Math Review: Add/Sub

We have completed our math curriculum (Math Expressions) and are now reviewing what we learned all year long. Today was 3-digit addition and subtraction. Students competed against partners to get four in a row correct. They used calculators to check their answers. They LOVED it!!

Geometry: Polygons & Angles

Our next Math Expressions unit covers Polygons & Angles. To help the students "see" these more often, our third grade team taped down some polygons and angles to our carpets.

I use these in a couple ways:

1. We have gone on "Right Angle Hunts" where we look carefully at each shape or angle to determine if there is a right angle. My students have also learned the geometry words acute and obtuse. They love sounding so smart using these grown up math words!
2. I have also called on students or groups of students to "Find the ____" (trapezoid, rectangle, obtuse triangle, etc.). Once everyone is in their places, they have to discuss as a small group what makes their shape/angle unique and unlike the others in the room. Each group then gets to share about their shape/angle's attributes.

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.

Starville: mini-society

Starville is a mini-society that third graders participate in each December. It is definitely one of the FAVORITE activities of third grade at my school. When the fourth graders see what Starville is happening, they ask their teachers if they can go back to third grade for the day!

To start, each student applies for a first and second choice job to work in Starville. Each student will work two jobs and we guarantee that they will get one of their two choices, but they might not get both of them. In the weeks leading up to Starville, the students participate in production activities to make crafts that will be sold at Starville. This year, we made pet rocks, duct tape flower pencils, salt-dough ornaments, talking snowmen (on clothespins), and tissue paper flowers.

On the day of Starville, the teachers transform the classrooms into mini stores and the students are given their jobs. Half the grade level works while the other shops, then they switch. There are four 'sessions' of Starville so everyone gets to shop twice. The students are paid $1.50 in plastic money to shop with, good thing most everything costs five to ten cents!

And here's the pictures:

Muliplication Game - Toss the Factor

Our new math curriculum (Math Expressions) covers the entire multiplication chart facts (0-10) within the first month and a half of school. Because of this, my students have been practicing their facts like crazy since the first day of school. Seriously: our first lesson of this curriculum was to introduce the 5s multiplication/ division tables.

To practice this, my students played a bean bag toss game. I whipped up these (lovely!) game boards for my the students to use. They toss two bean bags and multiply the two factors to find a product. The other students they are playing the toss game with check to make sure the product is correct. They LOVED this way of practicing their multiplication facts!

Area - Shoe Lesson

The Shoe Lesson

Here's another way to get some hands on area and perimeter experience! Each student brings in a shoe of their parent, or they use their own if they happen to forget their parent's shoe. First thing, students share whose shoe it is because they love to hear what their classmates brought!

The shoe is traced on 1-inch grid paper. The students find the perimeter using either string trailed along the outline or using their pinkie finger as a centimeter measure. To find the area of the shoe, students count all the whole squares. Then comes the tricky part, students need to find part-squares to "put together" to make up a whole square.

Area - Island Conquer

For students to practice their area skills, my students played Island Conquer (created by Laura Candler). Students work in partners, chose colors, and draw cards with coordinates. The students take turns creating rectangles from the coordinates and figure the area. After all the coordinates cards have been drawn, students find out which partner conquered more of the island.