Book Talks from 4th grade

Throughout the year we have students from Mrs. Magdalener's 4th grade class come into our classroom and do Book Talks about great books they have read. It has been such a great experience for both the 4th graders and our 3rd graders. Hearing the parts of books that 4th graders love and seeing the 3rd grades listen and want to read what they are hearing about make this an invaluable experience.

Practice, practice, practice!

Last week students worked on making a card that will help them practice the 6 and 7 multiples for multiplication.  The numbers are listed on the card and a QR code is there for them to scan and listen and practice these. Please remind them to take time daily to do this. It is so important that they learn their multiples. Here is what they look like:

We will continue to practice these songs over the course of the next couple months. Here is a sample of how our mornings begin:

Multiplication Fun!

Today we began our multiplication unit for Math.  Students will learn many tools and strategies to help them understand what multiplication is and also fun ways to practice and learn their facts. Here is the first of many songs that have been proven to help students in 3rd grade and beyond!

Counting by 6's 

As we continue our unit, the kids will learn and practice the rest of these:

Counting by 7's

Counting by 8's

Counting by 9's

Take some time to play and sing these songs with your child. I am amazed at how well they remember their facts by using these songs!

Enjoy!

Happy birthday Illinois! Illinois Inquiry Study

Our inquiry into Illinois has begun and everyone worked hard last week learning about Illinois and sharing in their inquiry discussion groups. Since we had so much success with book clubs, we decided to use these groups to continue to grow our discussion skills along with learning to take notes and pull out important information in informational texts. It was so great to hear how much everyone learned about Illinois! I was informed yesterday that today was Illinois birthday! I would like to say we planned to learn that but the kids found it and were so excited! Here are some photos from the great discussions this past week.

Bar Modeling ~ Bringing Word problems to life!

Students have worked hard over the past month to learn how to use bar modeling as a tool to solve word problems pictorially. By analyzing word problems sentence by sentence and using our reading strategies to understand the problem, students can then draw models to represent what they know from the word problem and from that determine what they need to solve. Although this can be a difficult strategy to learn initially, students will benefit from this strategy for years to come. Especially as they encounter longer more difficult word problems, it is the stepping stone to algebraic equations. Here is some more information about bar modeling and practice problems.  We will continue to use this strategy all year and will introduce the multiplication and division bar models over the next few months.  Watch the videos below to see and hear some amazing explanations of problem solving using bar modeling. Everyone is growing so much using their ipads to explain and show their thinking!

Happy Thanksgiving!

We had such a fun time celebrating with the kindergarteners yesterday. Our thanksgiving feast was a success and each student shared something that they are thankful for with each other. The fruit salad was a big hit! Thank you to all who donated the fresh fruit to share!

Reading our writing to Kindergarten

One of the goals of 3rd grade writing is to expand the audience for our writing. Yesterday we had Mr. George's room come and listen to our stories. The students worked hard to read with expression and bring their story to life. It was so great to hear all the sounds and excitement in the room.