What a fun, busy week the Silly Sea Turtles have had! We wrapped up our second unit in math and are cruising through our multiplication facts. The next unit we will be working on will have lots of different strategies for adding and subtracting multidigit numbers. The only ones I focus on with the students are traditional and something called partial sums. Partial sums is more of a mental math strategy and the traditional algorithm is the strategy they'll need as they move up the grades here at NBCS. So although you may see names of lots of different strategies, I assure you we are going to keep it simple and stick with those two strategies!
We also finished up our science unit. The remained of their activities will be sent home over the next week. We will also be starting our Native American Unit next week. Each student will research a real tribe using ebooks from our school library. This is an opportunity to learn about an important group of Americans - their history and traditions as well as where they are today. We use this as our first deep dive into how to research a topic by looking at their traditional clothes, food, and daily life. We will also talk about how these historical traditions are important to Native Americans, but that they are modern Americans as well and how we can be respectful as we research their past. There will be an optional home project with this research unit - more information will be sent home next week! Lastly, we had our class reward and the Halloween parade! (I will post pictures tomorrow, I have to get them off the camera). Lots of popcorn was munched, cupcakes were gobbled, and juice was sipped. We were even lucky enough to have the Spider Obstacle course on Friday! From Elsa to Spiderman to Zombie Brides to Volcanos - it was a great day filled with so many smiles and spontaneous dance moves. Thank you to all the families who sent in treats! Upcoming Events: 📷 November 4 - Picture Retake Day ⭐ November 11 - Veterans Day 🚌 November 12 - Native American Museum A Look Ahead: ➕ In math, we'll be looking at different strategies to add on paper 🗳️ In reading, we'll be talking about voting - why it's helpful! 📚 In social studies, we'll be starting our Native American research!
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Michaelmas has come and gone! We earned over $6,100 as a grade between our treats, crafts, and raffles. Our class earned $1,267 just by ourselves! I am so incredibly proud of the Silly Sea Turtles! They crafted and baked their little hearts out and we can now spoil them for the next year and beyond. There are some wonderful sales people among our class - even I couldn't say no to some of the heckling and sales pitches! Thank you for all of the families members that also visited today. Next week will be back to business as normal. We're back to spelling, reading, and math homework Monday through Thursday. We will be wrapping up our Science unit soon and turning our eyes towards Halloween and our Native American Unit. Now that the stress of Michaelmas is over, we will also be starting math conferences. By the end of third grade, students are expected to by fluent in their multiplication facts. In order to reach this goal, I do math conferences. I meet with students twice a week one-on-one to orally ask them their facts. The order we go in is: 10s, 2s, 5s, 3s, 4s, 6s, 7s, 8s, and 9s. Doing this one-on-one takes off the pressure but also allows me to give them strategies in real time. In order to be considered fluent they have to get the answer without visible strategies (counting on fingers) within three seconds. I send home flash cards to practice but I also give students other ideas if they need it. Be on the lookout for more information next week. That's it from me - I'm going to go home and take a nap! Have a great weekend. Upcoming Events: 🍦 Friday, October 22nd - Ice Cream Party! A Look Ahead: ➗ In math, we are going to continue looking at strategies - this time for division 🤝 In reading, we are read stories about cooperation and how it can help you succeed 🧠 In science, we are going to try to solve some problems using what we know about animal heredity and traits
It was a busy week for us this week. We wrapped up our first unit in Math. Next month we will start to talk about how I do fact practice for students. Students are expected to be fluent with their multiplication facts before the end of the year in third grade. The sooner they have "fact power" the easier our math curriculum will become for them. Don't worry - I will walk you through expectations and ways to practice. More coming soon! We also finished our letters for all fifty states. The students were super flexible using Word for the first time this year. They accessed their network folders and even learned to print to a specific printer in the building. You may see creative stories coming home. The students know they have to have permission from me in order to print these stories. We talked about using resources wisely. There is a difference between creating a story and printing it and writing one silly sentence and printing it. I am beyond impressed with their technology skills, from Blooket to Word, these kids have a lot of background knowledge! That's it for now! Have a great extended weekend! Upcoming Events: 📅 Friday, October 15th - Michaelmas! (2 weeks away) A Look Ahead: ⚖️ In math, we are going to start Unit 2 and looking closely at estimating and adding without a number grid 💡 In reading, we are going to look at some famous American Landmarks - have you traveled anywhere important in our country? 🌇 In social studies, we are mailing our letters and starting a science unit! |
AuthorMrs. Mitchell's Silly Sea Turtles! Archives
January 2022
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