We have had another great week of working and thinking together. We are thinking about “how we are smart” as we learning about the Theory of Multiple Intelligence and growth mindset. The week’s trip to the zoo was wonderful. The weather was glorious. The animals were stunning and your children were fabulous and respectful zoo visitors. It was interesting to note how many of the animals at the zoo are endangered and threatened. The children are curious about that and feel that it is one of the “pros” for having zoos.

Habitat Studies

            One of our main science explorations in third grade is learning about habitats and biomes around the world. We explore microhabitats as well, with our goal being to help children become more aware of the power and impact of one person and one act. We’ll explore food webs and food chains as we think about how everything is related.

While at the zoo we saw a group of animals from Australia and animals from the Serengeti Plain in Africa. We saw animals from the Rainforest and lots of birds from all over, with some snakes and lizards as well. We’ll use what we saw at the zoo to begin a list of questions to guide our learning so we can understand how each of us can make the world a better place.

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 read picture book biographies about Snowflake Bentley, Abraham Dee Bartlett, Patricia Polacco, and Alan Rabinowitz, and Jane Goodall. As we read we tried to connect anecdotes from the stories with the different ways we are smart.   We discovered it is more challenging to recognize some of the intelligences because they are ways of thinking. They don’t easily show on the outside. As we’ve been reading, we’ve been thinking about our interests and strengths. We completed a questionnaire that might help us see how we are smart in all eight ways. We are looking forward to discovering more about ourselves and all the ways we are smart.

Understanding Multiplication and Arrays

            We began the year learning about multiplication. We have been exploring it through repeated addition. Most of the children understand how multiplication represents repeated grouping. When they select their 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 – turn around facts, as they call them. 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 and 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.

Bits and Pieces –

• Our first challenge with Mr. Caron will be September 29th. It will be outside on the nature trail weather permitting.
• Thank you to Alison Duffy, Chris Harwood, Nicole Smith and Marianne von Jess for joining us at the zoo. We hope you enjoyed you day.
• Thank you to the Pattows and the Rochfords for snacks and disinfectant wipes for our classroom.