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WAY TO GO 3rd GRADE!!!!

2009-03-23T21:03:00.002-05:00

Reading TAKS results are in and we are WAY impressed! You guys did such an awesome job! Now lets continue working just as hard for the next few weeks getting ready for the math test! Last year it was kind of tricky so we are going to have to be smarter than the test! We know you guys can do it!

Ok, maybe we can get the rest of the class going on this blog adventure. Help your friends out if they get confused. We will go over it again at school. Don't let Mrs. KEEN forget!

Planets: We are starting to learn about the planets in our Solar System. What do you already know about Planets, especially the SUN???
Do you know the order from closest to the Sun to farthest away?
We will need to know this by the end. Maybe we can think of some fun ways to remember the order by.
Leave you thoughts and ideas....

Blogger tip:
You can keep track of the post I make by becoming a "follower" of the blog. It will then send you an e-mail letting you know there has been a post!

One down and one to go...

2009-03-09T13:19:00.003-05:00

YEAH! Our reading TAKS is behind us and now we can focus on the upcoming MATH TAKS!!! Please keep reviewing and practicing your strategies on your homework as well as on your math boxes. We have done so much this year in math and are starting to prepare on how to be great math test takers!

A few years ago you might have remembered a teacher here named Mrs. Dodson. Well the great thing about technology is being able keeping in touch with friends and family that may have moved away. Now being teachers we still like to share ideas with each other. She liked the idea of blogging so she started one for her students. It is SO cool!

Check it out! Mrs. Dodson's 3rd Grade

They actually interact and post comments or questions to postings that she has posted.
I thought this would be really neat for us to do. I know it's late in the year but I know it is never to late to start anything!

How to respond:
Create an e-mail address with your parents. Gmail, yahoo, and hotmail are all good and have parental controls to use for sercurity.
Once you have an e-mail address you can register as a "BLOGGER". This has no personal information unless you put it on there, so it is safe for all. Once you have registered then you can post comments and reply to others comments.

HERE WE GO....

Can you explain how addition and subtraction are connected? Do you have questions about this? If so post a response or question and see what your other classmates have to say...

TAKS here we come!

2009-02-23T20:04:00.002-06:00

The kids have been working so hard on preparing for the reading TAKS test next week! Ms. Ruth and Ms. Rowles have been working so hard to get the students ready to be successful on the test. Students should be using their reading strategies when reading as well as using and labeling their QAR strategies when answering questions on practice passages!

What is QAR you ask??

It stands for question, answer, and response. There are 4 types of questions that students have learned how to identify.

1. Right There (RT)-Questions where you can go directly into the passage and find the answer

2. Author and Me (AM)- this is the same thing as inferring. Taking information given in the text and what the student should already know (schema) and connecting those two to come up with a response. These are tricky and often times students don't even know they are inferring until they start thinking about the meaning as they are reading.

3. Think and Search (T+S)-This is where they might have to put different pieces of the story together to come up with the best answer. Summarizing a paragraph would be an example of this!

4. On my own-Questions that a child can respond with their own opinion or thoughts. The test will not have any of these on them.

2008-12-04T15:05:00.001-06:00

Don't know what to get your child's teacher?Need some suggestions for what to get your teacher friends?View our list below!

Classroom Items
Ziplock baggies
Labels
Magazine holders
Magnets
Paper towels
Children's books

Gift Cards
Walmart
Target
Kohl's
Dollar Tree
Half Price Books
Mardel/Teacher's Tools
Starbucks

Math Club

2008-10-29T09:04:00.011-05:00

Today was our first math club meeting.

THANK YOU parents for getting your kids involved in this. It was so awesome to see the line of cars waiting to get kids in the door at 7 AM this morning!!!!

WOW!

We had about 30 3rd graders and 80 students between 2-5th grade!!!

This will go on EVERY Wednesday until the end of the year, unless noted otherwise.

Please be aware that after 7:05 we will be already working hard on our math problems and doors will be closed.

What is math club anyway?

It is where students get to pick between a variety of problems to solve. Each problem varies in difficulty and they decide if it is a "Green" "Yellow" or "Red" problem.

Just like a stop light,

Green means it's easy breezy and can be done with no help.

Yellow means that it is a little more difficult but the student can understand it and plan a way to solve it with minimal help.

Red means WHOA! I don't even understand what the problem is asking me and the math seems really difficult.

Next Math Club: Wednesday November 5th!

Memoirs

2008-10-13T16:01:00.003-05:00

Reading and writing class has been quite memorable for us! In writing class we are discussing memories we have had and writing about them. We have talked about focusing our writing on one event, one memory that is meaningful to us. You learn many interesting things about a 3rd grader by the memories they write about! Memories are not always happy. We have discussed how some of our most memorable moments can be sad, embarrassing and even funny! When an author writes down a memory into a book, it is called a memoir. In reading class we have been reading published memoirs. Patricia Polacco and Tomie dePaola are two authors that we have been studying this year and which have published many memoirs. Polacco and dePaola write beautifully about their past memories. Reading a memoir is a great way to get to know an author you love- they are writing about themselves in their own life!
At home, talk to your child about memories YOU have- of your own childhood, and when they were little! Discuss memories they have too! And always, always encourage your child to read as much and as often as they can!

WATCH THIS....

2008-10-10T18:48:00.003-05:00

This is great for site to help understand what are kiddos are doing in class....

http://www.schultzcenter.org/mathvideos.shtml

"Adding by Place"

2008-09-24T18:09:00.004-05:00

Traditionally we were taught to line up our numbers and add. If it equaled more than ten, you carried the one and then added up that row. This method is definitely a way to solve a problem, especially if you have a sound understanding of place value. A lot of us would just do it because if we didn't do it that way it was wrong. It was also the only way we were taught which goes back to the old saying of "you do the best with what you know how to do". Research has shown that students come to us with their own understanding of math and it is our job to tap into their little brains and find out what works best for them.
Investigations teaches multiple ways for students to solve problems. It is also important for the teacher to understand various ways, so when a child is trying to explain how they are thinking of a problem we can accurately model and help the child communicate and visualize their thinking.

So a strategy that is helping students understand place value when adding numbers, is "Adding by place".
Example:
36+23=
Tens place 1st: 30+20=50
Once place 2nd: 6+3=9
Combine the two: 50+9=59

Now, of course this takes a little more time and there is always the "quick" way which is never discouraged. Educators have noticed it is sometimes too quickly introduced though before the student has a strong understanding of why they are "carrying that one". So this is just foundation work so when students get to numbers in the hundreds of thousands there is a stronger foundation in place value.
Hope this helps...

Addition Combinations

2008-09-11T13:15:00.008-05:00

The last few days we have worked with different addition combination strategies to help us remember our addition "facts" (as us old timers refer to them). It is important for students to have strategies to figure out problems. If a student only has their facts memorized and then later down the road forgets, how are they supposed to remember again? That is when they need to have a strategy!
Over the years we have become more comfortable with adding and subtracting numbers and therefor start learning and using strategies that work for us. So why not start getting our students to think this way, a way that took some of us until our adult years.

So addition combinations you say...
Here are the ones we worked on the last few days

These are for addition combinations up to 10+10, but later helps them when using larger numbers!

Doubles
Two numbers (addends) that are the same with an even sum.
Ex:
2+2=4
10+10=20

Near Doubles
Two addends with one addend one more (or one less depending on how you look at it) away from each other. The students uses their doubles (which they all know pretty well) to help them solve these types of combinations.
Ex:
2+2=4 (double)
2+3=5 (double +1)
or
2+1=3 (double -1)
One of the number increases or decreases by one.
You can even take this on to (doubles +/- 2)

Make 10 Combinations
This is when the two addends (numbers) sum equals 10! We love this strategy because it helps students when they start adding multiple large numbers at one time.
Ex:
1+9=10
2+8=10
3+7=10
Do you see the pattern?
A question we like to ask is:
Why is that pattern happening??

Plus 10 Combinations
Students learn these quickly but usually have a hard time explaining why. Plus Ten is when you add the number 10 to a single digit number.
10+1=11
10+2=12
A student might say that you just replace the zero with the number. So our question to them is:
Why does the number added "replace" the zero? We want them to understand that it is because of PLACE VALUE not "just because it just does" or magic! **wink**

Plus 9 Combinations
TRICKY TRICKY! is what we call this one, but it's really compensation and decomposing! Fancy words, but they will know them soon. It means taking apart a number and then giving some of it's parts to another number. This strategy is a favorite once the students get it down.
Ex:
9+6=
Well, 9 and 6 aren't the "Friendliest" of numbers. So to make this a more "Friendly" problem, it would be nice to have that 9 turn into a 10. So I'm going to decompose 6 into (5+1) and compensate (give to another number) the 1 to the 9. Now I have a new equation:
10+5=15
same as
9+ 6= 9+ (1+5) How familiar does that look???
9 + 1= 10
10 + 5 = 15

Some kids like to make it a 10 first and then subtract one after they are done with the equation. That is a great strategy, but they sometimes forget to subtract that 1 the added on after they got an answer.
Ex:
9+6
Student: 10 + 6 = 16 but I have to take away one because I added one to 9 earlier. So it's actually 15.
or
Student 9+6=15 because I took 1 away from the 6 and gave it to the 9 which made 10 and now the 6 is a 5. So 10+5=15.

OK, so that was the crash course on addition strategies for combinations up to 10+10! We hope this helps! Please let us know what we can do to help you at home with your child and our student! We are here to support you!

Comments

2008-09-11T13:15:00.000-05:00

Parents/Teachers,

If you would like to leave a comment about any of our postings or future postings you may do so by clicking "comment" at the end of each posting. You do not need a blogger account to do this. You may select "Open ID" to just leave your name with your comment.

Parent Orientation Slide Show!

2008-09-09T16:15:00.009-05:00

Tonight is our parent orientation at Freeman. If for some reason you were unable to make it, please scroll to the bottom of the blog to watch our slide show presentation. There will also be a hard copy sent home with your child.
**The slide show lets you pause and move forward from slide to slide if you move your cursor towards the bottom right hand corner of the actual slide show.

REMINDER:

*Please send back school information packets. This packet had 4 forms that need to be filled out.

1. Student Handbook form (most often forgotten but it is in the actual student handbook)
2. Two Registration forms
3. Directory Information Forms

* Tomorrow is College Shirt Day!

* Fundraiser information Packet will be coming home this Wednesday!

Tigerrrrr Time!

2008-09-04T08:15:00.004-05:00

Freeman loooooves Tiger Time!
As soon as kids get to school at 7:45 they go to the gym and get in their class lines. For 30 min. the kids get to sing, dance, and do stretching to get them warmed up and ready to go for the day! It really sets the tone for the rest of the day. As some students are still waking up, this gets their blood flowing and oxygen to the brain so they are ready to learn as soon as they get to the classroom.
Teachers also love Tiger Time because this is when we get a chance to work with students in different areas and a time we can be one-on-one or in small groups with them. Tiger Time is used for tutoring and testing so it doesn't interfere with our normal instruction time. This is why we ask your child be to on time to school, so not only do they get to participate in this event, they are also there if the teachers need to pull them for tutoring or testing.

Wednesdays are COLLEGE T-SHIRT Days!

2008-09-03T11:34:00.004-05:00

The Mission Statement for Carrollton-Farmers Branch ISD states that we will graduate every student college ready! So along those lines, and as a reminder, we encourage students to wear their favorite college t-shirt. If they don't have a favorite we try to help them learn about the different colleges out there by wearing our own or other favorites. We also listen to various college fight songs when students are coming in. You can usually find one or two teachers singing along!

So every Wednesday we encourage all students to wear a college t-shirt of choice. They need to be worn with uniform pants.

http://www.iamgoingtocollege.com/iam.html - This is a great resource for parents and students to start getting ready for college.
IT'S NEVER TOO EARLY !!!!

One week down!

2008-08-28T20:32:00.002-05:00

Well we've successfully finished our 1st week of school! We know the kids will enjoy their long weekend because we were working hard all week! We quickly got into our daily routines and started diving into our curriculum! Again, we can't tell you how impressed we are with these 3rd graders...they ROCK!

SAVE THE DATE!

Math Night
This year math night will be on Tuesday, October 14th in the evening. If you are new to Freeman or haven't been to math night yet, it is a lot of fun for the kids and they get to leave with games ready to play at home.

Parent Conferences
We wanted to let parents know that parent conferences will be starting in mid October. Your child's homeroom teacher will be sending a note home with more information when it gets a little closer. They are currently scheduled for October 21st and 23rd in the evenings. So mark your calendar ahead of time. We will coordinate a time with you

Thank you parents for signing the planners each night! It's an awesome communication tool and we love the students are demonstrating responsibility. We also use them to record homework, but sometimes time creeps away from us, so remember to also check the RED homework folders!

Welcome to Freeman Elementary 3rd Grade 2008-2009!

2008-08-27T15:35:00.002-05:00

This is the first blog we are posting and hope to start a trend for our school and maybe others! This will be a spot where you can see videos, pictures, and other exciting things we are doing in 3rd grade.

We have four teachers in our grade level this year. We "Team Teach" with a partner. While one is teaching math, science, and social studies to a group of students, the other is teaching Reading, Writing, and Spelling to different group.

Let us introduce ourselves...

Team Teachers:
Ms. Ruth-Team lead-ELA Teacher
Ms. Ferris-Math/Science Teacher

Team Teachers
Mrs. Rowles-ELA Teacher
Ms. Lenox-Math/Science Teacher

This year is already off to a great start and we are SUPER impressed with ALL of our students! They are very quick learners and have been excellent models for the younger grades with regards to behavior in the hallways and at lunch. We are SO PROUD of them and know you are as well.