Idiom Fun

It is raining cats and dogs?

You are in a pickle now.

What is an idiom?  If you are not sure... be sure to ask a third grader!  Below are some fun idiom pictures we completed to help us learn some common idioms.

Area and Perimeter People

We did a quick review of area and perimeter to start the new year.  Students were told to think like Legos and Minecraft and create a creative block person on centimeter grid paper.  After designing their person, they then had to calculate its area in square centimeters and perimeter in centimeters.  We had some great looking final products! 

Goals for the New Year

Setting goals is an important part of learning to make ourselves better.  Third graders have been busy setting goals and writing about them for the second half of the school year.  They are in the process of publishing these on our KidBlog page. 

Take a few minutes to check them out and leave them a comment at:

http://kidblog.org/2014-15KidBlog/

It is 2015!

Welcome back and Happy 2015!  As we start 2015 in our classroom we will be focusing on the reading strategy of “Close Reading.”  Close reading asks readers to use multiple strategies while reading the same text three different times.  We read first to get the gist of the selection.  We then read it a second time to dig a little deeper, and then finally a third reading to put it all together.  We will definitely put our brains back to work after our vacation!  In math we will be starting a unit on multiplication and division.  You can help your child by practicing their multiplication facts (0-10) at home with the fact triangles I sent home at fall conferences.  We will also start a science unit that will focus on simple machines.  Finally during this second part of the year we will introduce “Genius Hour” as a weekly time for us to practice our research skills and explore topics that interest each individual.  Students will study a topic and then create a project of some type to share their learning with their classmates.  Here’s to a wonderful start to 2015!

Hour of Code- Computer Science Week 2014

This week we celebrate the Hour of Code in honor of Computer Science Week 2014.  Technology has become such an important part of our society.  Coding is just the language of computers.  It allows us to program computers, robots, etc. to do what we want.  We are very lucky that our technology curriculum will focus on coding during the next few months.  It is great to see the students thinking, planning, and problem-solving as they work with code.  Below is a clip from President Obama reminding us how important coding is.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JDw1ii7aKwg&feature=youtu.be

On Monday this week we introduced coding and did paper and pencil coding using cup stack problems by Thinkersmith.

The rest of the week we used a website by Code.org that allowed us to work through coding challenges.

On Friday Mr. Withers's (Mrs. Kerian's student teacher) fiancee who is a computer science major in college visited our classroom.  She helped us use the app Tynker on our iPads to practice more coding.  It was great fun and we appreciate her taking time to visit our classroom and share with us.

Perhaps we have the next coding genius in our classroom.........

Math can taste good!

Today we continued to explore measurement by completing "Fruit Roll Math."  It allowed us explore how inches and centimeters explore as well as other measurement conversions.  Enjoy the following pictures....  Math can be very delicious!

Measurement Fun!

In math we are currently working on measuring in both centimeters and inches.  This is a great thing to practice at home also.  Give your child a ruler and send them on a hunt around the house to find different sizes of objects.  We are also working on more precise measurements, so in 3rd grade our math "I Can" statements are:

I can measure to the nearest half centimeter.

I can measure to the nearest half inch.

I can measure to the nearest quarter inch.

Another great thing to be reviewing with your child is measurement conversions.  They should know the following ones.

·      Measurement Concepts to Know

o   12 inches = 1 Foot

o   36 inches =1 Yard

o   3 Feet= 1 Yard

·      10 millimeters = 1 centimeter

·      100 centimeters = 1 meter

·      1 day = 24 hours

·      1 hour= 60 minutes

·      1 minute= 60 seconds

·      1 year = 52 weeks

·      1 year= 365 days (except on Leap Year!)

·      1 decade = 10 years

·      1 century = 100 years

We are also continuing to work on our basic math facts.  In the picture below students are using Moby Max Fact Master (online program) to practice the facts they are currently working on.  Students should know their addition, subtraction, and multiplication facts by the end of 3rd grade.  They should be able to solve them accurately and quickly (within 3-5 seconds).  

Thanks for all your help at home.  I'm blessed to work with your child!