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Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Math Games

We celebrated filling our 3rd grade math chip bucket with a game day!  Students worked in small groups to play math games.  It was wonderful to hear all the strategies being shared among students.




Speaking of games, they are an excellent way to acquire and practice math and thinking skills. Kids are typically motivated to invest time and energy into learning the skills necessary to play the game.  They might not even realize that they are learning while having fun!  Many card and board games involve sequencing, visual clustering, logical reasoning and communication of ideas.  Some games you might consider playing as a family that will interesting are:  Battleship, card games, Chinese Checkers, Cribbage, Mankalah, Othello, Parcheesi and Connect Four. 

Happy Thanksgiving!

Thank you to Heather (Will's mom) who joined us on Monday afternoon to tell us about the first Thanksgiving.  She told us about the voyage on the Mayflower and about her relative, a fourteen year old girl, who made the long journey on the Mayflower.

Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday, November 22, 2013

3rd Grade Math

This week we have been practicing rounding whole numbers to the nearest 10 and the nearest 100.  We have also explored rounding money to the nearest dollar.  This practice with rounding helps to solidify students understanding of place value and to develop more flexibility when thinking about numbers.

Classroom News

We have been keeping busy these past few weeks.  During Discovery block, we have started our study of weather.  Students have been learning how to use a thermometer to figure out the temperature and we have been outside making observations about clouds and precipitation.  We will be looking for patterns as we record our data and observations throughout this unit to help us start making our own weather forecasts.

On Thursday, we started working with Arlyn on our Lego Robotics projects!  Students worked in teams to build their first robots, the dancing birds.

It was wonderful to talk with families at conferences.  Thank you to everyone for meeting with me to discuss your child's progress.

Students should start coming to school prepared for colder outdoor weather.  Please help your child to remember his/her winter jacket, snow pants (when needed), gloves/mittens, and hat.

It is also important for students to have indoor shoes.  We really love to have our floor and rug stay clean and dry, especially since we like to spread out to read and write during literacy times.











Friday, November 15, 2013

Geography

Last week, we finished "traveling" around the world as our continent groups presented their posters.







Friday, November 8, 2013

Classroom News



What a busy week!

We have been working on our post-assessment personal narrative writing pieces.  I have been impressed with the effort and thoughtfulness that students are putting into their writing work. 

On Thursday, we participated in a Reading to End Racism lesson with our special guest, Alyson Mahony.  Alyson read the book, Daisy and the Doll and we had a discussion about what was unfair to Daisy and how she felt throughout the story.  We also talked about how we can be thoughtful of others and accepting of differences.

I look forward to sharing more information about your child's progress at our conferences on Monday.

Geography:

As we finish up our geography unit, students are presenting the continent posters that they completed in small groups.  Each group researched their continent looking for interesting information to share and worked on labeling and coloring a map of their continent.  Now, we are taking a "flight" around the world learning from each group. 

As part of this unit, we also have also participated in several movement lessons.  We have become skilled at working in our small groups to create the shape of our continents with our bodies.   Then, we move to the rug to complete a world map as a class, discussing where the continents connect and which oceans flow between them.  Once we have made the map, each group sings their part of our continent chant.  Ask your child to share this chant with you!

Here are some photos of groups presenting their posters.  I will post the photos from the other groups soon.


Second Grade Math: Geometry

Last week, we had fun creating rectangle riddles for our classmates to solve.  We gave clues about the number of rows or columns.  We also learned about finding the area of rectangles.

To explore the concept of area further this week, we worked in teams to find all of the possible rectangles with a given area.  Each team created a poster with all of their rectangles and presented them to the rest of the group. 











Tuesday, November 5, 2013

3rd Grade Math Strategies

Your child should have received a math information packet with the November homework packet.   It is a handy guide for the addition and subtraction strategies we use in math class.  Please have your child refer to this guide if they have questions during math assignments. 

This is also a great way for families to become aware of the strategies we use in class.  A HUGE part of our work with addition and subtraction is to build computational fluency with larger numbers.  This involves taking numbers apart, putting them back together and manipulating them in different ways to find the sum or difference.  There is a HUGE concentration on "mental math skills".  Please note we are not currently using the traditional method of  "carrying" or "borrowing" for these operations. Why?  The chief reason is that using strategies focused on our base ten number system allows children to build a much deeper, stronger foundation of conceptual knowledge rather than learn a rote skill, yet not understand the number sense around it.   I feel these guides will be a huge help in understanding the strategies we are using.  If you have any questions, please feel free to contact us. 

Friday, November 1, 2013

Third Grade Math

Math Facts
One of the expectations for all third graders is that they know and are able to recall their basic fact combinations automatically.  This translates to seeing an equation such as 5+3= and being able to respond "8" within 2 seconds or less.  In math, we have been working on using strategies that are more efficient and less time consuming than counting on fingers.  The group of facts we are currently focused on is N+9.  N can equal any number.  Students are learning that N+9 is equal to N+10, subtract one.  It is important that students cannot only solve these problems but articulate their strategy, as we will be expanding the strategy to larger numbers.  Please practice adding 9 to any number at home.  If your child is struggling, ask what is ____+ 10 as a cue.  If he/she has mastered adding 9, extend the strategy to 90.  N + 90 is the same as N + 100, subtract 10.

6 Rolls to 100
The students learned a new game today that helps them practice their mental math and develop their awareness of place value.  They enjoyed the game and asked me to post the directions on the blog.
Materials: 1 die, game board or other recording sheet.
Each player takes turn rolling the die and recording the roll as either tens or ones.  Each player gets 6 rolls and must use all 6 rolls.
The object of the game is to get as close to 100 as possible without going over.  The score is calculated by subtracting the total of the rolls from 100.  If you go over 100, your score is 100!
A recording sheet might look like this:
Roll         Tens          Ones       Total
1                                  5              5
2                 3                             35
3                                   6           41
4                 3                             71
5                                   4           75
6                1                              76

score:  24 
We have also tried playing 6 Rolls to 1,000.  The rules are the same, we just add a hundreds column.

*Remember when recording your roll you are recording the roll, not the value of the roll. 

Classroom News

Thank you to everyone who returned their homework packets today. I will be correcting them this weekend.  If your child forgot or is not finished, please return the packet on Monday.

Upcoming events:

Thursday, November 7th:  Reading to End Racism

Thursday, November 11th:  Parent/Teacher Conferences ( no school for students)

November 27th-29th:  Thanksgiving Recess