We began our week with a Quirky celebration – balloons, piñata, cake and a movie – all parts of the Quirkalicious celebration from our read-aloud.  We finished the week with a preview of the play.  It was fun to see some of the dances and hear some of the songs.  Looks like it is going to be a great show.  In between we completed the testing. The math section this week was not at all what we had been told. It was not a cumulative assessment of what has been learned in the last four years of schooling. It was an assessment of the Common Core State Standards for grade three in the second year of implementation. The majority of the questions and tasks assessed children’s knowledge of multiplication, division and fractions and knowledge of terms like equivalent, area, perimeter and pictograph. It is maddening that there was no acknowledgement that the state scheduled the least experienced test takers to begin the end of the year assessment at the 2/3’s mark of the year. Nor was there any understanding that the new standards have not been fully implemented. Third grade is still a time for learning and mastering addition and subtraction. I am explaining this not as an excuse, but so you can have some context for understanding the test scores when they come to you. They are not likely to be terrific. I am proud of the children. They did work to do their best. The tests asked them to do a great deal of flexible thinking and expected that they have expertise with multiple screens of directions and information. Their efforts and perseverance should be commended.

S.E.L. – Talking About Mistakes

            This week we have been talking about doing our best and still making mistakes. We have been trying to decide if there are different kinds of mistakes and we think there are. There are mistakes that are accidents, there are mistakes that lead to learning and there are mistakes that are choices. The latter “mistakes” can only be called that, if they are learned from and not repeated. There is a difference between pants splitting on the bowling alley, misunderstanding how to use a new strategy and taking a pack of gum. Two couldn’t be stopped and one could.

We talked about the difference between making mistakes and learning. In Horace and Morris Join the Chorus (but What About Delores) Delores loves to sing more than anything, but she is not very good. At try-outs, her friends make the chorus, but she does not. She is sad and then mad. She tries to find other things to do and eventually tells the chorus director how she feels. Once he understands how she feels, he gives her extra help so she can become part of the chorus and be successful at things she loves. We also wondered about the pressure felt by the main character of The Girl Who Never Made Mistakes. People didn’t even know her name. We admire her ability to laugh at herself and move on.

We are working to accept differences, to appreciate mistakes and learning and to advocate for our selves. All three are important things to learn and understand. All three are challenging.

Working with Fractions

            This week we began our work with fractions. We explored equivalent fractions. We saw that 1/2=2/4=3/6=4/8. We will be working with geoboards and pattern blocks to develop this understanding by exploring congruent eighths and finding all the ways a hexagon can be built.   Each student will be making a set of fraction bars. With them we will explore the relationship between denominators. Children can see how knowing multiplication helps in seeing how amounts are related. For example 6/12 = 1/2 because 6×2=12. It was exciting to see and hear all the great math thinking going on with fractions this week.

Moving Toward More Efficient Math Strategies

            Also with math we have been exploring an even wider variety of problems that challenged the children to follow different lines of logic and work as efficiently as possible. For example if there were 98 balls in a shipment and each ball cast $2.00, how much would it cast to sent three shipments. With this problem some children chose to use the standard algorithm while others multiplied. Some found the total number of balls and then doubles while others found the cost of one shipment and tripled that. It was interesting for the class to see all three approaches came to the same solution. And each approach was evidence that the students had master new skills. It was a concrete example of learning that is not always easy to see.

Launching the State Project

            We have begun our study of the United States.  We are excited about this project because it combines so many different areas of study and it is fun!  We do, as always need your help at home.  In mid-April we’ll be sending home the guidelines for how you and your child can create a “float” for the Parade of the States.  Hopefully by this point you all have heard about the state your child is researching.  After a few fits and starts it seems as though our class is pretty eager to be learning as much as they can about each region.  The children will be learning about their states and identifying that state’s ” seven wonders.”  These wonders will be represented on a float to be presented in the Parade of the States.  It is our plan that the children will have researched and identified their seven wonders by April vacation.  Mrs. Haight is collaborating with us and has planned several units of study to coincide with this project.  In school the children will be creating an animal collage, a model of a man-made structure and a representation of person important in their state.  These will represent three of the wonders.

We will send home clear guidelines for the float when the time comes.  A couple of the children talked about beginning the building process now.  Please don’t do that yet.  We have learned from past parades that we should slow the process down. We believe we have planned the project with enough time so that learning AND will building go together for a great event. (Be on the lookout for a blue form with further parade information in next week’s homework folder)

Bits and Pieces –

• We have a reschedule challenge with Mr. Caron on Tuesday, March 31.
• We’ve begun our new chapter read-aloud, The Secret of Zoom.  We’re just getting to the exciting parts.
• We are working on both our state research and are working to find 7 Wonders from our state.  One of them is the animal we’ve chosen.  We are learning about them and their habitats.  We’re also making a mask of it.  On Friday we began the paper mache step.
• The Parade of States will be Thursday, May 28.