Writing Day

Today we celebrated Writing Day.  The children have worked hard to earn 20 magnets, and voted to have a day where we write all day long!  They did an incredible job building their writing stamina, and enthusiastically writing for the whole day.

Here is the website for The Exquisite Corpse.  This is not as morbid as it sounds!  Read the explanation, and then read or listen to the stories created by some very famous authors.

Here are two videos of the children participating in this activity. The first shows the children hard at work.  The second shows them reading their stories after all of the other students had added their parts. As you can see, they were quite engaged, and really enjoyed the activity.

Later in the day we read The Mysteries of Harris Burdick by Chris van Allsburg.  The children then wrote stories to go along with the pictures in the book.  Here are some pictures of the children creating their masterpieces.

Here is Chris van Allsburg website, where you can find all kinds of information including books he has written and videos of him discussing his books.

Happy New Year!

Welcome back!  We have had a terrific start to the new year.  The students seem rested and ready to learn new things. 

We have started a new unit in math.  The following are the vocabulary terms needed for the next two units:

division:  the operation that tells how many equal groups there are or how many are in each group.

dividend:  the number to be divided

divisor:  the number by which another number is divided

quotient:  the answer to a division problem

The standards that we will be covering include:

3.OA.A.2.Use models to solve division problems involving sharing and record solutions using division number sentences

3.OA.A.3  Use multiplication and division facts to find the value of an unknown in an equation

3.OA.B.6  Use multiplication tables to solve division problems

3.OA.B.6 Relate multiplication and division facts by using fact families

3.OA.O.3  Write and solve number stories involving division

3.OA.D.8  Solve multi-step problems

The children are very excited to be starting division.  It is important that we continue to help them master their multiplication facts as this will obviously help them with these units, as well as build a strong foundation for future math work.  To that end, I have switched all students to multiplication on Xtramath.  We have also started very focused individual fact practice. Children should be reviewing their specific flashcards each evening.

I have sent home a new math game that should help with this goal, as well.  Look for "Winter Cover It" in your child's folder.  Enjoy!