Math Machines

Today in class we brought the idea of a "function box" to life by making math machines!  Using half gallon containers, a "flip chute" and art supplies, we found a fun way to demonstrate input/output.  Ask your child how it works! The children will bring these delightful machines home tomorrow.  Please keep them in a safe spot for the year, as we will be using them to practice our multiplication and division facts. 

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3B and 3A are having small parties on Friday.  The third grade is having 3 or 4 parent helpers commit to  helping out at the party.  Those helpers must sign in at the office when arriving on Friday and their names must be on the master list of volunteers for the day.  Mrs. Gildea, 3B's room parent, is organizing our party and if you are interested in being one of the 3-4 helpers on the list, please contact her.  Thank you all for understanding our commitment to safety.

  

Secret Snowflakes of 3B!

Monday will be the first day of 3B’s Secret Snowflakes.  We have all picked a name from the Secret Snowflakes treasure chest.  You will be the Secret Snowflake for the person whose name you draw.  Your mission is to keep your identity hidden from that person until the time of revealing:  our winter party on Friday, December 21^st.  Every morning (starting Monday morning) you should secretly place a riddle or a clue where your person can easily find it.  These riddles should give your person a hint about your identity.  For example, “Roses are red, violets are blue.  You have brown hair and I do, too!” Some good spots to place these riddles would be a person’s desk or cubby.  If you need help secretly placing a riddle, you may ask Mrs. Ohrn to help you.

         On Friday, you should bring in a homemade card for the person you have chosen.  This card will contain their final Secret Snowflake clue.  Each person will have two guesses, and then we’ll reveal our Secret Snowflake true identities.  Good luck!!!!

     

     

                               

Multiplication Matters

3B is off and running with multiplication!  The children are getting a solid foundation of what multiplication truly means and are now memorizing their facts.  Each week the children will be tested on their memorization of multiplication facts.  You should have seen the study chart that came home yesterday; please sign this each night to confirm that your child has studied their facts for 15 minutes each night.  Please have your child return the chart to school each Friday.  They should be studying the facts that we are currently working on. The schedule for our facts will be as follows:  the 2s, 4s, 5s, 10s, 3s, 6s, 7s, 8s, 9s, 11s and 12s. We follow this order because it is easier to memorize the fours if they know their twos and the same can be said for the fives and tens, threes and sixes, etc.. In order to pass to the next level, each student must be able to have their facts memorized in less than one minute.  It is important that the children commit the facts to memory and are not counting on their fingers when recalling the facts.  Gaining speed in this area will help them as they tackle more challenging word problems that require multi-steps.  We will work on these facts at school daily, but it is critical that they practice at home if they are to master them.  Please let me know if you have any questions!  I have added some multiplication sites to the links on the blog.  Enjoy the schoolhouse rock video below!

Schoolhouse Rock: Multiplying by 4

Math Volunteer Needed!

3B is in need of a volunteer to help run the "Five Minute Math Program" that Kittredge practices.  Please consider being a helper in this valuable program that helps the children with their math facts.  This is a position that involves using the copy machine to provide the class with daily facts.  Volunteers are also needed to correct the children's Five Minute Math weekly packets.   The job of copying can be done at school and the correcting position is done at home at your convenience.  Please contact Jen Howard to sign up for this important position or you can let me know through email.  Thank you!

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving!  I am thankful for the  Kittredge community and for the opportunity to work with your children.

Please note that this week the children have tests to study for.  There is a Pilgrim test on Thursday (the study guide went home a week ago) and a Moon Quiz on Friday (there is a study guide in your child's backpack today).  We also have our Book Talk due on December 17th, and this project takes several days of preparing once the book is finished.  We are shifting into a phase where the children will have more long term assignments and it is important that they budget their time accordingly.  As I told the children today, just because they don't have a "paper" to hand in tomorrow doesn't mean that they don't have homework. Please encourage the children to study from their study guides and to look carefully at the Book Talk requirements.  They should be doing 30+ minutes of homework each night in addition to their reading.  If you are looking for more homework for your child each night, please have your child visit the "Favorite Links" section of this blog and choose an academic activity.

Thank you!

Plimoth Plantation Field Trip Tomorrow

We are so excited for a wonderful day of learning!

Please remember:

• Be on time to school, no later than 8:20 (if you take the bus to school you will be all set).
• Wear walking shoes and warm clothes (we will be near the water and it can be colder than you think).
• Bring a bagged lunch that can  be thrown out when finished.
• If you bring a hand held toy or electronic for the bus ride, please make sure it is labeled and that it is appropriate for third grade.  We have gone over usage rules with the children.
• The children may bring a little money for the gift shop.
• Pick up is at Kittredge at 3:30.  If someone other than a parent is picking up your child, please send in a signed note of permission.
• Get a good night of sleep tonight! 

 
The Waxing and Waning Song

 (sung to the tune of If You’re Happy and You Know It)

If it’s waxing you’ll be seeing more light.
It will be getting so much brighter on the right.
If it’s waxing then you know
You’ll be seeing more of a glow.
Soon a full moon will light up your dark night.

If it’s waning there’s less light for you and me.
Don’t go whining about the darkness that you see.
The cycle is coming to an end
But it will begin again
A cycle goes round and round, can’t you see.

Halloween Happenings

We had an eerily good time at our Halloween Party on Friday.  Enjoy the photos!

Sent from my Windows Phone

Sent from my Windows Phone

Field Trip Rescheduled

Due to the terrible weather forecast for Wednesday, we have decided to reschedule our field trip to Plimoth Plantation.

Our new date is Tuesday, November 20th.

We apologize for any inconvenience, but this valuable field trip is best experienced without rain!  If you were scheduled to be a chaperone, please contact us by written note to let us know if you can participate on Nov.20^th.

Please remember that tomorrow, November 6^th is a professional development day (no school for students).  We will see the students back at Kittredge on Wednesday for a regularly scheduled school day.

Movie Star Mystery Photos

 

We all had so much fun acting out parts in our Movie Star Mystery today.  Check out some photos from today's activities.

Halloween News

Happy Halloween!
Updates:  
Our Halloween Party has been rescheduled to Friday.  Thank you to Mrs. Gildea for organizing!  
Our Movie Star Mystery is happening tomorrow.  Please have children bring in their props or outfits for their part in this event.
 

The Web Browser Blues

Despite this being the start of my second year running a class blog, today I discovered something completely new to me.  I never knew that the blog could look different to users depending upon which browser they use.  News to me!  I'm heartbroken (well, that's a bit of an exaggeration) that some of our special posts, links or photos have not looked the same to you as they have to me, depending on your browser.  Well, have no fear, I've come up with a solution.  To view the blog as it is intended to look, please use the browser Mozilla Firefox.  You can download this from the web if you don't have it on your computer.  At some point during the year I might send out a survey for planning purposes to see which browser most people use on a daily basis.  For now, let's try this as a solution to any broken links or missing pages.  Thank you and please know that I appreciate any feedback regarding the usefulness of this medium.  See you at our parent conferences!

Working With Money: Making Change

The children have been enjoying learning about money this week.  Ask them about some of the money trivia that they discovered while investigating their coins!  (Which coin has a president facing a different direction?  What word is on every coin?  Why do we have ridges on coins?) Today we practiced making change in a shopping setting, using the strategy of "counting up" to a dollar to give the correct change.  Get involved at home by having your child participate in a shopping trip and letting them figure out the necessary change during the transaction.

Parent Conferences are Coming

It was so wonderful to see so many of you at last week's Parent Night at Kittredge.  It was a pleasure to meet you and I'm excited about a wonderful year ahead of us.  When we work together we can accomplish so much!  On that note, please take a minute to look over the Parent Conference Schedule posted at the top of the blog.  If you signed up at Parent Night, then please just double check that I have the correct time.  If you didn't get to sign up, please look for available time slots and email me your top two preferred times.  I will get back to you as soon as possible to confirm your conference time.  Thank you!

Learning With Laptops

We took the plunge and had our first "computer class" the other day.  I was impressed with the children as we calmly handled a few login issues, missing headphones and dead batteries.  Soon, we had all computers up and running and the children practiced getting to some of our favorite learning links.  Nice job everyone!

Grammar Rocks! Watch our featured video!

A Visit from Mrs. Dulin

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Today in class Mrs. Dulin paid us a visit. Reading the story, One, by Kathryn Otoshi, Mrs. Dulin led us in a discussion about how one person can really make a difference in other's lives. Mrs. Dulin then demonstrated how mean words can really "stain" a person and be difficult to remove. What better material to represent the mean words than ketchup? Ask your child about today's lesson to learn more. Below is a brief summary of the book, One. Summary of One, taken from Amazon.com: Blue is a quiet color. Red’s a hothead who likes to pick on Blue. Yellow, Orange, Green, and Purple don’t like what they see, but what can they do? When no one speaks up, things get out of hand — until One comes along and shows all the colors how to stand up, stand together, and count. Children learn about accepting each other's differences and how it sometimes just takes one voice to make everyone count.

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Thank you to Ms. Dulin and Ms. Murphy!

Place Value Partners

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We have been learning about working with place value, using numbers up to the ten thousands and, occasionally, the hundred thousands. Together children are building models of the numbers, followed by writing the numbers in standard form, expanded form and written form. Great work from the mathematicians of 3B!

Sent from my Windows Phone

Sent from my Windows Phone

Reading Tips for Parents of Third Graders | Reading Topics A-Z | Reading Rockets

Reading Tips for Parents of Third Graders | Reading Topics A-Z | Reading Rockets

Pizza Box Portfolios

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Today in class we designed our "pizza box portfolios." This is where we will store special work that we gather over the course of the year. Mmmm...can you smell the pepperoni? Have a great weekend!

More pizza boxes

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First Week Thoughts

We are off to a great start in 3B! We have spent the past two days getting to know each other as well as establishing routines and expectations. I have thoroughly enjoyed meeting the children of 3B; I can tell that it's going to be a great year! Please note the homework that is listed in your child's agenda book tonight. It is also listed to the right hand side of this blog. Please get in the habit of checking it each night to help support your child in third grade. We do not do many newsletters via backpack; most events and updates are listed here on the blog. Please let me know if I can assist you in any way with this! Your children are wonderful and I'm excited for the year! ~Mrs. Ohrn

2012-9-5

Back to School

Dear Students of 3B,

Dear Students of 3B,

I am so excited to meet each and every one of you! If you'd like to (and your parents give you permission) you can write a brief message below! You can tell me about something you did this summer or something about going into third grade. You can also just introduce yourself (first name only)! It will be fun to read the comments of 3B! I typed some sample comments below so that you'll get the idea. Please keep your message short and sweet!
From,
Mrs. Ohrn

Welcome to 3B!

I am looking forward to a great year at Kittredge!  I hope that this blog will serve as a communication tool for the families of 3B.  If you haven't already done so, please subscribe to this blog to get updates, homework and news about your child's class.  A few times a year I will turn on the comment section for the children to respond to the blog. At all other times the comment section will be turned off. Feel free to contact me by email or phone with any school related questions.  Thanks for visiting!