Math
We have finished our multiplication objectives and taken some time to practice mastering our facts to 5x5. We have practiced a variety of methods to figure out the product in a multiplication question:
- skip counting
- repeated addition
- using pictures
- using arrays
- memorization
- Multiplication in a Flash
Multiplication in a Flash is a unique and fun way to master tricky multiplication facts! I first discovered it back when I was teaching a combined grade 3 & 4 class. I was desperate to have all of my students master their basic facts! This unique method uses pictures and "creative" stories along with number/word pairings to help students remember tricky facts. For example:
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I know that this sounds ridiculous but it works like a charm! And the best part is that when the students starting attempting division, they use the stories in reverse! They will say, "Sick queen, door...DOOR!" and know that the answer is 4!
We only learn the stories for the facts that we find extra challenging. We have learned the stories for 3x3, 3x4 and 4x4.
**If in the future your child is struggling to master their facts to 9x9, just pop in my classroom and I'll hook you up with the master set! It worked like a charm on my son this year when he had less than a week to master his facts to 12x12!
Now that we have a solid grasp on multiplication, we will quickly work through our division objectives over the next week!
Literacy
We continue to enjoy reading Wonder as a class each day! The students are so invested in the characters. We have had so many important discussions as different topics come up during read alouds. The students are really enjoying the multiple narrator style of the book! They are always excited to hear the voice of the newest narrator and eager to find out who we will be meeting next. There is a lot of emotion and opinion while we read each day. Some days jaws drop in shock, tears roll down cheeks, and giggles errupt! I truly can't say enough about the experience of sharing this book with my students! It's a definite highlight of grade three!
In writing, we have been studying "story recipies." We are focusing on stuck stories and learning the pattern that these stories follow by reading a variety of examples. Students have been introduced to the concept of motive. Every story needs a character with a motive...something that they want or don't want. When something interupts the character from getting what they want, we have a "problem" that the character needs to solve in order to get to their motive. We call that problem the "stuck". We've analyzed several well known books and movies according to the following stuck story structure:
- Setting
- Characters
- Motive
- Stuck
- Attempt #1
- Attempt #2
- Success
- Motive Carried Out
We then practiced thinking of motives for a variety of characters.
We asked ourselves:
- What would a prince on a flying carpet want?
- He would want to go for a ride!
- What could interrupt him from going for a ride?
- The magic carpet kept tipping him off!
Now that the students have a grasp of coming up with a character's motive, we are turning our attention to creating a setting at the beginning of our stories. We are trying to use sensory imagery to SHOW our reader the setting instead of TELLING them where and when the story is taking place. We are continuing to focus on our sentence starters and using specific verbs. I also introduced the concept of GLUE WORDS to help students effectively join short sentences together to create longer sentences.
Here is a couple of examples of setting introductions that we came up with as a class:
Waves licked the shoreline as the sun baked the sand. Gently the wind whispered through the palm trees. Under the rocks the crabs scuttled while the seagulls circled overhead.
Around the mountain evergreens gathered. Gleaming, the sun climbed into the clear blue sky as a gentle breeze whispered through the trees. Slowly the river twisted and turned into the valley.
Soon we will plan our class story using the stuck story format and begin the two to three week story writing process.
Science and Social Studies
We have finished our Survivor Building unit and have moved on to our study of Ukraine. So far, we have looked at life in Kyiv and compared and contrasted life in city versus life in the country in Ukraine. We are using graphic organizers to show our learning. After reading a selection from the textbook together, we are determining the main point and then coming up with three important details to support the main idea. We will continue our study of Ukraine, focusing on the services available that add to the quality of life of the citizens, their cultural traditions and celebrations and exploring the different areas of Ukraine through a travel scrapbook study.
Our Ukraine unit will wrap up with our trip to Ukrainian Village on May 23rd! We are going to have an amazing day travelling back in time and walking down the streets of a rural village in historic Alberta.
