We've headed "Down Under"

Here's what we were up to this week-

Science: The children examined 12 different rocks and came up with descriptive words for each using their 4 senses (we elected not to use our sense of taste on this one- licking the rocks didn't seem like a good idea!)  Next, the children worked on sorting the rocks and describing the groups they made.  Two groups sorted the rocks into categories of big and small, one group sorted by shiny and dull, another group decided to sort by color, and still another sorted into a heavy group and a light group.

Social Studies:  We started studying Australia this week!  We read an online picture book full of interesting facts about Australia.  The children learned three new vocabulary words: aboriginal, outback, and marsupial.  We also learned that the population of Australia is about the same as the population of New York...and that there are ten times more sheep than people living in Australia!  

Math: The children learned about the commutative property by writing a multiplication sentence to match an array and then rotating the array 90 degrees and writing a new multiplication sentence to match.  They discovered that the order of factors in a multiplication sentence can be switched and the product will remain the same.  

ELA: After talking about where writers get their ideas, we determined that writers write about things they know a lot about or have an interest in.  The children started a list in their writer's notebook of topics they know a lot about or are interested in and used the list of topics to help them write each day.  We've got some great authors in third grade!  In reading we started talking about how readers can ask and answer questions about a text to demonstrate they understood what they have read.  We also started putting together our Reading Notebooks, which will hold our notes about Common Core reading skills.   This week we asked and answered questions about fiction texts, and next week we are going to start practicing the same skill with non-fiction texts.  

Arrays and Factors and Quotients...oh my!

We've been cruising right along with our first math unit...from multiplication right on into division.  On Monday morning I gave them the real-world scenario that my friend, Mrs. Gilooly, bought a package of 18 markers and wanted to share them with me.  She was going to split her 18 markers into 2 equal groups.  We needed to figure out how many markers Mrs. Gilooly and I were each going to get.  The students used counters to represent the markers and the fair-share strategy ("One for Mrs. Gilooly, One for Mrs. Curran, etc") to solve the problem.  They easily determined that Mrs. Gilooly and I would each get 9 markers by counting the number of counters they had placed in each group.  It was so easy, the children were shocked when I told them that they had just done division!

Moving on from there, we've been examining fact families- multiplication and division problems that use the same numbers- and determining which numbers represent the whole, the number of groups, or the size of the groups.  We also learned that the term factor means numbers being multiplied together to get a product, and a quotient is the answer to a division problem.

As we continue on with this unit next week we will learn about the commutative property by examining arrays vertically and horizontally to see that, for example, 3 rows of 5 or 5 rows of 3 gives us the same answer!

In Science we have started our hands-on Rocks and Minerals unit.  The students used hand lenses to examine three different types of rocks and recorded their observations.  As they shared their observations we discovered that each group had a rock that had imprints of seashells in it as well as a rock that had little pieces of smaller pebbles stuck to it.  One group had a rock shaped like Mount Everest, another had one shaped like a heart, and another had one shaped like a stadium!   The students looked through some books on rocks to try to see if they could find any rocks that looked similar to the ones they were examining, but I think we were left with more questions than answers.  I enjoyed seeing their curiosity as they examined the rocks and talked with classmates about their observations.

Next week in Social Studies we will be heading "Down Under" and start learning about Australia.  Be sure to ask your child about how life in Australia is the same and different from our lives here in the United States!

We Are "Rockin' and Rollin'"

Week two has flown by...at least for me!  I hope the children feel the same way.  We have jumped right in to multiplication, as you've probably noticed from the math homework coming home.  This year we are using the Math In Focus textbooks and workbooks, but also integrating modules released by Engage NY, which help to support the Common Core Curriculum.  The multiplication unit comes from one of these modules.  Your child should bring home classwork with problems very similar to the questions on their homework.  If your child is stuck on the homework, ask them to take out their papers from class and see if looking over these practice problems helps jog their memory.  I don't want the homework to be frustrating or so difficult that your child cannot complete it without help from you.  Please let me know if your child is having a hard time!

We've started our first Science unit on Rocks and Minerals.  I asked the children to share with me the background knowledge they already have about the topic, and I recorded their thoughts on a K-W-L chart.   As you can see, third graders already know a lot about Rocks and Minerals.  We also started generating questions that we hope to have answered as we delve into this topic.  Next week we will start doing hands-on activities involving Rocks and Minerals, so be sure to ask your child about that.

I am looking forward to seeing all the interesting and amazing facts the children can share at the end of the unit when we complete the "L" part of our chart (L is for "What We Have Learned").

I hope to meet you on Wednesday, September 18th for Open House!

Our First Week

Our first week was chock-full of important discussions and learning, and hopefully you've heard all about it from your child.  But just in case the answer to "What did you do in school today?" was "Nothing"...I'll fill you in.

We spent time every day this week discussing community, especially our classroom community.  The students brainstormed they would like our classroom community to be like, what a great classmate would be like, and what our classroom rules should be.  I read aloud a great Dr. Seuss book, Oh, the Places You'll Go and then we talked about setting learning goals for the school year.  The children thought about something they would like to improve on this year and something new they hope to learn.  We also read and discussed Salt in His Shoes about Michael Jordan's dream of becoming a great basketball player and the hard work, practice, and determination that it took for him to achieve his goal. Afterwards, the children reflected on their learning goals and thought about what they needed to do to achieve their goal, as well as what help they would need from others in order to achieve their goal.  We determined that our classroom community needed to be conducive to helping each student acheive his/her goals- we need to be respectful of one another, allow others to concentrate on their work, and encourage one another.  We are responsible to ourselves and each other when it comes to our learning.

We all have a hand in our learning!

Ask your child about his/her goals.  Talk about how you could work together on achieving those goals at home as well.  Several students are eager to learn cursive and multiplication this year, and they practice (at home and at school) the more likely they are to meet their goal!

Speaking of multiplication...

After spending the first three days practicing our foundational math skills, we are jumping right into multiplication this week.  Be on the lookout for math homework each night now that we are starting new material.  And, as always....READ, READ, READ!!!