Happy Halloween!

It has been a week full of excitement and waiting – apple picking, haunted hayrides, pumpkin carving, costume planning and finally trick-or-treating.  In and around all that excitement at home, we have explored strong verbs in writing and begun our second narrative piece of writing based on the map where we play.  Most of the children posted  writing and art on their blogs.  We’ve been multiplying with larger amounts and we’ve been learning about trees.  There’s lot going on in 3E.

Multiplying and the Distributive Property

The children have been working to solve their problems with efficiency and accuracy.  We’ve been working to organize our problem solving steps and follow a natural sequence working from the problem through to the solution.  The children are doing a great job with this.

I wish I had saved some of the problems the children did from the beginning of the year to show them how far they have come.  In September they were drawing out each set and writing a repeated addition sentence to solve problems like this:

Ginger got a book full of sticker mustaches.  There were eight pages in the book.

Each page had five stickers on it.

How many sticker moustaches were in the book at the start?

This week the children have been confidently using the distributive property to break amounts apart to solve for partial products that they then add together.  Here’s a sample of a problem from this week:

Timmy read for 23 minutes a day for 5 days.  How many minutes did he read altogether?

Over the weekend he read for 45 minutes each day. How many minutes did he read over the weekend?  How many minutes did he read altogether in the week?

We have begun to explore time and measurement.  Through our work with time we will continue to develop our understanding of multiplication and division of 5’s and 6’s.  We are going to be focusing on metric  measurements so that we can continue working with tens and begin to deepen understanding of place value through the thousands.  The class deserves to feel proud of their effort and continued perseverance with problems that challenge their thinking and logic.

The Importance of Trees

 A scientist who focuses on the study of trees and woody-stemmed plants is called a Dendrologist.  As a class we are learning about trees.  Together we are using our tree study to model the parts of the “Who Am I?” project begun this week.   This week we read three picture book biographies of people who changed the world with trees.  We learned that beyond cleaning the air of carbon dioxide, trees are important for holding earth in place, and for allowing ground water to reach the surface for use.  We learned that trees are an important part of creating and maintaining a healthy environment.  We read about Wangari Maathai planting trees in Kenya, about Katherine Sessions transforming San Diego at the turn of the 20th century when women didn’t do that and we read about how Dr. Sato planted mangrove trees and saved families because of the changes the trees brought to Eritrea.   We are learning about all different types of trees, their life cycles and how central they are in many different habitats.

S.E.L. – Learning with Leo Lionni

This week we’ve been reading books by Leo Lionni to discover what lessons they offer us as we work together to create a classroom community where everyone can be him or herself while allowing everyone the opportunity to learn.  We’ve been thinking about and talking about what it means to be trustworthy, responsible, respectful, fair, caring, kind and contributing “citizens” of our classroom, school and town.  Reading Frederick, Matthew’s Dream, Tico’s Golden Wings, Cornelius and Swimmy helped us stop and think about being different, being included and accepted and being kind.  We’ve begun to take time to notice the ripple effect of one small action.  We’ve also begun to realize that everyone doesn’t understand things in the same way.  What one person (or alligator in Cornelius’ case) sees as bragging could actually be pride and excitement over a worked for accomplishment.

Here are a few of the lessons we’ve learned so far:  Follow your dreams, it’s okay to be the same and it’s okay to be different as long as you are kind, it takes time, effort and practice to learn new things, everyone has a part.

We’ll keep reading books by Leo Lionni next week as well and we’ll continue our important work of learning more about ourselves individually and as members of a community.  Ask your child which of the books we read this week made them stop and think most of how we work together, judge behavior and try to understand others with kindness.  That’s not easy.

Bits and Pieces –

• We took another timed fact test for multiplication this week.  Everyone improved his or her score.  Thank you for you continued support with fact work at home.
• We began cursive with the “clock climber” set of letters.  We are focusing on letter formation so that all the letters will easily connect together when we move on to words.
• Our next outdoor challenge has been moved to Monday, November 10.
• We are going to the SEE Science Center in Manchester on Tuesday, November 18 as the culminating event of our “Who Am I?” scientist project.  More details and the permission slip for this field trip will follow.

Zip…zoom and another week is gone!  We keep writing and reading, researching and “mathing” every day.  As each day comes to an end I am full of wonder at the number of things your children have done.  For example, on Thursday each of them read and commented on 2 or 3 student blogs from The Saint Margaret of Scotland School in Chicago – the SMOS Panthers, choral read poetry charts, had morning meeting, listened to and responded to The Pain and the Great One (a mentor text for learning about voice in narrative writing), read independently for forty minutes, worked together to build a multiplication table, did a minute fact “sprint”, solved at least two different math problems, had lunch and recess, listened and responded to a chapter of The Quirks in Circus Quirkus, created masks in art, snuck out for 15 minutes to run when the rain stopped, shared our first completed personal narratives and began the planning for our second.  The day was done.   Of course there is always more to be done, but… WOW!  Nice effort.  I have to compliment the class on their work, their support of each other and their enthusiasm.  They are doing many, many things each day.  It feels good to be part of 3E.

Using Rods as Tools for Learning

Recently, each day we’ve dumped the bin of rods into the center of the rug.  We’ve taken out our workspaces, built a set of stairs and then begun to explore.  We now can picture the values of the two’s table.  We are working to visualize and know the three’s table.  The rods help us clearly understand why 2×3 = 3×2 or 3×4 = 4×3. The rectangles they make are the same size.  This is adding to our understanding of multiplication.  We know that multiplication represents repeated addition of groups, can be represented with arrays in columns and rows and we are beginning to see how multiplication and area go together.

This week the children have been trying to use multiplication first whenever they can in their daily problem solving.  As you look at your child’s work this weekend you can see how your child is approaching their math and how comfortable he or she is with multiplying.  There has been more effort in the activity portion of our math block to choose games that help practice multiplication facts.  Thank you for your support with that at home as well.

Narrative Writing – Planning

We are beginning our second personal narrative writing project.  Drawing a map of the places where we play outside launched this writing project.  Some children drew the yard around their houses, and others drew their neighborhoods.  Then we marked a spot on our maps where a story happened and we began to tell it.  Mine was the leech story – many in the class told me they had shared with you at home.  Yup, it’s true.  Next we wrote of the first thing and the last thing in the story.  After that we made a list of the things that happened in between.  Currently we are using a circle and frame graphic organizer to gather details: colors, smells, sounds, possible bits of dialogue in the frame and thoughts and feelings in the circle.

With that done we’ll explore a couple different leads, tell our stories to a partner again and then begin writing.  Our goal with this piece is to write longer and with more specific and descriptive word choice.  We are going to be exploring strong verbs and different sentence constructions with this piece as well.

Bits and Pieces

• We finished The Quirks – Welcome to Normal and began, The Quirks in Circus Quirkus.  The second book begins right as the first begins so it is just like the story continues on.   We are excited about that.   We like the Quirks quite a bit.  There are a lot of “what-if” kinds of conversations.  This discussion fits in very nicely with our Multiple Intelligences discussions too.  You might want to ask your child who his or her favorite character is or what they think the sneaky neighbor, Mrs. DeVille, might do.
• We have created an idea jar just like they had in Normal, Michigan and we are gathering ideas of records we could break and way we could celebrate similar to the Normal Night Celebration in the book.  FUN!
• We are continuing with our independent research. We worked to generate questions as a scientist and now are in search of answers and information.  We are hoping to have an Open House Museum in mid-November to share this work with you.
• Another way we are preparing for our museum is to explore different format for presenting and sharing information.  We are exploring the ways we learn from informational narrative.  We are comparing and contrasting this type of narrative to the personal narratives and the fictional narratives we’ve been writing this fall.
• Thank you to the families who’ve found the time to check out our blog, to share the address with family members and to submit comments.  It is super motivating to know your writing has been read beyond the classroom.

 

It has been an exciting writing week in 3E. At the beginning of the week we learned who our partner schools were in the Primary Blogging Community and at the end of the week we learned how to comment and respond to other blogs. Writing for a wider audience has inspired more thought and attention to the words we choose and they way we say things. In addition to our blogging work we are excited because our first class collection of poetry is being put together and will likely be ready to bring home next week. That is exciting writing news too.
Primary Blogging Community
This week we learned that we have been grouped with classrooms from Windsor and Cottam, Ontario, Jenison, MI and Chicago, IL. When we looked at all the different blogs it is exciting – we are all so different and yet the same. Earlier in the week we read the book Same, Same, Different and that is what we are discovering. We are all third grade or second/third grade classrooms – that is the same part, but we are all learning about things in a different way.
Last week we posted our book commercials. This week during our blogging time we commented on each other’s blogs and many of us posted the poetry we’d written to share with the class. It was exciting to check out our cluster maps to know. The children could each see that their blogs had been visited and they could tell where the visitors were from.
Again if you need help knowing where to go to see your child’s blog, head to 3enews.edublogs.org. Scroll down until to see the class blog list. The second half of the list is our class. Click on a name and enjoy. Please leave a comment when you do. The children will be thrilled to know you seen what they have shared.
Multiplication Practice
This week we have been working for automaticity with our 1’s, 10’s, 5’s and 2’s tables. We know there are 100 different multiplication facts to learn. By knowing these first four tables we know at least half of the facts. That’s a pretty good feeling. Our next task is to work on the 3’s. We understand multiplication as repeated groupings and as arrays. We are learning more about the Commutative Property and our next task is to learn how to use multiplication to calculate area. We are also going to use what we know about fives to figure out how to tell time more easily.
How We Are Smart – Multiple Intelligence Theory
We are nearly complete with the “icons” we’ve develop to represent what we each feel are our top four intelligences. It has been interesting to see the children compare their first impressions to the results from the questionnaire to decide what their different strengths and interests are. Some of them have been surprised, but most of the children really know themselves well. Word, logic and self-smart are particularly challenging to understand because they are largely thought and felt. They are not seen as clearly as body, art or nature-smart. As we come to know our differences and understand how we approach learning we can better appreciate each other. This is another way we are Same, Same, Different.
Recording Lessons Learned While Reading
During our Shared Reading Sessions we have been considering the lessons we can learn from books if we stop, take note and the time to actually record our thinking. When we stop to notice, we have discovered we remember what we read better and we are able to connect to the reading later on. In class we compared to picture books: The Most Magnificent Thing and What To Do With an Idea. There are many lessons to be learned from these books like: calm down so you can think, keep trying, don’t worry about what other say, what you think matters more… and on and on. Talk to your child about these books and see what they can tell you. I am hoping it will be a lot once they get started.
Bits and Pieces

• We’ll be kicking off our first whole grade level project – Who Am I? – with a visit from the S.E.E. Science Mobile on October 17. This is a demonstration to help the children learn more about thinking scientifically. The project that will follow that kick-off event is designed to help the children explore, learn about and share of different types of science and the work of scientists. At the end of this month long exploration, we have also planned a field trip to the S.E.E. Science Center in November. Look for details in your child’s communication folder in the weeks to come.
• See what your child has to say about the Quirks and what is happening at Normal Night in our class chapter read-aloud, The Quirks – Welcome to Normal.
• Ask them about their independent research topic. We began that process this week too. They may be surprised to discover information and resources at home to.

3E is a busy place to be. We are doing a lot and the children seem to be feeling excited and interested in what they are doing each day.

I am always astounded that the week has come to a close and I am writing to you. It feels to me that we have just begun, but when I stop to write to you and I realize how much we have done. This week we have practiced being more thoughtful when reading, we have worked to understand how arrays work with multiplication and division and we have considered how different details and description can make a piece of writing more interesting.
Responding to Reading
We ended last week by setting reading goals of how many books we thought we might be able to read in one month. If it takes about a minute to read a page of a “just right” book and we read at least thirty minutes a day, we figured that is 150 pages a school week. We worked from that number to set our goals. Next we began recording the titles we are reading both at school and at home. And finally we have been learning about different ways to respond to reading.
It is helpful to stop and think about what we are reading because we understand more. Stopping to think helps us visualize, question and infer. As a class we have been recording our thoughts about each chapter as we read The Quirks – Welcome to Normal. That type of reading response is called a “Novel Reflection.” We have also tried a two-word response, a three-circle map and a book commercial. Each of these types of responses supports thinking, analyzing and synthesizing information so that reading leads to deeper understanding. We realize we read to understand more about ourselves, how people get along and to learn information.
Blogging
We hope you will begin checking out our blogs. This week we began posting on our individual blogs. We started by creating a book commercial. Some of us wrote commercials of favorite picture books like Those Shoes, King Bidgood’s in the Bathtub or Watch Me Throw The Ball. Others hope to encourage you to read chapter books that were recently finished like Galaxy Zack – A Galactic Easter or Violet Mackerel’s Brilliant Plot.
We are trying to get our blog posts done so that we are ready when we partner up with other classes across the country and/or North America as part of the Primary Blogging Community.  We will  read and comment on their blogs and they will do the same for us too. We’ll be learning who our partners are next week.  The class was  excited to learn that they were the only ones who would be able to write in that space and share information that was important to them. I also find it exciting to know that their ideas and understanding will reach a wider audience.What a wonderful thing to know how powerful your thoughts and ideas can be and how far reaching at 8 and 9 years old.

Understanding Multiplication and Arrays
Because we have been working with these concepts for most of the year, it seems as though many of the children understand how multiplication represents repeated grouping. As they select problems each day, they are more independently able to understand the math story, represent it with an equation and solve it efficiently.
This week we learned about the commutative property. If one student has six plates with two cookies each and another student has two plates with six cookies each, they both have the same amount of cookies. That means if we know the multiples of 2, we also know some of the multiples of six. We are trying to help the children develop strategies for knowing these facts, just as they learned strategies for addition and subtraction facts last year.
Last week at the curriculum night I said the children were responsible for knowing the basic facts for all four operations to twenty. That may have been confusing. To clarify: they are responsible for knowing facts to twenty with addition and subtraction and facts through the tens for multiplication and division. Next week in your child’s homework folder we’ll be sending home the first round of timed fact assessments and different activities that will help support your child’s math fact knowledge.
Multiple Intelligence Theory – Knowing Ourselves
After reading about many different people we feel we have a clearer sense of what the different intelligences are and how they look. We know that it may be more challenging to recognize some of the intelligences because they are ways of thinking and being and don’t show on the outside. It might be challenging for someone to know if they are logic – or self – smart. This week we completed a questionnaire that might help us see how we are smart in all eight ways. We are looking forward to discovering this about ourselves.
Team Estimation – Building Relationships
This week we had to work to solve two problems with Mr. Caron. First we had to use estimation skills along with cooperation to complete a bridge-like structure. The posts were in the ground and we had to figure out which lengths of wood fit between then. Of course we had to complete that part of the challenge in a short enough time span so that we could find a way to help the whole class cross the bridge to the other side. We had to work quickly, but safely. We had to work patiently and cooperatively. We had to work logically and communicate our ideas so that all the parts of the challenge would be done. The class felt a real sense of accomplishment when we found a solution to each part of this challenge.

Bits and Pieces:

• Ask your child about The Quirks – Welcome to Normal to find out what has been happening in the story and to see what he or she thinks might happen on Normal Night.
• Every one in 3E has written and posted a poem that we read together each day. Some are about our topic of study – reading and writing, and others are about favorite things, people and activities. We will have to find a way to share them all with you.
• We reached a conclusion with our Chromatography experiment, only to discover we had more questions and more ideas to experiment with. That’s the beauty of learning and discovery. The more you know, the more you want to know. We’ll keep experimenting and exploring.