Tuesday, November 30, 2010

Sun, Moon, Stars, Heritage Project, and Properties!

Today we began our study of the sun, moon, and stars. The students are creating lap books for this unit. You will get to see an example of a lap book from Social Studies that came home today. In our lap books, we created a KWL chart to show what we know, want to know, and what we have learned about the sun, moon, and stars. We also read the book Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle. All of the students took an AR test on this book. Ask your child what their AR points and percentages correct are at this time.

In math, we learned the three properties of multiplication. We have been discussing these throughout our multiplication unit, but today I directly taught all three. We will have a multiplication test on Friday. This will have arrays, repeated addition, properties, and multiplication problems and word problems. Please check my website for how to work with your child on these concepts. Continue to work with your child on the flash cards. We will have a multiplication timed test every Friday.

The students brought home their Heritage Project's today. If you have any questions, please feel free to e-mail, call, or write a note. This is supposed to help them learn more about their own heritage, but also allow them to share with the rest of the class, so that we can all learn about different heritages. I want the students to understand just how important where they and their friends came from has helped us to create the community that we live and work in today.

We are also beginning to look at how important it is that we graduate from high school and go on to college. They are the class of 2020. I want them to start thinking about what they truly want to do when they grow up. We are going to begin writing about this in our daily journals and then expand on this in our writing lessons.

Monday, November 29, 2010

Our Heritage is Important!

Today the students and I discussed our heritage and why it is important. Tomorrow, they will be bringing home a project so that they can learn more about their own heritage. I will be providing all materials needed for this project, they just need to use their creativity in how they present the materials. I am very excited about this project and getting to hear about your home countries.

We finished up our multiplication facts through 12. We will continue to take our timed multiplication test each week, so they can make their ice cream goals. We will begin our study of the properties of multiplication, fact families, division, and how it is repeated subtraction. We will learn how to use pictures in division. Please make sure that your child has mastered all of their multiplication facts. Having them learn their multiplication will help them to completely understand division.

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Owl Pellets are Done!

Today we finished dissecting our owl pellets. The students placed the bones from their owl pellets on an owl pellet dissection chart. We found some really cool things in our owl pellets. We had entire rodent skulls, tails that were still stuck together, a lot of lower jaws, and one student even found a bird skull. This was a really cool project and I am so glad that the students got to have this experience. If you would like to check out the website that we used in class it is kidwings.com.

The Ted Turkey projects are due this Tuesday. I have had some really cool things in the past few years. I have had cheerleaders, Santa Claus, the Chick Fil A cow, football players, spacemen, army men, robots, and more. Please remember to glue the turkey onto a piece of cardboard or the back of a cereal box to make it more sturdy. Also, please don't just have your child color the turkey. I want them to be creative!! They also must have 7 days of journals and neatness counts.

We will be having Thanksgiving rotations next Monday and Tuesday. The students will go to each of the third grade teachers and participate in a different Thanksgiving themed activity. All of the activities align with our third grade curriculum and the North Carolina Standard Course of Study.

I hope you all have a wonderful Thanksgiving holiday with your family and friends.

Wednesday, November 10, 2010

Field Trip, Owl Pellets, Multiplication

Our field trip is this Friday to Pineville Park. We will be observing animals in their natural habitats. The students will need to bring a sack lunch with a drink to enjoy at the park. We started dissecting our owl pellets yesterday and we had a blast. We discovered many skulls in our pellets, ball and socket joints, ribs, and vertebrae. We will continue working with our owl pellets next week.

Here are the latest multiplication concepts:

Multiplying by 2

If you are multiplying any number by 2 you can double the other number to get the correct answer. For example: 2x6= , you would add 6+6=12, to get the answer 12.

Multiplying by 5

If you are multiplying by 5 you will count by 5's the number of times the other number tells you to. For example: 5x4= , you will count 5, 10, 15, 20, to get the answer 20.

Multiplying by 10

If you are multiplying by 10 you will write down the other number you are multiplying by and then add a zero. For example: 12x10= , write down 12 and then put a 0 at the end for 120.

Multiplying by 11

If you are multiplying by 11 you will write down the other number you are multiplying by two times, up to the 9's. For example: 9x11= 99.

Multiplying by 9

If you are multiplying by 9, you will place your hands down on the table side by side, the pinkie on your left hand is finger one, then count across both hands to finger ten, which is your right pinkie finger. If you are going to multiply 9x4=, you bend down the fourth finger (the pointer finger on your left hand) and count all the fingers to the left of the bent finger and that is the tens place, all the fingers to the right of the bent finger is the ones place.


Please keep using the flash cards EVERY night!!!

Monday, November 1, 2010

READ, READ, READ!!!

Please encourage your child to read every single night for 30 minutes. This is a daily homework assignment and it will only help them to improve their fluency and comprehension skills if you have them read every single night. Your child can read silently to themselves or out loud to you. If they are reading out loud to you ask them some comprehension questions about the story from the reading tab in the FROG binder. Thank you for your help.


Multiplication With Arrays


When students use an array to show a multiplication number sentence it is VERY important that they remember the first number in an equation is number of groups and the second number is number of things in each group. For example for the equation 6x2=12, the array would look like this
**
**
**
**
**
**
and for the equation 2x6=12, the array would look like this
******
******





Please pay close attention to which number shows the number of groups and which number shows the number of things in each group.

Properties of Multiplication

1. Zero Property of Multiplication: Any number times 0, ALWAYS equals 0. 6x0=0; 0x12=12.

2. Identity Property Of Multiplication: Any number times 1, equals that same number. 5x1=5; 1x11=11.