Snowy and cold...but revved up in here!

This week we are really starting to experience some winter weather, and although it is chilly and snowy outside we are revving up in here.

First off we have been getting into a new unit about reading non-fiction.  We are working on getting mentally prepared to read these different types of books. Students have been using text features embedded in non-fiction to really get their arms around what they are reading.  Thus far the books we have been using are about Geology, so we are working on understanding the rock cycle, as well as the three major categories of rocks.

Speaking of rocks we have also been working on a mini-unit on soil percolation and grain size.  We let gravity pull water through sand, and observed how much water will flow through in one minute.  This was followed up with a discussion and prediction session which preceded percolating water through gravel.  It is always cool to hear what students think will happen as well as their reasoning.

N x 5...has been our focus this week in math.  We are working with different strategies to help us quickly know what any single digit factor multiplied by 5 will produce.  Students are getting a strong handle on this, and please ask them to rattle off a few "times 5" facts for you (as well as some x1 and x10 ones)!

I hope you all have a restful, wonderful, and snowy-fun weekend!

-Dave

Chex Mix!

Coming up on Thursday, we will be mixing, baking and bagging Chex-Mix for our Chex-Mix sale!  If any of you would like to volunteer in the afternoon (about 2:00 or so) please let me know!  I hope to hear from you soon!

-Dave

It is snowing!

Hey out there, it is snowing, and many of us are feeling the stoke!  All students have done an excellent job of being prepared for our wintry weather every day at recess, they also have been
making sure to hang up all of their wet stuff, so it will dry out a bit before heading home.

We have started to work on "fluency facts" in math.  These facts are just like sight words in literacy and and facts that we are working to memorize.  We are doing this through extensive discussion and verbal practice.  I like to work on verbal mastery before we begin to write these facts.  All students have currently mastered N x 1, and N x 10.  If you ask them any single digit number (or 10) multiplied by either 1 or 10 they will give you an accurate and quick answer.  We work on these in third grade to free up our minds later in the year, for the more complex mind work of multiplying numbers with three digits.

Speaking of verbal practice (hehehehehehe), we have also been working really hard on summarizing portions of books that we are reading.  WE are making these summaries verbally so that each student can hear the different components of a summary from a peer, as well as have the time to form their own ideas before they share them.

Finally we have been working on cursive, this is an art that we practice in third grade, and we like to envoke 3 tenets when we practice cursive:
-Relax, focus on your breath
-Emptiness, accept your evolving work
-Koan: When you go slowly, you will go faster.

Students are making headway on writing in cursive, and we are working to build fluidity.

I hope you have a great weekend!

Dave