Third Grade News

Dear Third Grade Families,

We had a great week in Room 15! Our class is full of amazing thinkers!  Here's some information about what we are working on this month.

Students are working on assessments in reading, mathematics, and spelling in our classroom this month.  The assessments are one way of looking at the progress students have made since the beginning of the school year, and they will provide information about the learning that needs to occur in the second half of the school year.  

Third graders began drafting their nonfiction books this week. They are writing about many different topics from race cars, dogs, and cats to football and baseball.  We have been learning about many ways to structure our writing. Cause and effect, boxes and bullets, and pros and cons are a few of the structures we have learned about.  Students are carefully planning what their books will look like, and they are working hard to use many nonfiction text features to enhance their writing.

I'm excited to see so many students mastering the multiplication facts.  Yahoo!  Way to go, third graders!  Thank you to family members for helping your student to practice the multiplication facts at home.  A few minutes of extra practice each night makes a big difference!  

Students have learned the 0's, 1's 2's, 3's, 10's, and 4's multiplication facts, and now it is time for the x 5 facts.  We can do it!  

In our classroom, we call the x 5 facts "Half Ten Facts."  This is because you can solve a x 5 fact using a x 10 fact. Every student in our classroom knows the x 10 facts, so they are known facts that we can use to solve unknown x 5 facts.  Here's how the strategy works:

Half Ten Facts Strategy
If I know 10 groups of 8 equals 80, then the product of 5 groups of 8 would be half that amount, 40.

10  x  8 = 80
(5 groups of 8 is half of 10 groups of 8, so split 80 in half)  
5 x 8 =  40

Use the Half Tens Fact board game that your child brought home to practice the x 5 facts this week or make your own board game with the supplies that were sent home. You can also make flashcards, use grocery store flashcards, or play math games on Mrs. Simpson's blog to practice the facts at home.  

This week, our class had fun practicing the x 4 multiplication facts using the website www.IXL.com.  Your child  has a free 30 day membership at  this site, and he/she can use the membership at home, too. Students brought home a letter with a username and password this week.  If you didn't receive the letter, please let me know, and I'll send home another copy.  

Directions for IXL
Enter your child's username and password.
Select math.
Select third grade skills.
Select Multiplication Skill Builders and your child can choose to practice one set of multiplication facts at a time.  For example, just the x 4 facts or just the x 5 facts.  However, there are four categories related to multiplication (that are all great) for students to choose from at this site.  

Reminders and More

• There is no school on Monday in celebration of Martin Luther King Day.  
• Third graders will be going to the Flynn Theater on Tuesday. The bus will leave at approximately 8:45 AM, and we will return to school in time for lunch and recess. 
• We are in need of cleaning wipes and soft tissues for our classroom. If you have a spare package at home to send in, it would be greatly appreciated.

Have a great weekend!

Sincerely,
Keelin M. Simpson