What's Coming for December?

Hello Parents!  I hope everyone enjoyed a wonderful Thanksgiving with family and friends!  It's so hard to believe that Term 1 is already over, and December is just around the corner.  YIKES!  Where is all the time going????  Academically speaking, this is the time of year when so many new things are happening in the classroom, so here's a summary of where we are with our learning:

In Fundations, we have just started Unit 5, and Week 1 is all about the "schwa" sound!  And believe it or not, it's more than just a fun word to say!  The schwa sound occurs when a vowel in the unaccented syllable of a word doesn't make the expected vowel sound.  For example, in the word "wagon," the 'o' doesn't make the short o sound.  Instead, it sounds more like a short i sound.  As you can imagine, the schwa sound can make spelling a challenge for young children, so we'll be working with this sound quite a bit in class.

Reading

It's all about NONFICTION in Term 2!  Students will be reading informational text, biographies, and autobiographies.  The skills needed to read and comprehend nonfiction are more involved, and many of our classroom lessons will focus on specific features of nonfiction text.  These will include:  headings, captions, labels, special print, charts and graphs, diagrams, insets, sidebars, etc...  As third graders, students will learn how to use these features to increase their understanding of text.  I encourage you to have your child explore nonfiction books or magazines at home for their nightly reading.  Many upcoming Fluency Bag passages will also include nonfiction information.

As you probably already know, we are having lots of fun with multiplication in math.  Chapter 6 began with a basic review of multiplication - emphasizing the idea that multiplication is repeated addition and always involves equal groups.  Students are learning to use key vocabulary terms like: factor, product, and multiple.  Although students will need to memorize the tables, we are focusing on  using simple tricks like "doubling" when we multiply by two, or using the "double, double" strategy when multiplying by four.  Be sure to ask you child about some of these strategies at home.

Students are reading about the geography of Massachusetts.  We are using our nonfiction reading skills each day when we dig into our textbook and explore new parts of Massachusetts.  So far, students have read about Cape Cod, the North Shore, and the South Shore.  

We are still working on our matter unit in science.  This week, we will be investigating the properties of gas - asking important questions like:  Does air take up space?  Does air have weight?  Classroom demonstrations will prove that the answer to both of these questions is YES!  After these lessons, we will be studying the properties of water, and how it is affected by temperature.  Students will be learning about melting, freezing, evaporation, and condensation.  Again, if your child loves science and is eager to explore more at home, be sure to check out Steve Spangler science or Bill Nye's website.  There are so many fun ways for your child to further their understanding of these concepts!

As always, thank you for all you do at home to support your child's learning!

Be well!

Equal Groups and Repeated Addition: Bean Style!

Today we explored the concept of multiplication by making equal groups and using repeated addition sentences.  Students worked in pairs to "build" our equations with beans.

We learned that in a multiplication sentence, the first factor tells us the number of groups, and the second factor tells us the number in those groups.

5 x 4 = 20

5 groups of 4 = 20

4 + 4 + 4 + 4 + 4 = 20

I was so very impressed with the mental math strategies used by students to find their products!  A job well done everyone!

Magnificent Multiplication!

We are getting ready to begin Chapter 6 in math:  Multiplication Tables of 6, 7, 8, and 9.  Last year, second graders worked with their 2s, 5s, and 10s.  Next week, we will be starting a program called, "Multiplication in 7 Days."  Your child will have a specific set of facts to memorize each night and will be quizzed the following day.  For example, on Day 1, students will learn the "squares."  On Day 2, they will review the squares and learn the 2 facts.  It will be very important for students to continue practicing their addition facts as well.  These facts truly create a foundation and the number sense necessary to master multiplication.  

Please be aware that multiplication is presented as repeated addition.  Students must understand that multiplication always involves equal groups.  For instance, 8 x 7 would be 8 groups of 7.  Your child will also be learning and using important vocabulary terms including:  factor, product, and multiple.

Standards connected to this chapter are: 

3.OA.A.1 - Represent and solve problems involving multiplication

3.OA.B.5 - Understands properties of multiplication and the relationship between multiplication and division.

Dancing Raisins

Science was tons of fun this morning! Students explored the concept of buoyancy by working with these crazy little dancing raisins.  Every child was given a clear cup of seltzer water and a dixie cup of raisins.  Students determined that we were working with the THREE states of matter today:  the raisins - SOLID, the seltzer water - LIQUID, and the bubbles in the seltzer water - GAS.

ESSENTIAL QUESTION: 

Can air bubbles cause something that is NOT buoyant to become buoyant?

We learned that raisins will normally sink to the bottom of a liquid, but once the raisins were covered in gas bubbles, they became buoyant and were able to float to the surface of the cup.  As the bubbles popped, the raisins would again sink.

Standards: SL.3.1 Comprehension and Collaboration

SL.3.4 Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas

 Alex was ready and waiting for his raisins to float.  His were some of the more active today.

 Campbell happily waited for her raisins to "dance."

 Poor Charlie!  Not many of his raisins felt like "dancing" today, but he was able to see activity in the cups of his classmates.  

 Hmmmm, what's going on over there???

Not enough carbonation in Natasha's cup, but she got to look on with Alex.

Fun with Liquids!

Today, students worked in small groups to explore five "mystery" liquids.  Everyone did a great job using their five senses to describe the liquids according to how they smelled, felt, looked, and moved. A great deal of discussion focused on the fact that many liquids can share some properties but not others.  For example, we compared rubbing alcohol, water, and vinegar.  All three liquids are clear and able to pour quickly and easily, but by using our sense of smell, we can determine that they are all different.

Standard SL.3.1 Speaking and Listening: Comprehension and Collaboration

 This group took their time to observing each liquid!

Good job scientists!

 Everyone at this group was hard at work recording their thoughts!

  Julia is really using her sense of smell!

The power of observation!

Hmmm, Astrid thinks the liquid in cup #3 feels pretty sticky!

 Ryan must have noticed something pretty interesting here!

Dylan is quite happy about this investigation!

Fundations Fun

This week students used their magnetic letter tiles to practice v-e exceptions and adding vowel suffixes and consonant suffixes to v-e words.

Standard RF.3.3  Phonics and Word Recognition

(To learn more about this standard, click on the "Common Core" widget on the right.)

November Happenings!

Hi everyone!
Last week was a busy one in Room 8.  We explored the concept of density in science with some hands-on investigations.  PARENTS BEWARE:  Students may be invading your cabinets to explore this concept further.  In class, we used water, cooking oil, and maple syrup to see which was the most dense.  Students were surprised to see the maple syrup sink to the bottom of our container.  If you have some empty water bottles at home, students can make and take their experiments to school for discussion with their peers! This week, students will use their five senses to explore mystery liquids in class.  Look for pictures later in the week!

In fundations last week, we worked with the v-e syllable and how to divide multisyllabic words.  This week, we are starting Unit 4 and will focus on v-e syllable exceptions.  Students will learn when to include the silent e in their spelling and when to drop it.  Cursive letters this week will include the "d" and the "g."

In reading and writing, we are continuing to think about story elements like: setting, character, and plot.  These are things you can easily incorporate into your nightly discussions.  Ask your child to tell you about the main character of their independent reading book:  What are they like?  How do they know?  Where is the story taking place?  What is the story problem?
Another skill we're working on in class is finding evidence in the story to support our ideas.  You can help your child to practice this by asking them to do the same with their at-home reading.  

Please note that this week, students will be starting their Reading Fluency Bags.  Monday these will be introduced to students, and the bags will be brought home for nightly practice.  Parent involvement is needed, so be sure to read the information provided by our Reading Specialist, Betsy Gadbois, to get a better understanding of what is involved.  Fluency bag reading may be done in addition to, but not in place of regular nightly reading.

We've started Chapter 5 in math:  Bar Models for Addition and Subtraction.  In this chapter, students are solving one- and two-step word problems using bar models as a strategy.  When solving two-step problems, one of the most challenging steps tends to be identifying which operation to use.  For extra at-home practice, check out this website: http://www.mathplayground.com/thinkingblocks.html
Select the addition and subtraction model, and your child can have access to all sorts of interactive problems that will allow them to create a bar model and solve the word problems.  It's a wonderful tool!

Also, we are now doing addition AND subtraction Mad Minutes in class, so please be sure to have your child practice their facts each night!

Thank you, and stay tuned......

Halloween STEM Challenge

On Halloween, students worked in teams of three to complete a Candy Corn Tower Challenge.  With one cup of candy corn and 100 toothpicks, students had to build the tallest, free-standing structure they could.  First, students created a written plan and diagram for their tower.  Students then had 15 minutes only to construct their tower.  Everyone created a great plan, but unfortunately......the candy corn did NOT want to cooperate.  Halfway through, we switched to Plan B:  Playdough! Congratulations to Dylan, Nate, and Alex for creating a 7" tower!

Attempt #1 - Candy Corn

 Jordan, Julia, and Grainne worked on several different models!  Boy were they persistent!

 Jacoby, Garrett, and Gage were all business!

 Astrid, Madie, and Giovanna working hard to get those toothpicks in without cracking their candy corn!

 Charlie, Ryan, and John - had a great plan, but those candies just would not cooperate!

Amber, Natasha, and Campbell worked so hard with those materials!

Alex, Dylan, and Nate were quick to try Plans B and C when their first plan didn't work.  Way to stick to it, boys!

Attempt #2:  Playdough

With this dense, sticky matter, students were much more successful in building their towers.  Certainly a fun activity that required determination, patience, cooperation, and creativity.  A job well done to all!

The Great Pumpkin Activity

I'm pleased to announce that our pumpkin activity was a huge success on Friday!  First, I'd like to thank our parent volunteers:  Mrs. Cantalupo, Mrs. MacKeen, Mrs. Hubbard, Mrs. Dupuis, Mrs. Rolfe, and Mrs. Green.  Without their help, we definitely could not have completed this project.

 Students worked with their parent volunteers to describe their pumpkin by its physical properties.

 Circumference was explored by using various materials like paper clip chains, string, and pipe cleaners.  Students really worked together to find the best strategy for measuring!

 Everyone investigated the concept of buoyancy by predicting whether or not their pumpkin would float.  Many were surprised to find out that indeed - pumpkins DO!

 Mrs. Hubbard's group hard at work building their paperclip chains!

Other items were explored at the water tub as well.  Students found that their pumpkin and the pepper both float due to the air inside.  Other, more dense items, like the marble, rock, and bouncy ball both sunk right to the bottom!

Mrs. Dupuis talking to her group about why that big pumpkin is floating in the tub!