This Week in 3L

This week, we will be reading Beauty and the Beast.  We will be having a reading assessment as well as a spelling test on Friday.  Our chapter two math test is also planned for this week.

Growth Mindsets!

Challenge Winner

Cam is the challenge winner this week! Way to go Cam!

Author's Purpose

Today, we read two great stories and looked for clues to find the author's point of view.

Questions to Start Great Conversations about School at Home

Looking for something specific to ask your child about school?
Here are a few questions from the week that can start a great family conversation.

What is mental math and why is it helpful?
How do you know to increase or decrease when rounding?
What is a mentor sentence or mentor paragraph?
What is the difference between first person and third person point of view?
What clues can help you to determine if a story is written in first person or third person?

NEW mental math strategy

Afvree came up with a NEW way to use mental math!

In class, we have been using multiple strategies to solve addition and subtraction problems with mental math.   Students often decompose a number into tens and ones.  For example, 96 is the same as 90 and 6.

Other students like to use what we call "Seldin's Strategy" where they recognized that adding 100 then taking away 4 is the same as adding 96.

Today, Ayvree discovered that we can decompose parts of numbers to do mental math!  For example, when solving 86 more than 95.  Looking at the 86:  instead of breaking it into tens and ones she decided to break apart the 6 into 5 and 1.  Then she looked at the 95.  She broke the 90 into 80 and 10.  She knew that 80 (from 86) plus 80 (from 95) is a doubles fact - 160.  Then she added the 5 (from the 6 ones in 85) to 95 to get 10.  Now she has 160 plus ten more is 170.  Lastly, she added the extra 11 that she had left (10 from 95 and 1 from the six ones in 86) to get 181. Great job trying something new!

Math Headbands

A great, and fun, way to practice math facts! Ask your child how to play!

Popcorn party!

This Week's Story

Hello everyone! This week, our class will be reading Goodbye 383 Shin Dang Dong.   It is only a four day week, but we will have a spelling test and shortened reading assessment on Thursday.

This week's challenge winner is...

Seldin! Way to go!

A special shout out to Cam, Caleb, Caden, and Ayvree for trying to challenge this week!

Book Order

Just a reminder to place your book orders online as soon as possible! Don't forget, every order earns free books for our class!

Math Test = No Grade

This year, I am trying something a bit different!  I will not be sending assessments home with grades formally written on them.  Instead, I will be providing each student with personalized feedback.  After each math test, students will receive their test back with two stars and a wish.  On this form, I will celebrate two great things that the student did and one thing that they can do better next time.  I will also put notes throughout the test to correct any misconceptions.  My decision for doing this is research based as students perform best when they receive feedback as opposed to a grade for their work.  You will easily be able to look through their test to gage how they did and you can of course email or call me at any time if you would like to know the grade that I record for each assignment.    As always, please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions or concerns!

Thank you!

A big thank you to all of the families that were able to attend our ice cream social last night and to the PTA for sponsoring such a fun event!  If you were not able to attend and set up a conference time, I will be sending home some time options to you soon.

Reminder: Ice Cream Social is TONIGHT

Just a friendly reminder that our third grade ice cream social is tonight! I hope to see everyone there!

Math Test Tuesday

Just a friendly reminder that our chapter one math test will be this Tuesday.  See below for a snapshot of the chapter review.

And the winner is...

Caleb!!

Way to go to the following students for trying this week's math challenge:
Ayvree
Cameron
Ady
Bella
Madison
Marlee
Caden

A few of our math anchor charts

We all scream for ice cream!

Common and proper noun search

Book Order

Don't forget to place your book order by September 29th.  Remember, with every purchase we earn books and supplies for our class!

AR is back!

Math challenge winner!

Makayla with the math trophy!

Math Fun!

Challenge Winner...

This week's challenge winner is... Makayla! Way to go!

Thanks to all the students listed below for demonstrating a growth mindset and giving the challenge a try! Remember - you have to train your brain! Doing challenges and making mistakes helps your brain to grow!


Caleb
Isabel
Marlee
Cameron
Ayvree
Makayla
Madison
Caden
Seldin
Lillian

NWEA Testing

Over the next few days, our class has NWEA testing.  Please be sure to get lots of rest the night before and eat a healthy breakfast! Most importantly, remember - all you need is a growth mindset!

Great article about the power of reading

Please click below for a great article about the power of reading. 

Brain on Reading

Growth Mindsets

Today in 3L, students learned about the power of positive thinking and growth mindsets.  We learned that making mistakes is okay! In fact, failure is just another word for growing. We also talked about the fact that challenges help your brain grow, even if you don't get them correct! After watching several fun clips about growth and fixed mindsets, students created mini books that they can refer to throughout the year to help them keep a growth mindset.  If you think you can do something, you will! Most importantly, it's okay to not know YET!

Great first day!

Today was a wonderful day in 3L! Everyone was safe, respectful, and responsible.  We created our class rules, played a few getting to know you games, and went over lots of new policies / routines.  I can already tell that it is going to be a great year!

Below our the rules that our class came up with for 3L.