Thank you for talking with your child about expectations for behavior and learning at school. We continue to review expectations and make lists of expected and unexpected behaviors and learning choices during various times of our day. We are trying to guess at which behaviors are always expected – we have discovered kindness so far.

Place Value

We’ve continued with our unit of study dealing larger numbers and place value. The students are quite good at reading numbers through the billions and identifying the value of a digit by name. We’ve been exploring equivalent values too and that’s little mind bending. For example, it is challenging to think about how many tens are in a thousand.

We’ve continued learning how the standard algorithm works and it seems that many of the children are becoming more comfortable with this process for adding amounts. They can see how ones may become tens and tens may become hundreds and hundreds may become thousands, etc… Many are also beginning to understand the process of trading in a subtraction problem. We’ve been working through the process with base 10 blocks to actually trade a flat of 100 in for ten rods of 10 so the class can see the amount and how the process is recorded on paper with numbers. Subtraction is our greatest challenge, but we are making progress.

You may notice that some of your child’s math papers are coming home unfinished. That is because I have asked them to work on the paper for a certain amount of time before moving on to the next math problem or project. Some children have completed a few problems, while others have nearly completed the whole page. The children may want to complete them as part of their math practice for homework or not. Either way is fine. I wanted families to be aware so it didn’t seem as though students were not doing their work. They have all done what was asked of them.

3 Africas ÷ 3 SouthAmericas + 3 North Americas + 2 Asias – 2Australias ÷2 Antarcticas ÷ Europes = 1 World

Our global geography museum has been named. As predicted, it was impossible to find a time that would work for all families. After looking at the surveys it seems as though Wednesday, February 17 works best for the most families. (We are very sorry if this isn’t so for you.) Our museum will be open from 1 to 2 during the school day and from 5:15 to 6:00 in the evening.

There has been a great deal of research happening. Now the children are using what they’ve learned to write what down what they’ve discovered. It is interesting to see how the concrete deadline inspires the children to focus on understanding so they can share what they know with you when you come to the museum.

Magnets

This week the children are publishing an informational piece about magnets using either Book Creator or Explain Everything. They have planned out their writing with a lead, included at least three different facts about magnets and finished it with a summarizing conclusion.   We learned about different types of leads: Snapshot, Question, Dialogue and Onomatopoeia. We experimented with writing different leads to see how it changed our interest as a reader. Our plan is to share these pieces of writing on our blogs when they are completed. We may also be creating a digital library housed in the cloud so that all the pages and videos will work as well.

Bits and Pieces –

• We began our Number Land structures and are creating mini-versions of ourselves out of pipe cleaners. Our next step is to figure out what “number” powers we’ll have in our new land.
• We are in the third part of Wildwood. Curtis is with the Bandits. Prue has reached the North Wood and the Dowager Governess is trying to feed Mac to the ivy. That may seem a bit confusing, but ask your child to explain.
• We’ll be having a Valentines’ Day breakfast on Friday, February 12. We’ll be sharing cards first thing in the day.

 

It’s been a short, full week. Thank you to the families who took time to talk with their child about expectations for learning in the classroom. It remains an issue for our class because it is impacting our learning accomplishments. I notice it most when I sit to write to you about them and realize what has been done and what remains.

Clarifying Expectations

We’ve been reviewing the behavior and learning expectations for different parts of our day – chapter read aloud, artist-writers’ workshop, math activity times, etc. … These times of our day have a fun feel but seemed to have lost their purpose beyond that. It is gratifying to know that the class does feel they are enjoyable, but also know the learning purposes behind them and the student behaviors that will best support that learning. The plan is to use these lists as guidelines to remind the students what is expected so when unexpected behaviors occur they are clear about their options.

For instance, during read-aloud it is expected that you listen and question and record your understanding through note and sketches of what the main ideas of the text shared. What’s not expected is that you sit quietly writing and drawing about other things, having side conversations with neighbors or walking away to get drinks. Our hope is that these reminders will help make our use of time in 2016 more focused on learning in a way that is relaxed and fun so everyone feels as though he or she is accomplishing great things.

Global Geography

We are nearing the six-week mark of this project and are again trying to find a time when we can share our work with families. Based on our last museum it seemed as though Monday might be the best day, but I have come to learn that is not so. We would like to share our work during the third week of February from February 15 through to February 19. We have created a survey to see what might be best for the majority of our class. Please send it in on Monday so we can set the final deadline for this work.

Having an end point is important. It have been a topic for so long that several of the children have let their energy wane. Still others, feeling as though they have all the time in the world, have spent time browsing pictures and captions without actually reading for understanding. They work best knowing how and when their research will show in the display and writing that they create.

Bits and Pieces –

• We are wrapping put our “kite string” cursive letters. That means we have learned over half of the lower case alphabet. Our goal is to complete all the lower case letters by the end of February and learn the upper case letters in March. Soon we’ll be writing whole sentences in cursive; perhaps even whole letters and notes.
• We are also working to share what we’ve learned about magnets. It has been surprising to realize how magnets affect nearly every part of our lives through motors, electricity, computers and credit cards. We’ve finished our final reading about Magnetism and completed our final experiment. With a bit a time to free explore and an outline to plan through, the children will be creating a digital video or book to share what they know about magnets – what they are and how they work. We’ll post these on our blogs as they are completed. Be on the look out for them.
• We have continued reading numbers ranging from the thousands to the billions. It seems as though the children feel comfortable with, with we have called, the houses the numbers live in. They know the actual term is the “million’s period” or the “thousand’s period” but we have drawn the periods as houses where the numbers live. This prompted some ideas about creating “Number Land.” It should be a fun math project. We are also continuing to practice combining amounts using both expanded notation and the standard algorithm. Children are working the name the value of each digit and to know that once a value has been assigned it doesn’t change unless some operation is used with it. Again our class goal is to have all children feeling successful with using the standard algorithm with addition and subtraction of 3- and 4-digit numerals.
• We’ve been enjoying 4-Way Count Down and Flip 4. Several of the children asked that I share those games. They’d like them at home.
• We have a challenge with Mr. Caron this Tuesday. Children should be prepared to be outdoors in the event that it is an outdoor challenge or winter walk in the woods identifying tracks.
• Thank you, and please keep sending in the food for the 100-day collections. Our 100th day of school (at this point in the year) will be February 10th. We are trying to have the collection completed by February 5th so the seventh graders can display the collections for the Pre-K, K and 1st grade students who are learning what 100 looks like. 100 boxes of pasta is very different from 100 cans of corn.

We’ve had a busy, full week working to learn more about mapping and research. We’re developing book commercials and finding ways to record our thinking when reading. We’re learning how to read large numbers and how to use the standard algorithm with addition and subtraction. We’re also running out of time due to talking. We’re focused on football and Shopkins, play dates and up-coming activities and games rather than learning. A few in our class have been talking nearly non-stop. Classmates are grumbling because they are being distracted and can’t get work done. We’ve had class conversations and are working to develop a record keeping system so that everyone has the chance to meet his or her goals regarding behavior and academic progress. It would be helpful if you could talk to your child about your hopes and expectations for him or her in our classroom. We need to find a way to be more thoughtful and considerate so everyone can do his or her best learning. Thanks.

Researching and Reading to Understand

We are into our fourth week of researching. The children are feeling as though they know quite a bit about their country and what it would be like to live there. Ask your child about that and see what s/he can tell you. They’ve explored habitats and landforms. They’ve looked into how and where people live. They’ve tried to find out what daily life is like, what schools are like and traditions and celebrations. Perhaps you’ll have time to explore information together to add to his or her understanding of that place in the world.

Many of the children are beginning to read more about their animals and the habitat it live in. To structure this research project a bit more than the last, the children have been given note-taking outlines and a deadline for each topic. Some children have used this as it was intended: to guide their thinking as they read. Others are using them as a checklist; skimming materials, hoping an answer will jump off the page or website. When they have not the children claim the information is not there. This has prompted some discussions about reading and inferring. For instance when a pages in a book about a country share some of the foods prepared for special occasions or holidays, it is safe to assume that those are foods special to the country you are researching. Some of the children are feeling a bit overwhelmed by the amount and challenge of the reading they must do for this project. I am proud of them for their stick-to-it-iveness. Elias brought in an electronic globe to share with the class. It shares a great deal of information about each country – just point the pen and listen. Thanks Elias.

Place Value and Efficient Strategies

This week we’ve practiced reading large numerals – into the millions and billions. It seems as though most of the children know how the numerals are grouped and read. We reviewed expanded notation and are learning how to put those steps together in using the standard algorithm. We’ve been exploring trading and regrouping through the use of base ten blocks. You can see from the work your child is bringing home that he or she is at the beginning stages of learning this strategy. A few of the children understand the value of each digit and can use this strategy in all situations. A few others feel comfortable with addition, but not subtraction. And still a few others understand when there is no trading or regrouping involved. Many have not yet taken the risk to try using the new strategy. They are okay using what they know. We’ll keep practicing.

In case you’re not sure of what I am referring to:

Expanded Notation                                                     Standard Algorithm  

1,376 + 3,604=                                                                            1

1,000 + 3,000 = 4,000                                                         1,376

300 + 600 = 900                                                               +  3,604

70 + 0 = 70                                                                            4,980

6+4= 10

4,000 + 900 + 70 +10 = 4,980

Bits and Pieces –

• The 100th day of school will be here in a few weeks. Again this year the school is working to collect food for the Seacoast Food Pantry. Each grade level is collecting a different food or self-care item. 3rd grade has been asked to collect dried fruit and small portion foods. Snack-sized might be a good way to describe the portions. Below is a photograph of some of the small-sized items we could supply.
• Our challenge with Mr. Caron this week helped us focus on self-awareness and self-management. It was a secret maze challenge that required observation and focus, as well as self-control. It was an important reminder of how we must all work together so that everyone in our class can succeed.
• The children have written some great blog posts. They would love to know you are reading them. It’s also been exciting to find that several of the children are writing posts at home as well.
• If you’re in the school and have a chance to visit the gallery outside our classroom, please do. The children have selected their best art and writing pieces to hang there.

Happy New Year! It sounds like you all had wonderful vacations. Your children certainly appreciated their time and the things they had the chance to do. They were glad for the time outside their routine. They do, however, seem glad to be back in school, and, now that we are at the end of our first week of 2016, are back in the groove.

There is a lot going on in 3E. We are exploring maps, mapping and global geography. We are learning more about magnets and the scientific process. We are working with money in math and applying what we know about multiplying by 5’s and 10’s. On top of that we are reading and researching, writing and creating.

Money and Math

As you can see from the papers in the back of the communication folder, we have been working with money in math. We’ve been totaling amounts and learning how money is written and recorded. Some of the children have developed a strategy of working from largest to smallest and have worked in steps, first totaling bills and then coins, with the final step being putting the two together. These children are most successful. Other children are starting with the smallest unit and working to add on. It is easy to get confused. Others are working to total the amounts as though they are reading a book – top to bottom, left to right. This is a logical strategy, but not always easy to combine and remember. And still others are working to find known groupings to reduce the amount of items to be. Often use of this strategy misses amounts in the final total. Most children know the value of the coins, but are not always able to recognize them on paper.

If you have the opportunity, you may want to ask your child what his or her strategy is for finding the totals. You may want to recommend a more efficient strategy. Please be aware that your advice may or may not be taken. (We’ve talked about this in class too.) If you have a collection of coins and/or bills your child could total, the concrete experience would provide great practice.

Some of the problems the children have worked on this week have really stretched their logical thinking. They had to move between amounts of coins and values of coins. This flexibility in thinking is tricky. As you look at your child’s work you may see a range of understanding. Some of the children were able to juggle this transition, others were almost there and still others, were baffled by what to do to solve the problem. We will keep working with money problems for the next few weeks so the children have a chance to develop their understanding of this duality – 5 nickels = $.25, 17 dimes = $1.70 or 32 quarters = $8.00.

Magnets in Science

We have been exploring magnets and magnetism. The children have all worked with five different experiments. They have worked to answer the question: Can you make a magnet? They have explored how like poles repel and opposite poles attract. They have discovered that magnetic fields can move through liquids and solids. They have tested the strengths of different types of magnets. And they have made magnetic chains. It is great fun to work with magnets and to explore magnets of different strengths. We have learned some can snap together with a pinch. We have learned that some are drawn together so quickly they actually break.

Our next task is to discover how magnetic fields work and influence our daily lives.

Maps and Global Geography

We have been drawing maps of our classroom and exploring the concept of bird’s eye view. It is interesting to see how the children try to take the perspective of someone “velcroed” to our classroom ceiling. Each child’s map shows the things s/he is oriented to in our classroom. A few of the finished maps are on the blog. All maps have titles, symbols, labels, a key, a compass rose and a scale. As we’ve tried to make sure our maps have those elements, we’ve met with varying degrees of success.

Most of the children have moved from researching their continents to their countries. The goal of this project is to gain greater awareness of both the differences and the similarities found in living around our world. One of the great challenges of this project is that resources are either quite simple or quite difficult. There are very few that are just right. The resources we have require the children to do a lot of inferencing. They have to draw logical conclusions based on their experiences. They are, after all, only 8 and 9. It is challenging to understand how living in Congo or Argentina or Scotland is different or the same from living here. Some of the pictures look just like here and some look VERY different. Again, if you have time to sit with your child and explore an atlas or online site about his or her “place in the world”, that would be great. Reading together and stopping to see what is understood or imagined would be something they would appreciate. We are doing thin in the classroom too – but one to seventeen means quite a bit of waiting. There is a site on the eboard – Culture Grams – that the children are aware of. Only some have had the opportunity to explore it you’d find that helpful at home.

As always, when I suggest things to do at home – please follow your child’s lead. If they want nothing to do with it, that is fine. It is likely that choosing one small thing to explore is best. Spending a short amount of time with just one thing will likely leave your child feeling supported, as if home and school are connected and that his or her learning is important. Doing too much may make your child feel discouraged and as though she or he isn’t capable. It is a tricky balance. Thank you for all you do!

Bits and Pieces –

• We have begun Part 2 of Wildwood. We are beginning to see which characters are good and which are bad. This book is a complex fantasy full of amazing words. Talk to your child about the predictions they are making about how the action will unfold.
• Our S.E.L. focus has been on choices for self-control, social decision making and self-monitoring. We read The Three Questions and are hoping the lessons shared their can guide our choices in how we work and learn together.
• We have a challenge with Mr. Caron on Tuesday. Weather permitting it will be outside so children should come prepared.