Methods of Subtraction

Our district adopted Math Expressions as our math curriculum (below are pictures from my teachers' manual). This is our first year with Math Expressions and I am in LOVE with it! I previously blogged about the addition strategies the students have learned. With subtraction, the students learned three strategies: Common U.S. Method, Ungroup First Method, and Expanded Method. Again, the students use Proof Pictures to show the ungrouping in subtraction and how to "take away" from the bigger number.

Methods of Addition

Our district adopted Math Expressions as our math curriculum. This is our first year with Math Expressions and I am in LOVE with it! It is very face-paced, but it builds upon itself very well. The students are catching on quickly and I can see so much growth in them from the beginning of the school year.

I took some pictures of my teacher manual of the three methods of addition we taught the students. They are: New Groups Above (this is most common in U.S.), New Groups Below, and Show All Totals.

 

My students have gravitated with New Groups Above mostly. This is the one I am most comfortable with as well. New Groups Below is almost the exact same as New Groups Above, except your put your "new group number" on the equation line instead of above the place value (see picture, it will make more sense). Show All Totals is adding in expanded form. This is helpful for students to "see" the new groups happening. We also create Proof Pictures to prove the addition happened with place value drawings.

Pretty Tape for Common Core

While at Walmart, I found some Expressions Scotch tape. It is SO PRETTY!! I used the most colorful one on my whiteboard with the intent with write my students' I Can... statements for each content area and one for reminders/upcoming dates for my students.

New CCSS Standards for 3rd Grade Science

At the end of the school year, each of the elementary schools in our district had a representative get together to create a new grade card that aligns with the CCSS curriculum. We have had meetings for the last two years to help up learn more about math and reading CCSS. In my opinion, the Science curriculum is where most of the changes will be.

Keep: Forces & Motion, Investigations/Experiments, Impacts on the Environment

Out with: Matter, Sound, & Rocks

In with: Hazardous Weather, Animal/Plant Survival, Magnetic & Static Electricity

I have been Pinterest-ing and TpT-ing to find some resources for these new standards. I hope this help those 3rd grade teachers out there!

Hazardous Weather

Tornado in a Jar

How Does It Rain?

Make a Cloud Rain

Animal/Plant Survival

Self-Watering Seed Starters

Fossil Rock Song

YouTube: Time Lapse of Plants Following Light

TpT: Inherited Traits vs. Learned Traits

TpT: Four Types of Fossils

Magnetic Electricity

Magnetic & Non-Magnetic Sort

Magnetic Strength

Magnet Lab

Strong or Weak Magnets

Static Electricity

Static Electricity Activities

Static Electricity Discovery Tube

Static Electricity: Stationary Charges

Solar System Study

My district reading curriculum is StoryTown. The 3rd grade series ends with two stories, one fiction and one nonfiction, about our solar system. It is a wonderful way to end of the school year. The students really get into learning more about space and each of the planets. Our writing for these two weeks is a research project over each planet. Students are placed in groups of two or three and assigned a planet to study.

Because it is the end of the school year and I will be moving classrooms, my bulletin boards are down. So we created a new bulletin board with the planets lined at the top and the inside of our space ship at the bottom. We filled the space with stars and comets as well.

 

Each planet group researched and organized their information into a poster to present (Speaking & Listening!) as well as an individual travel brochure. The brochures were written in a persuasive manner to entise people to visit each planet. The students got pretty creative with this, two of my favorite: Do you need a tan? Mercury is the planet for you! and Are thunderstorms your thing? Visit Neptune!

Popcorn Writing

We are working on writing nonfiction texts using descriptive words. We decided to have a little fun with our senses and do a writing about popping popcorn!

Each student had a four-square note taking page labeled "See, Hear, Smell, Feel, and Taste." We discussed how we were going to pay close attention to words that fit under each sense as we popped a bag of popcorn in the microwave. We took a trip down the hall to the nearest microwave and sat with our clipboards and notes page writing descriptive words for each sense. The students were so intent on watching the popcorn bag rise as it heated in the microwave- they kept asking for more and more popcorn events. And, of course, each student got a bit of popcorn to eat!

The rest of the week, we worked on taking our notes and turning them into descriptive nonfiction texts. We discussed that our papers need to be in time-order with the popcorn going into the microwave first and tasting it last. This writing process also provided a great time for students to learn our editing (red pen) and revising (blue pen) procedures. Final copies are being written on popcorn-themed paper!

Common Core: Rounding

At our school, the K, 1, & 2 grades are deep into the Common Core Standards curriculum. Grades 3 & 4 will take The CCS on fully next year, but have been asked to incorporate lessons this year to get into how instruction will flow. Our 3rd grade team decided that Monday is our Common Core Day! This week, we worked on Rounding to the nearest ten.

To introduce/review this skill, we thought about roller coasters! Numbers on the upwards slope, roll back and on the downwards slope, roll forward. Here is my (non-artistic) drawing of that idea:

Then, we got into game time to practice our new skill! Our game came from Number Activities: Numbers and Operations in Base Ten resource from K-5 Math Resources, we used the Rounding Game to practice rounding the nearest tens place. The students are in partners and use playing cards Ace (1) through 9 to play this game. The deck is laid face down on the game board and each player chooses two cards at a time.

In the first picture above, Player One has drawn the number 16 and Player Two has drawn 77. The students then round their numbers to the nearest tens place. Player One rounds to 20 and Player Two rounds to 80. Player Two has won and gets to keep all four cards. If there is a tie, students take back their own two cards. Partners work through the entire deck and the player with the most cards at the end is the winner!

Another helpful resources for rounding is this Rounding Chart from Super Teacher Worksheets. It is members-only for download, but something that could be recreated easily: