Welcome Back!
Hello, my name is James Shipp and I will be your child’s math teacher this year. I will be primarily teaching math during the two switches throughout the day as well as Social Studies and Readers Workshop. I am very excited to be back in the classroom this year, especially working with so many familiar faces! This will be my 14th year as an Elementary school teacher. I began my career on the front range with the Cherry Creek School District for the first 7 years teaching 3rd, 4th, and 5th grades. While at Riverview I have jumped around the building trying out 3rd grade, Kindergarten, and Gifted and Talented/Advanced Math/Engineering. I have a beautiful wife named Alicia and two incredible daughters, Stella 6 and Kendall 4.
I love my job and love being back in the classroom with your children. Please know that I do my best to communicate any and all happenings with you and your children. Also, please know that if you ever need to reach out to me at anytime, I will make the time to meet with you in person, over the phone (247-3862 ext. 3241), or through email [email protected] As I’ve told many parents already, I have an open door policy. If we need to meet before or after school, I will do my best to accommodate a time that works for the both of us.
Throughout the year I will be using the Pearson Realize platform to teach your children math. Please know that I encourage my math students to use the Pearson Realize platform at home to check on the past tests our students have completed as well as practice the skills we are working on in class. On the website you will be able to see games, practice sheets, and enrichment pages that you can print off and practice with your student. The Login for this is pretty easy and our students are familiar with the process. But, just in case they struggle the Login is: (lowercase) durango_s.(student’s first name and last initial). For example: durango_s.jamess. The password is (all one word) math1234.
Everyday we start off with a “Writing to Explain” task in which the kids need to read and respond to a question I put up on the board. They complete this task by writing their responses in their spiral/composition notebooks. I would like to encourage you to ask your child about this work and ask them to explain the process they go through as well as choose one or two tasks they are proud to present to you anytime throughout the year.
Thank you for teaming up with me to give your child the best experience possible!
James Shipp
Math:
Hello 4th grade families!
I am very proud of the progress our students are making in our math class. So far this year we have completed the first four units and are just beginning Topic 5. The next 4 Topics will cover Multiplication and Number Sense. Any help you can give at home in working with your children and their multiplication fluency will benefit them moving forward.
We are going to take the next steps in making multiplication more complex by multiplying bigger numbers. Topic 5 allows the students to use basic facts to make bigger numbers by adding “0’s” to the product, for example: 5 x 8 = 40 so 5 x 80 = 400. Topic 6 will build on those skills and allow our students to multiply 2-digit and 3- digit numbers by a single digit, for example 42 x 8 and 423 x 8.
I would love your help in teaching our students the standard algorithm of multiplication. Often I explain to parents that this is the way we learned how to multiply when we were younger. So, by the time our students reach Topics 7 and 8 they will feel more confident in completing problems like this:
23
X12
046
230
276
Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have about any of these Topics.
James Shipp
Math: (Mr. Shipp)
Hello 4th grade families!
I am very proud of the progress our students are making in our math class. So far this year we have completed the first four units and are just beginning Topic 5. The next 4 Topics will cover Multiplication and Number Sense. Any help you can give at home in working with your children and their multiplication fluency will benefit them moving forward.
We are going to take the next steps in making multiplication more complex by multiplying bigger numbers. Topic 5 allows the students to use basic facts to make bigger numbers by adding “0’s” to the product, for example: 5 x 8 = 40 so 5 x 80 = 400. Topic 6 will build on those skills and allow our students to multiply 2-digit and 3- digit numbers by a single digit, for example 42 x 8 and 423 x 8.
I would love your help in teaching our students the standard algorithm of multiplication. Often I explain to parents that this is the way we learned how to multiply when we were younger. So, by the time our students reach Topics 7 and 8 they will feel more confident in completing problems like this:
23
X12
046
230
276
Please feel free to contact me with any questions you may have about any of these Topics.
James Shipp
