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.