Math Word Wall

Just so you know how we're remembering all those important math words we've been learning this year.... here is our magnetic math word wall. This wall helps us to remember all the important math terms we are learning and how to spell them!

Community Circles Are Up!

Students have finally completed the community circles we have been working on for the past few weeks! We have circles that describe our home community, school communities, Lewiston, Maine, United States and earth communities. Each of the communities has a drawing on the front describing it and a written description on the back. What and how much was written depends on what community the students were describing. 

Home and school communities were easy because students are there all the time and know lots about them. The circles were also relatively small so students didn't have to write as much. When working on our Lewiston circle, students did research independently or with a partner on Spruce pod laptops. We also had a classmate whose parents own a business in downtown Lewiston that we wrote about. At the end of our research, the class combined all of our new found information on an anchor chart that we hung in the room. We researched Maine using books from the school library- desk partners took five minutes to search through a book before passing it to the next set of desk partners and looking through a new book. We read a big book about the United States and looked through the social studies text book website http://sf.factmonster.com/atlas/unitedstates.html, taking notes together;and last, we watched a video about earth on Brain Pop Jr.'s website twice and took notes about what we learned. 

Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwiches

 Students finished their peanut butter and jelly stories this October and had their first Author's Tea of the year. We gathered during writing workshop, ate Sunbutter and jelly sandwiches with milk, and listened to one another read our stories. Some stories were funny. Some stories gave very specific instructions and some stories told us what we already know. All of the stories were wonderfully written though and we are very excited to host another Author's Tea at the end of November for our personal narratives. 

 Here are some awesome stories hanging on the Sprucetastic Work board. One student printed his cover on the computer! 

Commutative Property Addition

When we started unit 2 in our math text this year, I was worried. The opening lesson was about the three properties of addition: associative, commutative, and identity. How many of you parents know what all three of those properties are?! I know I didn't learn these terms at that age! 

The most difficult property to practice in our class was the commutative property. It says that no matter how I arrange a set of addends in a number sentence they always are the same and have the same sum. For example: (5 + 3) + 2 = (5 + 2) + 3 = (3 + 2) + 5 = 10... Wowzah!! Confusing! 

The easiest way to look at this property was to use counting bears. We had one color for each addend in the problem and switched them around using our desk and a piece of tape that split it in half. We used a post it to mark our thinking about the numbers on our desk. So one side of our desk might have those 5 blue bears and 3 green bears that we talked about in the problem up above and the other side might have the 2 red bears. But no matter what is on each side of the tape we knew our entire desk had 10 bears on it. Do you get it now? I sure hope so! We're having a test soon and we have been working hard to master these skills...

SMART Board Spelling Activities

In the beginning of the school year third grade students really focus on spelling patterns that will help them to become better spellers. We focus on sounds and the spelling patterns that make them. We have learned about the spelling patterns for long I, long E, and long O.

We try hard to complete quick spelling activities as a whole group each day on the SMART Board; and in the photograph above Sierra is adding a word to our list of long O words with the spelling pattern "ow". During activities like these students practice spelling skills but are also working with technology, collaborating, and taking turns. Added bonus: the more often we do these activities, the more fluent our spelling is getting!

Reading Workshop

Reading workshop is a hard part of our third grade day. There are lots of routines to learn and skills to practice. We are all working very hard to become awesome readers and find those just right books that will get us there.

One of the first things we had to do to get us started was organize our classroom's library. We have hundreds and hundreds of books in the room and we needed to sort them so that students are able to find what they need quickly and easily. During the first week of school students spent a two or three days organizing the picture and chapter books based on what they had in common. Above is a picture of some of the picture book baskets we organized together. Some of the chapter book categories we came up with were: 

• Junie B. Jones
• Boxcar Children
• Goosebumps
• buddy reading books
• biography books

Working Hard for the Money!!

In Spruce pod this year, we have opened a pod store. Our store is called S Mart and you can purchase things there using Spruce bucks. Spruce bucks are earned for a variety of reasons including good behavior, hard work, completed homework, group collaboration, and classroom jobs. 

This is a picture of the class job bulletin board. There is a pocket for each job and student popsicle sticks rotate through each job envelope weekly. Classroom jobs include the following:

• pencil sharpener
• line leader
• caboose
• lights
• floor
• sweeper
• folders
• paper passers
• homework collectors
• whiteboard washer
• lunch count
• computers
• chair stackers
• messenger
• library

The students who work on these jobs get paid weekly on Mondays and are paid different amounts based on how often they are working. For example, line leader and paper passers work hard and often all week long so they get paid more than students who turn off computers because that is not an every day job. Along with listing class jobs, the bulletin board above also lists pay rates, other things students will get paid for besides their weekly jobs, and how much classroom supplies (pencils, erasers, crayons, markers, etc.) cost if a student would want to buy them. 

Some items available to students in the pod store include drinks, stickers, bracelets, posters, bags, and toys. If you want these things, make sure you work hard all month and save your Spruce bucks for the final Friday of the month!!

Late Start to the Class Blog

I realize the posts are late to start this year and I apologize. Planning for my wedding took up a lot of my spare time. So for those of you who did not know it was coming up, I am now Mrs. Derouche. I got married in Berlin, NH on October 13, 2012 to John Derouche. I am very excited and have lots of stories to share with my class when I go back to school tomorrow. Here is a picture of my new husband, myself and one of the bridesmaids my class knows very well- Ms. Gibbons, the school art teacher!