Fall is in the Air!!!

Finally, it is beginning to feel a bit more like Fall here at Page.  Students have settled into classroom routines and understand the expectations of Grade 3.  We have begun our study of multiplication and division- one of our core concepts for the year.  Students are meeting in small groups daily and know how to work independently in a meaningful way.

Today in math I snapped some photographs of some of the independent work students are completing while I work with students in small math groups.  This week, in groups, we are focusing on division word problems.  Independently and with partners, students are reviewing subtraction, solving word problems, completing BCRs and playing multiplication games like "Eggs and Nests".  Some of this work gets reviewed by the whole class, some in small group and some is checked by the teacher.

Some students have not demonstrated mastery of the four topics we focused on prior to multiplication and division.  There topics are: rounding, addition of 3 digit numbers, subtraction of three digit numbers and word problems with multiple steps.  This week, practice packets will be coming home so that those students can continue to practice the concept and reach mastery.  The packets can be done in place of the weekly challenge. Students who bring them in completed will receive a prize from their teacher!!!

Some important reminders:

• Please send in $2 for our Awesome Autumn Festival on Thursday, October 31.
• Community Service Projects are due next Tuesday, October 29.  We will be sharing them in class on Tuesday and Wednesday.  Projects will not be accepted after Thursday.
• Please join the PTA and support our school by participating in our fall fundraiser.  Who doesn't need some fun magazines or new wrapping paper for the holidays?
• Root for my Red Sox this week in the World Series!!! It is worth some serious Extra Credit :)

Calculating Area: Introduction to Multiplication

This week, we introduced multiplication to our students.  When I was in third grade, My teacher wrote the Zero rule and the Ones rule up on the board and we wrote them out in our notebooks to begin to "learn our times ables".  This week, we focused on calculating the area of rectangles. Why did we do this?

We want students to understand the relationship of repeated addition and multiplication right from the start.  Multiplication is a fast way of adding the same number over and over in your head.  When we use tiles to cover rectangles or look at them on the grid as we did with the homework, students can see that the columns and rows of a given number are repeated.  We practiced calculating area throughout the week using centimeter cubes and also inch tiles and writing our equations that go with a given measurement of an area.  We also emphasized the importance of writing area in square units, or inches squared. These rectangles are an example of an array.  Next week, we will continue to draw arrays and other pictures to help us solve multiplication problems and number stories and also continue to use repeated addition.

 

This week's math challenge question related to tiling a square patio with different sizes of tiles.  Students were supposed to create a visual to help them to solve this problem and answer the questions. Today in class, we used a flipchart I created to try and over different patios of different sizes and share out solutions.  Students may submit their papers on Monday to receive a coupon if they hadn't answered all of the questions today in class.

 

 

Nadir and Cheikh demonstrate some different ways to tile a 4 X 4 patio.  Students worked together to discover that no matter the number of different tiles used, a 4 X 4 patio will always need to be covered by tiles that add up to 16 square units.

I was very impressed with student's ideas for their homework Community Service Projects!  We have students doing all kinds of good deeds for neighbors and grandparents, cleaning up our Tamarack Triangle Trail, visiting patients at Children's Hospital and reading to the elderly at a nearby retirement community- just to name a few!  I can't wait for students to share their results at the end of the month!

This afternoon, we had Author's Chair.  We have many great writers in our class who have been working on all different stories.  In Writer's Workshop, we've also begun to do some persuasive writing. Students were allowed to select a piece to share with the class.  Here is a page out of one of Nadir's stories I found particularly funny:

Happy Friday!

Work, work, work!!!

We have been working hard across the past two weeks in Grade 3!!! We have been wrapping up our study of subtracting 3 digit numbers using a variety of strategies and solving challenging word problems.  In science, our study of forces of motion has culminated with groups constructing a basic vehicle and then designing different wheel covers to serve different purposes- ask your child what type of wheel they designed and how they did it.  Groups presented their work to the class. In reading, we have begun to read informational texts and are studying how to identify the main idea. Lastly, in Social Studies, students are beginning their community service project both in school with classmates and their at home, independent project directions went home this week as well.  If you haven't heard about the October homework project- ask your child about it tonight!

Here are some of our students working hard in the classroom:

Nico and Lindsay work together to assemble their basic vehicle.

Students use white boards in small group math to share their subtraction strategies.

Amaara and Talyah work together to complete their spelling center.

Nora and Darren  read directions carefully while building their basic vehicle.

Sharing addition strategies on our awesome Promethean Board!

Completing our seat work during small group math instruction.