Snapshot for 1-29-18

Here is this week's snapshot if  you are unable to get the e-mails. You can download the *.pdf file by clicking beneath the snapshot picture the below. All snapshots will be available in *.pdf form on the "Weekly Snapshots" page {here} once they are sent out and posted!

Click {here} to direct download this week's snapshot!

Week of: January 29, 2018

Dear Parents,

We have a lot coming up these next few weeks of school! Due to our mock STAAR testing days Monday, January 29 and Tuesday, January 30, we will not have lunch visitors. Lunch visitors will resume Wednesday, January 31. We will be offering after school tutorials Monday and Tuesday this week, but we know that with the practice STAAR, some of our kiddos may be burned out! Please let us know if you would not like your child to attend tutorials due to testing this week. Please see the list of dates below for what we have going on at school over the next few weeks as well as dues dates for next week’s scheduled homework.

Upcoming Dates
Monday, January 29	3rd Grade Mock STAAR – math *no lunch visitors
	Explorers
	3rd Grade will offer tutorials for those who would like to attend after a long day of Mock STAAR Math
Tuesday, January 30	3rd Grade Mock STAAR – reading *no lunch visitors
	3rd Grade will offer tutorials for those who would like to attend after a long day of Mock STAAR Reading
	SPIRIT NIGHT at Jason’s Deli in Rowlett
Tuesday, January 30	GISD Tech Fest!  Come out, have some free pizza, and learn about the technology opportunities offered to students in GISD!  Help our campus win two free robots!
Wednesday, January 31	1 1’s Timed Test
Friday, February 2	Unit 4 Science Test
Monday, February 5	Tutorials
	Explorers
Tuesday, February 6	Tutorials
Friday, February 9	Spirit Stick Sales

Upcoming Assignment due dates
Thursday, February 1	Math Classwork: Griddable worksheet
Tuesday, February 6	Science Classwork: Planets Reading Passage and Questions
HOMEWORK: Monday, January 29	Math homework: Countdown to the Math STAAR, Series 1 P7 and subtraction with regrouping {front and back} Science homework: Unit 7 Guided Practice and Unit 7 Check for Understanding {front and back}
HOMEWORK: Wednesday, February 7	Math homework: {front and back} Science homework: Unit 15 Guided Practice and Check for Understanding {front and back}

*number of classwork assignments may change throughout the week based on classroom needs

THIS WEEK IN MATH:

This week we are learning about equality and inequality.  We will be focusing on equations, exploring how to make equal products using different factors.  This is a building block toward our next unit on fractions.  It will help your child understand how to compare the value of fractions.  We will also explore how to make equal amounts using various addition and subtraction facts.

Key to Success - Mastery of multiplication facts is very important, as we are using this skill extensively and in more complicated ways.  Students who do not know their facts are losing their place in problems. 

Please consider setting aside time to practice multiplication facts if you aren’t already.

Math Resources to Help at Home

Xtra Math - We have a new resource to use! Your child has their own account where they are able to log in and practice math facts at home! I currently have it set up to practice only multiplication facts as we work on the last few factors for our timed tests. It starts by giving a placement quiz and then working on the facts that your child struggles with. The goal is to get smiley faces (which means the question is answered in 3 seconds or less, close to the average amount of time it would take on our timed tests). Flyers for this will be going home next week, but if you would like your child’s PIN number early, please let me know and I can email it! I have seen a few kiddos that have been using it and growing already!

Division Math Practice – In this drag racing game, your child can practice division facts while racing against the computer or other players.

Students in third grade must master their multiplication facts with automaticity.  This means they are to recall these facts quickly.  Each Tuesday, we have a two minute test over the facts we have studied for the previous week. We will have our timed multiplication test Wednesday, January 31 over 11s through the twelfth multiple. Next Tuesday, February 6, we will test over 12s.

SKILL PRACTICE WEBSITES

Free Training Tutorial - Division - This link will take you to the division page. If you would like to practice other skills with your child, you can search through them on the website’s home page.

Regrouping is definitely a skill that needs to be reviewed often in addition and subtraction.  Many of our students are showing a need for this.  Under Subtraction, there is a two-digit with regrouping basketball game that would be a great practice if your child wants to strengthen this skill.

That Quiz  - Under Integers, click Arithmetic.  Adjust length, level, and time as needed.  Click the box for multiplication to let your child practice their facts.

Multiplication – Lots of free and entertaining games to practice multiplication facts.

Education Galaxy – Use the skills practice section for math to practice multiplication facts.

Turtle Diary Division Games - Use these games to practice division and multiplication facts. Change the topics or grade level to review different skills, or bump up to a more challenging level!

 

THIS WEEK IN SCIENCE:

In science this week, we will be starting the Sun and Planets. Our focus will be on the order of the planets in the solar system and their relation to the Sun. The kids will be creating their own mnemonic devices to remember the order of the planets this week. We will also be scaling down the solar system and looking at the scaled down sized of the planets and their scaled down distances.

We will continue working on our STEAMposium balloon powered cars throughout the week and continue using the Engineering Design Process to assist us in this challenge.

Thank you so much to everyone who sent recycled materials! It has been such a great help! We quickly ran out of plastic bottle caps. If anyone has any at home in the recycle bin or trash can that you would not mind saving and sending, we would greatly appreciate it!

PRACTICE AT HOME

One of the things we will be doing this week is looking at the order of the planets from the Sun and each other on a smaller scale. We will be using different sizes spheres (marbles, soccer balls, and basketballs) to represent different planets and see how far they are from each other and the Sun.

RESOURCES FOR PRACTICE

Study Jams - Our Solar System: Inner Planets – View the slide show on the inner planets, and test yourself over various inner planet questions. You can also look at other Study Jams on solar system related topics {here}.

Study Jams - Our Solar System: Outer Planets – View the slide show on the inner planets, and test yourself over various inner planet questions. You can also look at other Study Jams on solar system related topics {here}.

Discovery Education – There is a large supply of video, interactive learning, questions, and an interactive glossary for vocabulary that is always helpful for whatever we are learning in science.  All content in this resource is searchable.

E-Learning for Kids - Planets– Complete your mission by traveling through different games and practices, like ordering the planets. You get to be the captain in this space game!

Explore the Planets – Practice putting the planets in order using a mnemonic device! After you have ordered the planets, take the short 4 question quiz at the end. Pluto is still included as a planet, so just keep that in mind!

Planet Memory Game – Practice the names and recognizing the planets in this Planet version of memory through National Geographic Kids’ website. Choose your skill level and start playing!

Thank you so much for your dedication to helping your child learn.

Sincerely,

Xtra Math

Last night while I was perusing my list of 3rd Grade math and science blogs, I came upon a post from 3rd Grade Thoughts. She wrote about an online Math program that focuses on math facts! It's called Xtra Math and it's FREE! I set up a teacher account this evening and have played around in it a bit before setting up all of our kiddos. They each have their own PIN number (which I will send home either this week or next week) and are set up to start working on multiplication facts! If you would like to start working before I send everyone's paper home, send me an email and I will pass along your child's login info.



After logging in, a Placement Quiz opens for your child to be assessed and see what facts need to be practiced.

Throughout the placement quiz (and later during the practices), a timer at the bottom of the screen moves along to tell you if you are answering questions quickly, taking a little extra time, or letting time slip away.

If the answer is correct, a new fact pops up.

If the answer is incorrect or if too long is taken, the answer shows grayed out. A blue hour glass also comes onto the screen if too long has passed before the question is being answered.

To try and match the speed of our timed test, the smiley face on the timer is set to 3 seconds, which is very close to the average amount of time needed to spend on a problem to answer all questions on our timed tests.

If your child gets to school early enough in the mornings {by 7:30} on Tuesday, Wednesday or Thursday I can stop by the gym and grab them so they can work on Xtra Math on the computers in the room. 

Hopefully, this resource is one that you are able to use at home! 

Partial Product Finder

Last week, we started taking a more in depth look at multiplying by 2 digit numbers and what the distributive property looks like. We have been focusing on breaking our 2 digit numbers up by their place values and having a group for the tens place and a group for the ones place.

Jennie Kottmeier has some really good {and FREE} properties of multiplication posters that you can get {here}. This is what the distributive property looks like.

7 is broken up into 5 and 2. Then, 5 is multiplied by 4 and 2 is multiplied by 4. 5x4=20 and 2x4=8. 20 and 8 are the partial products that area added together to get 28.

Last night, as I was searching the web for math fact practices, I came across a web app through Math Learning Center. They have so many great {FREE} apps that can be used on the computer as a web app or on a tablet as a downloadable app!

Their newest app that they are still in the process of building is a {drum roll, please!} partial product app! You can change the factors in the problem and move the arrows at the side of the array to change the distribution of numbers in the problem.

It also tells you the new multiplication equation for each section of the array, what the partial products for each section are, and the total after all of the partial products are added together. This is EXACTLY on of the strategies we have been working on!

They have several other free math apps that can be used on the web or downloaded onto a tablet. Number Pieces and Number Line are some good apps for practicing different operations. Check out their other math apps {here}.

I hope you find this resource useful! :)

Snapshot 1-22-18

Here is this week's snapshot if  you are unable to get the e-mails. You can download the *.pdf file by clicking beneath the snapshot picture the below. All snapshots will be available in *.pdf form on the "Weekly Snapshots" page {here} once they are sent out and posted!

Beginning this upcoming {Friday, January 26}, Mrs. Castle and I are going to start implementing a new incentive plan! Students who complete all assignments that are due that week with high quality will be able to choose to visit Mrs. Castle's room for free reading time, or my room for math/science activity time. Mrs. Castle and I will switch off every other week and host Fun Fridays in our classrooms during lunch.

Click {here} to direct download this week's snapshot!

Week of: January 22, 2018

Dear Parents,

We have a lot coming up these next few weeks of school! Due to our mock STAAR testing days Monday, January 29 and Tuesday, January 30, we will not have lunch visitors. Lunch visitors will resume Wednesday, January 31. Please see the list of dates below for what we have going on at school over the next few weeks as well as dues dates for next week’s scheduled homework.

Upcoming Dates
Monday, January 22	Monday Tutorials begin (3:30 – 4:00)
Monday, January 22	Explorers begin (4:00 – 5:00)
Tuesday, January 23	9s Timed Test
Tuesday, January 23	Unit 7 & 8 Social Studies Curriculum Assessment
Tuesday, January 23	Tuesday Tutorials begin (3:30 – 4:00)
Wednesday, January 24	Class Group Pictures
Monday, January 29	3rd Grade Mock STAAR – math *no lunch visitors
Tuesday, January 30	3rd Grade Mock STAAR – reading *no lunch visitors

Upcoming Assignment due dates
Tuesday, January 23	Math Classwork: Exploring Multiplication with Base Ten Blocks
Wednesday, January 24	Math Classwork: Going Bananas for Multiplication
Friday, January 26	Science Investigations/Classwork: Sheep in a Jeep investigation tables and conclusions finished
HOMEWORK: Monday, January 22	Math homework: Countdown to the Math STAAR, Series 1 P5 and P6 {front and back} Science homework: Unit 6 Vocabulary/Unit 7 Guided Practice {front and back}
HOMEWORK: Monday, January 29	Math homework: Countdown to the Math STAAR, Series 1 P7 and subtraction with regrouping {front and back} Science homework: Unit 7 Guided Practice and Unit 7 Check for Understanding {front and back}

*number of classwork assignments may change throughout the week based on classroom needs

 

THIS WEEK IN MATH:

We are continuing one digit by two digit multiplication.  Your child has learned quite a few different methods for multiplying.  They are being encouraged to work the problem using two different methods because checking by doing the problem the same way twice often leads to making the same mistake twice.  Some of these methods are the traditional algorithm, using the distributive property and partial products, the partial products box, the traditional set up with partial products, and base 10 notation with partial products.  This week, we revisit rounding as we learn to estimate to multiply numbers.

**Showing Work: Please double check to make sure your child is showing their work on their math homework.

Students have gotten much better at showing work on classroom assignments, but a reminder from home will help to reinforce that justifying our answers is an expectation.

Math Resources to Help at Home

Division Math Practice – In this drag racing game, your child can practice division facts while racing against the computer or other players.

Students in third grade must master their multiplication facts with automaticity.  This means they are to recall these facts quickly.  Each Tuesday, we have a two minute test over the facts we have studied for the previous week. We will have our timed multiplication test Tuesday, January 23 over 9s through the twelfth multiple. Next Wednesday, February 1, we will test over 11s.

SKILL PRACTICE WEBSITES

Free Training Tutorial - Division - This link will take you to the division page. If you would like to practice other skills with your child, you can search through them on the website’s home page.

Regrouping is definitely a skill that needs to be reviewed often in addition and subtraction.  Many of our students are showing a need for this.  Under Subtraction, there is a two-digit with regrouping basketball game that would be a great practice if your child wants to strengthen this skill.

That Quiz  - Under Integers, click Arithmetic.  Adjust length, level, and time as needed.  Click the box for multiplication to let your child practice their facts.

Multiplication – Lots of free and entertaining games to practice multiplication facts.

Education Galaxy – Use the skills practice section for math to practice multiplication facts.

Turtle Diary Division Games - Use these games to practice division and multiplication facts. Change the topics or grade level to review different skills, or bump up to a more challenging level!

 

THIS WEEK IN SCIENCE:

In science this week, we will finish our unit on force and motion. We will continue looking at pulling, pushing and gravity, as well as magnetism as the types of forces we are studying.

We will start working on our STEAMposium balloon powered cars on Tuesday this week! We will be looking at the engineering design process, walking through the steps of the engineering design process, and coming up with design plans and ideas for creating a working balloon powered car.

We will be needing recyclable materials to make our balloon powered cars. Any materials that you have at home that could be sent would be greatly appreciated. As of now, we have enough materials for about half of one class.

PRACTICE AT HOME:

One of the activities we did in during our first week of force and motion was walking around the room and placing a sticky note on objects that we thought used a push or pull, then we discussed it as a group. This could be done as just a discussion on the way home from school, with different objects around the house, at the grocery store, etc. The kids notice several of our science topics at lunch and can’t wait to share their observations!

RESOURCES FOR PRACTICE

Science Kids - Force in Action– Using a car on a track, test out different slopes, weights and parachutes to see what it takes to get the truck to the end of the ramp. There is even a place to record your observations on a table! You can find the full list of science games on their homepage {here}.

Study Jams - Force and Motion – Play the video on force and motion, and test yourself over various force and motion questions. There are also other videos and slideshows that talk about other areas related to force and motion (Newton’s laws, simple machines, gravity and inertia) that you can find {here}.

Education Galaxy – On the top right, have your child go up one level on the drop down menu. Then go to My Study Plan and choose science.  Practice Force.

Discovery Education – There is a large supply of video, interactive learning, questions, and an interactive glossary for vocabulary that is always helpful for whatever we are learning in science.  All content in this resource is searchable.

Balloon Powered Car Game - This is a downloadable game from PBS Kids that lets kids create a virtual balloon powered car! The game walks you through creating your car with different materials of different sizes, then testing your car to see the distances your car traveled based on the materials and sizing of the materials used.

Thank you so much for your dedication to helping your child learn.

Sincerely,