* Conferences: Please note that I will be holding conferences on Saturday the 23rd! I had mentioned at curriculum night that I may not be here, but I will be! Please fill up those time slots if that Saturday is easier on your schedule. I greatly appreciate efforts to back-to-back time slots, as well!
I'm really looking forward to conference times! They will be student-led (please bring your child!) with a set-aside time at the end if there is a need to talk as an adult team while the student plays some games in the hallway.
Multiplication and Division Update:Our classroom has jumped in head first! We are surrounding ourselves with multiplication and division. We are doing number talks, whole group lessons, activities, problem solving and learning many new strategies . Multiplication and Division is a major third grade topic and we will be studying it throughout the year. Here are the three big ideas we are currently working in: 1. Fact Fluency : Memorizing multiplication facts! (once we have these memorized, we can use fact family knowledge to quickly learn division facts). 2. Conceptual Understanding: Digging deep to understand the meaning behind multiplication and division. We are sharing our own thinking during number talks and then reaching to understand the way others think and process, as well. We are learning about models, equations, fact families, and strategies for multipying and dividing. 3. Problem Solving: We are learning about how to determine when multiplication and division can be used to solve a problem, and then employing strategies to solve problems. We even wrote our own problems and had friends solve them! How you can help at home: - Purchase multiplication and division games and play as a family! Check out Blue Highway Games in Queen Anne. -Listen to multiplication and division songs on YouTube. They are quite annoying after some time, and also quite effective for memorizing facts! -Stop and share how you use multiplication and division every day. -Use the Library Resource page to find many high-quality games to teach and reinforce these skills. ALSO: I have uploaded more mini lesson videos under the Mini Lesson tab. Watch them at home with your kids and check their understanding! Our Round the Schoolyard Multiplication games! | Mystery Writing!Students are so excited and totally absorbed in writing their mystery fiction stories! Here are the highlights of this unit: 1. We read and studied many books by Chris Van Allsburg, keeping a list of the writing strategies that he uses. 2. We studied important story elements, drawing a picture of a mountain to illustrate the path our stories take. The exposition starts the western slope, the rising action carries up to the peak (climax), then the falling action takes us down the eastern slope to the resolution. 3. We planned our stories with graphic organizers to outline important events. Students developed characters and settings, as well. They studied "mystery words" and selected 3-5 they will incorporate in their writing. 4. Students conferenced with an adult sharing their story plans to make sure they had a solid plan. 5. We learned strategies for writing a "hook" and looked at Chris VanAllsburg's books for examples. 6. Students hurried off to computers, wrote their "hook" and are now developing their mysteries. 7. The final part of this writing project will require students to read their story aloud while recording themselves using the Photobooth application. We will learn storytelling and read-aloud strategies to make these oral storytelling performances really engaging. 8. Students will upload their typed stories, as well as their oral storytelling videos to their websites and publish for their audience! We will share these accomplishments at an upcoming Writer's Celebration :) Reading: The One and Only IvanWe are about halfway through our book, The One and Only Ivan, and becoming adept at making inferences. Students have also been keeping a notebook where we detail our characters, respond with writing to deep thinking questions, visualize the setting, and more! Our goals for this unit are to look deeply at our characters and watch as they change over time. As always, I am having the students keep track of their thoughts using sticky notes and gathering those sticky notes to create a fun little surprise for the class when we finish the book. |
Upcoming Events!
-Writer's Celebration: We will hold a formal writer's celebration upon the completion of our current Harris Burdick Writing unit! Invitations to follow :)
-Parent Talk Nights: Beaven Walters, our CharacterWorks instructor, will be holding parent talks. After the survey results, the first one will be about:
"Boredom-The Hidden Key to Encourage Creativity in our Kids" (We are creative)
Wed. Nov. 20 from 7:30-9 PM
Location: Most likely at QAE/Mr. Liner's Classroom
-CharacterWorks Performance:
Friday. Dec 13- Mr. Liner's Class performs for families and celebrates 2:15-3:15
*Our first big PBL unit will commence this month! Look forward to lots of information and opportunities to join us :)