Alphasmarts and Friday Folders

I hope you enjoyed reviewing the work that was sent home in the Friday Folder. We completed our unit on Subtraction up to 10,000.  Students were highly successful with the final assessment.  Please let me know if you have any questions after reviewing your child’s work. I also sent home the extension work your child completed during the unit. It is wonderful to see more third graders challenging themselves. During this unit we wanted to cultivate alternate strategies, even while we are developing fluency with a few specific strategies. We continually ask children to consider many possible strategies that will work to solve problems. Even though the US standard algorithms for multi-digit addition and subtraction are often very effective, there are times when other strategies are far more efficient.  Students should seldom solve 5,000-99 using the US standard algorithm. The amount of complicated regrouping makes this method particularly tedious in such a situation.  Far more effective is the compensating strategy, whereby children subtract 100 instead of 99 and then compensate for the surplus subtraction by adding 1 back on.  We have worked to cultivate such strategies throughout the unit.  


We began a unit on bar modeling.  Drawing bar models allows students to visualize and construct concrete pictures to help them make sense of the relationship between the values given in the real-world problems.  It requires students to understand the mathematical concepts underlying the world problems and equips them with a strong conceptual foundation in mathematics to solve real-world problems.  I am amazed by how well third graders solved complex problems using the bar model to guide their thinking. Our next unit is on multiplication.  This is a great time to start practicing multiplication facts at home to gain automaticity. 

Third graders have been busy writers these past few weeks.  Their true stories are really beginning to develop and become beautiful pieces of writing.  I notice the amount of time students can sustain independent writing increases daily.  We recently wrote for 35 minutes and many students wanted to keep writing!  After finishing a complete first draft of their personal narrative, third graders decided on the most important part of their story and then zoomed in on that one moment.  It was exciting to hear the quality of their writing improve after they zoomed in on the heart of their story.  Students then typed their stories on the alpha-smarts.  They loved putting their keyboarding skills to use as they typed up their writing!  We also used an editing checklist during which students read their story multiple times, looking for different mechanics such as capitalization and punctuation. They worked with writing partners to make big and important changes. We spent time in the E&P Lab this week receiving direct instruction about how to use Google Drive for word processing.  We talked about different formatting techniques such as changing font size and margins.  Students will use this knowledge throughout the year as they publish their writing. We will have a writing celebration next week.  

 

Lowry Nature Center

Despite the rain, we had a wonderful time at the Lowry Nature Center.  Third graders took a hike in the woods looking for animal signs, learned about the differences between amphibians and reptiles, and then met some amphibians and reptiles.  They also learned about the Dakota and Ojibwe and participated in a traditional game.  I would like to thank the parents who joined us on the field trip!  It was a wonderful day for our third grade community.

Weaving

  All lower school art students are working with Chiaki O'Brien, Blake's 2015 McGuire Visiting artist. Chiaki is an expert in the Japanese Saori method of weaving. The Saori philosophy emphasizes weaving where the outcome is highly individualized. There are no mistakes! Everyone's work is honored and celebrated. Each third grade artist learned how to weave using their own floor loom. All of the student's work will become part of a collaborative piece of art that will be displayed in the lower school. It should be fun for each weaver to look for and locate his or her contribution.