Moon journals

This week we are wrapping up our study of planets and moving on to the moon.  Yesterday I handed out moon journals to each child.  Inside the front cover are guidelines to help you and your child understand expectations for the journal.  The guidelines are quite simple.  Each night your child should create an entry that has a date, a picture of what the moon looks like, and a fact that they found about the moon.  There will be nights, like last night, when the moon is not visible, perhaps due to cloud cover.  The expectation is that the child will draw the clouds that are hiding the moon, or go onto a website to see what the moon looks like behind the clouds.  I am hopeful that this project will give the children a deeper understanding of the phases of the moon, but also be a fun activity which will deepen their knowledge and appreciation for the solar system in general.  As always, please contact me if you have any questions or concerns.

                                            

Math help is here

Last night there were so many questions about the expired IXL passwords, and what your child could do to work on math at home that I found it inspiring!  Today, I went in and signed all of the students up for Xtramath.   Xtramath is a website that will enable your child to master math facts at their own pace.  They will start with addition, and when they master that they will move on to subtraction; when they master that they will do multiplication; and when they master that they will do division.  This is meant to be something that the children do every day for just a few minutes a day.  A paper will be going home tomorrow with their individual codes.  Even if they have done Xtramath in the past, please help them put in the new code so that their progress is sent to me via e-mail.  Once they have inputted it once on your computer, they will be able to sign in independently going forward.

Additionally, I was so inspired that I looked into Khan Academy, and assigned all students an account there as well.  I still have to research this more, and will keep you posted.  However, if you get an e-mail and your child wants to play around on the site, that would be terrific.  Thank you for being so supportive of your child’s mathematical education!

Math standards

It was wonderful meeting so many of you this evening.  I am looking forward to working together to ensure that your children have a terrific year!   One of the things we talked about was the new math standards.  I will try to post the standards that we are working on before we start each unit. Thus far, we have been working on math standard 3.NBT.A.1  Some of the skills developed in this standard include:

 

Read and write 3 digit numbers.

Locate and write numbers on a number line.

Identify the pattern on a number line to prepare for rounding.

Find the halfway point between two consecutive tends, two consecutive hundreds and two consecutive thousands.

Round two-digit and three-digit whole numbers to the nearest ten, or hundred by comparing to the number halfway between, or by using place value.

Round 4-digit whole numbers to the nearest ten or hundred by using place value.

Make an organized list to represent information given in a problem.

Thank you for supporting our work in the classroom by assisting your child at home.  Please remember to let me know if your child struggles with any topic so that we can review it in class.

Welcome to the new school year

     Welcome to third grade!  The year has started off very well.  The children seem quite enthusiastic and prepared to learn new things. 

     This blog was set up to be a tool to keep you informed of what is coming up during the year, as well as to give you glimpses into the daily life of room 16.  Please feel free to leave comments on what you see, and offer any suggestions you may have about what else you would like to see here. 

     Over the course of the year we will continue strengthening reading, writing, and math skills through the workshop model.  The children were excited to hear that they would be learning multiplication and division this year. Fundations will build off prior year lessons, and we will introduce cursive.  We will be learning about the Pilgrims, Wampanoag tribe, and cities and towns of Massachusetts in social studies.  In science, we will learn about the solar system, light and sound energy, and plants and butterfly life cycles.  

     I look forward to meeting all of you tomorrow at curriculum night.