 48

96 + 16 = 112 coins Sally had at first

The word problems were our biggest challenge in switching over. So I had my dd backtrack to CWP 3 while she was doing 4A & 4B. You can easily do 3 Singapore books (4A & 4B & 5A) plus the challenging word problems book in one year for a strong math student.

Laura

[Karin]

You could just have them do the parts they don't know with the text book, or have them sail through the whole thing as quickly as they can. I wouldn't miss out on that as I made the mistake of putting my eldest Singapore Math without doing the too easy book with a couple of new things first and she ended up hating SM by the end. I use it with my younger two.

[mcconnellboys]

When I started my older son with Singapore in fourth grade, I did both levels 3 and 4 during that year. I just speeded up the process.

I think I generally do one lesson per day in those books, with a day allotted to reviews or tests (revisions), also. So I guess I did two per day. For those sections that are review and too easy for them, you can also just do samplings of the problems, rather than all of them, in order to move through more quickly.

There were no teachers manuals back then. Do you mean the home instructor's guide that they have out now for some of the levels? I've never used that. It provides additional ideas for using manipulatives, games, etc. They do have an answer key for all the problems and I would get that.

Regena

[Danestress]

Ok, so I think what I am hearing from most of you is that I could certainly speed through several levels with reasonably strong math students and a commitment to do it, but that I need to make sure that I understand and can teach the Singapore way of doing certain types of work problems and problem solving methods.

Is there sort of a "guide to Singapore" type book that I could review? Or would it be best to go to the Singapore forums for this? I have to admit I am pretty good at math, but I am still intimidated by this new Singapore approach ....

[Karin]

Ok, so I think what I am hearing from most of you is that I could certainly speed through several levels with reasonably strong math students and a commitment to do it, but that I need to make sure that I understand and can teach the Singapore way of doing certain types of work problems and problem solving methods.

Is there sort of a "guide to Singapore" type book that I could review? Or would it be best to go to the Singapore forums for this? I have to admit I am pretty good at math, but I am still intimidated by this new Singapore approach ....

There are guides and I know Rainbow Resource Catalog has them.

[Danestress]

There are guides and I know Rainbow Resource Catalog has them.


Yes! You are right, there is! I swear I have been on RR for three days now, laboring over various decisions about curricula including Singapore, and somehow even seeing this book I wasn't really SEEING it. There is, indeed, a guide to solving CWP! This has been my hangup - feeling like I might not understand the Singapore way of doing things. Thank you so much for making me take a second look~