Happy Valentine’s Day! XOXO and 0x0

By , 02/14/2018

Today we celebrated Valentine’s Day in many ways! During Reading workshop, children read an article about the history of Valentine’s Day in order to determine the main idea and significant details.

Our Word Study activity today was to find as many words as you can using the letters in “Valentine’s Day”. We also practiced both lowercase and uppercase cursive letters, using some special friendship and love related phrases!

Friendship and respect are themes for the day, as we celebrate with our sixth grade buddies. Earlier this week, 302 created valentines for their buddies. At our celebration, we exchanged valentines and played “conversation heart” bingo! Thanks so much to families who sent in unexpected valentines- these were shared at the end of the day.

Tomorrow we will be studying about Lunar New Year, and making Chinese dragons. This will launch our study of China. We will continue to understand culture and diversity, using China as a lens.

Math News- Multiplication Facts- How you Can Help!

Our third graders have done the work necessary to understand multiplication conceptually. Through various contexts, we have explored the models of the array and the ratio table. We have also investigated important properties of multiplication, such as the Commutative Property and the Distributive Property. We have also related multiplication to the concept of area. By the end of the year, third graders are expected to know their multiplication facts to 100. Here are the Common Core Standards related to the multiplication facts:

Multiply and divide within 100.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.OA.C.7
Fluently multiply and divide within 100, using strategies such as the relationship between multiplication and division (e.g., knowing that 8 × 5 = 40, one knows 40 ÷ 5 = 8) or properties of operations. By the end of Grade 3, know from memory all products of two one-digit numbers.

CCSS.MATH.CONTENT.3.NBT.A.3
Multiply one-digit whole numbers by multiples of 10 in the range 10-90 (examples: 9 × 80, 5 × 60) using strategies based on place value and properties of operations.

This week, students were given an assessment to determine which facts they know “like a snap” (automatically), and which facts they still need to practice to recall. Over the vacation, please have your child visit one (or more!) of these websites to practice his/her facts. It is important for your child to have repeated practice and experiences learning the facts.

Grade 3 – Multiplication Fact Fluency Websites

http://www.multiplication.com/games/all-games

http://illuminations.nctm.org/activity.aspx?id=4213

http://www.multiplication.com/games/play/quick-flash-ii

http://www.mathplayground.com/multiplication_blocks.html

http://www.mathplayground.com/ASB_GrandPrixMultiplication.html

https://www.education.com/game/multiply-by-9-matching/

https://www.education.com/game/multiply-by-8-skiracer/

SCIENCE NEWS from Ms. Kenny:

Homework from Ms. Kenny- To be completed over the break…

The third graders are finishing up with their wind-ups. I am asking that they formulate a step-by-step instruction, or How-To, for how to build a wind-up.

The students should draw their wind-up to the best of their abilities and write the steps for someone to make their own wind-up.

They can base this on the wind-ups we have been working on in class OR make a new one at home! If they make a new wind-up and would like to bring it in after break that would be great!

When we return from the break, we will be having our official Wind-Up Races in class! Students can use the ones they have created or modified in school or their wind-ups from home.

Some things they may consider: changing the size of the cup or the shape of the cup, changing the wheels (bigger, smaller, one and one), size of the stick, etc. -Ms. Kenny

Have a great week off! See you back on February 26th!

Upcoming Dates:

Tuesday, Feb. 27th- Trip to “Dragon’s Tale” via school bus