Reflecting on the week and looking forward to the rest of the year.

This week we have worked hard to increase our conceptual understanding of multiplication.  We have been working with the idea that all multiplication expressions can be represented by a rectangle, with the product of this expression being represented by the area of said rectangle.  We are also working on building the foundational skills needed to move forward our knowledge of multiplication.  This weekend you will notice that your student has brought home their math notebooks to practice the table of 5.  Many of the ladders on these notebooks have a few asterisks next to certain factors, these are the ones your student should focus on the most.  Please take few minutes a few times a day to practice these with your student.

We also have been working with biographies.  We have read biographies of civil rights leaders from our history, and yesterday did some group work to summarize the lives of some of these great leaders.  We are looking forward investigating biographies of some people of our choosing in the coming weeks, and we will be working on researching and writing about the people that we choose.

Also, looking forward, we are preparing for a unit on gardening and food systems this spring.  We will be starting some seedlings in our classroom, watching them grow, and nurturing them to health.  We are also looking to revitalize the small garden plot that our school has.  If you would like to be a part of this, please let me know.

Thanks, and have a wonderful weekend.

Dave

The dawn of a new week!

Monday morning is always an exciting and happy time for me.  We are getting revved up for a fresh week, while at the same time reflecting on the week past.  Last week we had an interesting mini-unit investigation on the dinosaur extinction.  We learned about a relatively new theory about this extinction.  The discussion that surrounded this learning was profound and in depth.  It was really interesting for students to think about the notions that they had to begin with, as well as, introducing themselves to new information.

As for this week, we will be starting another mini-unit based on books, we will be thinking about books that we love, forming a statement that captures the gist of that book, and making some artwork to show what we are thinking about.

Of late, I have been thinking about the importance of language in our learning, and we have worked really hard to help everyone in here have and hold onto a smooth statement that captures what we are working on, and the essence of the lesson.

I hope all is well!

-Dave

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

Enjoy your Thanksgiving!

We have had a lovely first part of the year!  I hope you have a wonderful and restful Thanksgiving!

Enjoy, rest, and relax!

-Dave

Rectangles, rectangles, rectangles...

This week our focus in math has been on rectangles.  We have been investigating them, defining them, finding examples of them, describing them, drawing them and analyzing them.  We have been focused on the fact that a rectangle is a closed shape with exactly four right angles, as well as the ways to find the area and perimeter of rectangles based on their dimensions.

During our writing work our focus has been on information, using paragraphs, and spelling the long-o sound.  As we write we are working to produce enough volume as to be able to paragraph our writing, and we are working with the understanding that there are three markers that tell us when to start a new paragraph (ask your student what they are!).

We have also been reading some mysteries!  When reading these we are discussing how reading a mystery is different than reading other types of novels.  Readers of mysteries often get totally "sucked in" to the story and work to be the detective trying to solve the mystery.  One thing we have talked a lot about is that when reading a mystery one has to use only the information provided in the book to keep the clues and suspects all in order.

We also have been investigating the industrial revolution through the lens of spinning and textile mills.  We have been learning about the rise of water driven mills here in the Northeast.

I hope you have a wonderful and relaxing weekend!

-Dave