Springtime Garden

This time of year is still cold and our class is aching to get outside. One of the ways to remedy this problem is by taking the outside inside! Last Thursday our class planted four envelopes of different kinds of seeds into four dishpans for our own classroom garden. 

We planted marigolds, African daisies, an assorted mix, and zinnias in small groups on the purple mat. When we were done, we labeled the dishpans with the flower envelope that matched what was planted, and then we watered them with a homemade watering can. We put the flowers by the window and planned to water them every other day. Most of the packets told us we had to wait 7-14 days for the flowers to germinate. So we planted them, and then we waited. 

Except it didn't even take 7 days!!! When we came back to school on Monday there was already green sprouts in the pans. Can you believe it? I can't wait to see those flower petals blooming!

Country Research Presentations

Yesterday our class started presenting our research on the country we chose to study. Each student is expected to present for 10 minutes to their classmates and I. They start by describing their research project and all the information they chose to include. The goal was to describe at least three physical characteristics and three cultural characteristics of the country. Kamil went above and beyond that yesterday when teaching our class about Pakistan. He told us about the largest cities, rivers, mountains, the symbol of colors and shapes in his flag, languages, and many other interesting details. I was even more impressed when he answered a students question about a building in Pakistan. They asked Kamil if the building they saw was in India because it looked familiar to them and he was able to say that the building they were thinking of was actually the Taj Mahal and that the Taj Mahal was built by a husband for his sick wife. AMAZING!!! No one was surprised with Kamil's vast knowledge however because not only is his family from Pakistan, he has also told our class that his favorite thing to do at home is research. What a great hobby!

Other countries we learned about yesterday were Tanzania and China. Did you know that in Tanzania the tallest mountain is Mount Kilimanjaro? Did you know there is a blue bear living in the Himalayas in China that has fur that is black with a tinge of blue??? There is some very impressive research going on in this room, let me tell you!

Distributive Doctor Math Center

Each morning from 8:30-9, students work in small group math centers. One of our most recent centers was called Distributive Doctor. In this center, students practiced multiplying large numbers by splitting them into smaller more manageable groups. An example of this would be 7x12. Multiples of 12 are hard for third graders, but we have known how to make groups of 10 and 2 for a long time. By distributing or decomposing the factor we are able to solve the problem much more easily. We know that 7x10=70 and 7x2=14 so we add 70+14 to find the answer 84. Now we know that 7x12=84. Strategies like decomposing  are helpful when students don't have all of their multiplication facts memorized. They give us a way to solve the problem when we don't have the fact memory to help us. 

Don't know what decomposing means? Ask your third grader! It's one of our new favorite vocabulary words that we can use not only when talking about multiplying but the coral reef food chain as well.