math – Ms. Beck's Blog

What’s been going on in Room 36? A LOT of learning!

October 6, 2018 Ms. Beck Leave a comment

In third grade, we do a great deal of learning what it means to be collaborators in all subject areas. The following pictures show us working on a collaborative activity called a “math task” where I give the whole class a problem and they have to solve it in small groups, write down how they solved it, and then present their strategies to the entire class. We also spend time reflecting on our abilities to work as teammates and what makes group work easier or more difficult. This was our second math task of the year and I’ve already seen a marked improvement in collaboration, patience, and adventurous mathematical strategy!

In social studies, students were asked to work in collaborative groups, following written directions, to create a world map including labels for the continents, the equator, prime meridian, and mountains and rivers (labeled) on each continent we have studied. Much like the math task, we reflected on how these collaborations went, and we found that groups that went in with a common goal, assigned jobs, and everyone being on task were more successful in completion than other groups. Everyone did well, but not every group was able to complete the assignment completely! We learned a lot!

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We don’t do all assignments in collaborative groups. We have also jumped in head first into the world of Google Classroom, and if you haven’t had your child log into their Clever account and then into their classroom to show you around, you are missing out! We have been working on a Place Value assignment, a labeling continents and oceans assignment, and recently are very, VERY proud of our first Alternative Assignment in Social Studies. I included two examples of student worked that was turned in! How amazing that your children have created these completely on the computers. These Mallards are amazing!

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In reading we’ve been talking about asking and answering questions, so we started with looking at artwork and thinking about what questions the artists made us think about when we looked at their art. We wrote those questions on sticky notes, and man, your children nailed those questions. Please zoom in to read some of those winners. Later in the week, Ryan even made a text to world connection with one of the pieces of art!

We’ve been working hard on place value and like to do our own work and then compare our work to others. Here we are doing work on our white boards and then sharing our strategies with others!

We also celebrated Walk to School day on Wednesday. I walked with some of the other third grade teachers from Mrs. Stearns’ house, and I tell you what, I felt more energized on Wednesday than any other day all week! Check out some of the great pictures you all sent to me!

We also got to visit the garden to thin the mustard greens, weed the garden paths, and try a salad “pizza.” Yum!

A few random pictures below include what our October looks like (including a big rivalry game today!), some posters we’ve made, a sign that now sits near our turn in trays to remind us to write our names on our posters, a close-up of Mr. Snaggletooth himself, and a video of us waiting for the bus on a few days! (“Yo, they got a backbone!”)

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Weeks Two and Three

September 22, 2018 Ms. Beck Leave a comment

We started talking about what will be happening around the classroom during one of the most important hours of our day this week: small group reading rotation hour. During this time, I will be meeting with a small group of students to instruct and enrich their particular needs. While I am doing that, your children will be either completing an activity on the computer, working on a writing assignment/choice, or reading to themselves. To prepare them for these independent stations, we spend all of September, and some of October practicing those stations. This practice time helps to build creative problem-solving skills, cooperation, and collaboration because (as the below poster describes) they cannot talk to me unless four very specific things happen in our classroom:

Here we are building reading stamina!

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We learned how to generate our own survey questions, then conduct an unbiased survey (the best we could), and create a pictograph and a bar graph using our survey results. I am so impressed with how well they handled these activities!

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We’ve continued our study of growth mindset, but we’ve also added in learning about three parts of our brain: the amygdala, the hippocampus, and the prefrontal cortex. MindUp teaches us that we have to learn strategies to control the amygdala, otherwise we will fight, run away, or freeze when it senses danger – even if there’s no actual danger! We’ve differentiated mindful versus unmindful behaviors, talked about listening mindfully, and started our “core practice” of deep belly breathing. Ask your child to teach you the appropriate way to breathe tonight!

This week was also our first garden lesson where we got to help weed, enrich the soil, and scatter plant lettuce that we’ll get to enjoy when the colder months come around! Check us out in action!

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Overall, another fantastic two weeks. Keep it coming!

Our Week at a Glance

September 23, 2016 Ms. Beck 2 comments

Questioning This week we have been discussing how good readers ask themselves questions before, during, and after they read. We’ve also talked about how to identify “thin” vs. “thick” questions. Today, we sorted out questions that parents asked us at Back to School Night! Thanks for your great questions, parents!

Place Value We have been talking more about identifying words in standard, word, model, and expanded forms. On Thursday, we had a whole math hour of stations where we rotated around the room to play games, sort and match forms, and translate model into word forms. Some stations were harder than others, but we’ll all be great at these soon! We also learned about comparing 4-digit numbers by playing a game called “What’s My Number” and using the greater than, less than, and equivalent to symbols. Your child brought their math notebooks home this weekend to teach you how to play. Can you beat them?

Making Scientific Observations Although we were dealing with a crazy schedule of MAPS testing and a half-day on Wednesday, we were able to work on our observational skills. We discussed how using our five senses and being mindful without judgement helps us to be observant of the world around us. We used descriptive language to describe the attributes of items we couldn’t easily see and identify by sight in mystery bags. Then we opened the bags and added any other visual descriptions needed. We also classified pumpkins/gourds and students by specific characteristics. Good scientists use observational skills to classify and better understand their world!

MindUp We continued our study of the brain and how we can help our amygdala to stay calm and open so we can learn our very best. This week, we focused on deep belly breathing. Ask your child to tell you about how their diaphragm and lungs work when you are deep belly breathing. The pictures below capture it. I promise we didn’t have nap time this week…no matter how bad we all needed it!

Family Above all else, we have been working on building a family community and learning how to love on each other. I caught this young man teaching another to tie his shoes. This is love, people. This is love.

First Class – Present Class Thirteen years ago, I taught my very first class at Donahoe Elementary. They were a special kindergarten group of whom, many are still in contact with me. My sweet Kaitlyn (pictured in center), who is now a senior in high school, came to observe me for a day and made me boo hoo when she told me she wants to be a teacher one day, too. I had to have a picture of these two beautiful worlds colliding.

I’m blessed to have this group of smarties!