Week in Review: October 22-26

In honor of International Children's Week, we spent most of our language arts time this week researching China, enjoying a visit from two guest speakers about China, and creating a Google Drawing to show what we learned about China. We also began to discuss the difference between personal narratives and expository texts, which is our next unit in reading and writing. Next week, we will begin writing an expository piece and learning how reading non-fiction is different from reading fiction.

We wrapped up our unit on energy with a couple of fun activities. Ask your child about their energy robot they designed, or the spider they made with Mrs. Swyers class. Students had a test on Thursday over the energy unit and next we move on to one of my favorite units, Changes to the Earth's Surface. We will learn about landslides, earthquakes and volcanoes! We still have not tested our solar ovens, but it looks like we have enough sun to do those next week as well.

In math, we are working on our 4s and 8s facts. Students learned the "double double" strategy to help with their 4s and the "double double double" strategy to help with their 8s. Below is an example so you will know what they are talking about if they mention it!

7 X 4 can be thought of as double 7 is 14 and double 14 is 28 so 7 X 4 is 28.
3 X 4 can be thought of as double 3 is 6 and double 6 is 12 so 3 X 4 is 12.

5 X 8 can be thought of as double 5 is 10, double 10 is 20, and double 20 is 40 so 5 X 8 is 40.
6 X 8 can be thought of as double 6 is 12, double 12 is 24, and double 24 is 48 so 6 X 8 is 48.

This year is flying by so fast....did you know there are only 3 school weeks until Thanksgiving break now? I hope you all have a great weekend!

Week in Review: October 15-19

This week in science we continued our study of energy with a focus on heat energy. We did a class demonstration with food coloring in hot water and cold water to observe how quickly molecules move based on temperature. Students also worked in small groups to build solar ovens, and if we ever have sunny weather again, we will use them to make s'mores.

Testing the effect of temperature on the speed of molecule movement

Building solar ovens

We wrapped up our unit on poetry in language arts. Over the last 3 weeks, students have written at least seven or eight poems and this week they chose two to publish final copies of. These will be posted on the bulletin board outside our classroom for all to enjoy. We ended the unit with a district common assessment based on the entire first quarter of instruction. It is hard to believe that we are already one fourth of the way through the school year!

In math, we are continuing our study of multiplication. Students have learned how to represent multiplication with arrays, equal groups, and jumps on a number line. We have learned the tens, fives, and twos facts and next week we will extend into the fours and eights facts.

Observing different ways to represent multiplication

There are lots of events coming up next week. On Tuesday we will have a presentation from a parent about China in honor of International Children's week. We will go to a school-wide assembly celebrating this week on Friday afternoon. And do not forget that Thursday evening from 6 to 8 p.m. is our International Children's Fair family night. You may also want to mark your calendar for Tuesday October 30th at 6:30 p.m. which is the third grade choir program. I will look forward to seeing everyone there!