IPADS in Team 203!

Students in Team 203 have been lucky enough to use IPADS in class for the past two weeks. So far, about 2/3 of the class has received an IPAD license that allows them to use an IPAD independently! The rest of the students are not far behind and are practicing to receive this special privilege.

Soon, we will be able to use our IPADS for all different subject areas. A few things that third grade teachers have discussed using these tools for are: fluency skills, math fact practice, vocabulary work, making movies on how to solve math problems, recording written stories, and more! There are so many possibilities and I feel so lucky to be able to use such powerful tools             in the classroom.

How would you like to use your IPAD in class?

End of the Season Harvest

Team 203 braved the elements to help harvest our lettuce and spinach that was donated to the Falmouth Service Center. Students got to harvest, shake off excess dirt, snap off roots, rinse, and bag our crops. We crafted a letter to go along with our donations and sent our healthy greens to be delivered. It felt really great to be able to help out our community with food that was grown on Mullen Hall soil! A special thanks to Carol for facilitating this lesson and delivering our donations today!

Multiplication and Division

Team 203 is busy working hard to memorize multiplication facts and dabble with division. About once a week, students will take a new multiplication quiz that focuses on the next times table. Students need to score 100% on the quiz in order to move on to the next times table. Once they receive that 100% they shade in a personal graph that tracks individual success. As a whole class we will start to add fish to our aquarium poster to celebrate when our entire team passes each times table.

Last week we used the School House Rock video, 3 is the Magic Number to help memorize the 3 times tables. Many students have already passed this quiz and like to sing the tune loudly and proudly. “3,6,9,12,15,18,21,24,27, 30!”

We use lots of manipulatives to help build arrays and solidify our understanding of multiplication. You can use almost anything to build arrays. What’s your favorite tool to use at home? Cheerios? Pennies? Pebbles? The possibilities are endless.

The book, Sea Squares is a great read aloud to use to teach square products. Students created hidden pictures that showed square products number facts. Can you spot the number sentences?

They keep on coming . . .

Every time I open my email I’m excited to see if another student has earned an XtraMath certificate. This weekend I received more good news to share with the class . . .  Kaliana earned her addition certificate!

Although we are working on memorizing multiplication and division facts in math class each day, constantly reviewing addition facts can also help us with more advanced facts! Increasing your speed and accuracy are valuable skills that can help you get better at multiplication facts.

Keep up the good work, Team 203!!

More Math All Stars

Congratulations are in order for another XtraMath super achiever. Andrew passed all of his addition facts in less than 3 seconds each! Now we’re off to conquer subtraction, multiplication, division, and beyond!!

Who will be the next super achiever???????

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

If you answered, Patrick then you would be correct! After showing off our newest certificate at morning meeting, I  knew that it wouldn’t be long before I needed to edit this post. He had the determination, speed, and accuracy that paid off!! Check out Patrick’s new certificate below.

Now it’s a real challenge, so far two girls and two boys have earned certificates . . .  who will be next??

Cranberry Day

On our last day before Thanksgiving we held our annual Cranberry Day. Students were able to taste, touch, bounce, observe, and explore all things cranberries. Just like on Pumpkin Math/Science Day activities third graders worked with a sink or float station and an observation station. One thing we did that was unique to cranberries was our bounce test, thank goodness we didn’t have this station for Pumpkin Day!

I couldn’t believe how brave students were while they tasted raw cranberries and compared them to other more familiar cranberry foods. I got some great shots of those sour faces at first bite.

 

Cranberry Bounce Test from Sarah Lewis on Vimeo.

Watch our video to see some activities in Team 203 on Cranberry Day!

Feeling very festive, we continued our fall activities with a sing along from Mrs. Langmead. This year our video was too large to upload on Vimeo but here is the same song we sang last year. Do you remember our visuals about this poem?