Today was our first visit from the Picture Lady. You will want to ask your child about this unusual artist. The children definitely used their imaginations and contributed to the class discussion about their observations of the painting. The Picture Lady was quite impressed! Yea class!
I wanted you to know that the math test on Unit 2 is coming home tomorrow. As I was grading the tests, I discovered that many of the children made too many mistakes on one page for me to overlook. As a teacher, I have to stop and ask myself... does this mean I didn't teach it well or do we need more practice. So, today we spent our math time reviewing addition and subtraction with regrouping and trading and then working on the Ballpark estimate. I am going to keep the grade as it stands. BUT, I am going to give an additional test on Thursday using the same format as the exercises 10 through 14 but with different numbers. I will add that score into the test score. I feel that this is a fair way to treat this situation. This seldom happens, but when it does, I always blame myself first and then go from there. However, the children as a whole still struggle with basic adding and subtraction facts. We learned a strategy today whereby you pair numbers together that are easier to add. For example: 25+3+5+7=? One would group 25 and 5 and 3 and 7. It is traditionally easier to add number that end in 0 and 5. This is a strategy for mental math computation. I also find that they assume that if the first 3 problems on the paper are adding, then they all must be addition. We will continue to work on proofreading!
Thursday is a big day. Items that are due are: Poem, Spelling test, Reading comprehension sheet, How Big is a Foot. Don't forget to listen to them read it orally. We discussed at length the intent of the assignment which is to focus on repetitive phrases and sentences which give meaning to the text and make the story more fun to read.
I am finding that it is hard keeping up with the All About Me posters with everything else that we do in the mornings. So, I have a different approach. I would like the children to go ahead and turn them in to me as soon as they are finished, if they have not already done so. Then I will pull one out as a surprise for that day. Then if we don't do one on a particular day, feelings don't get hurt.
If anyone has a little blow up pool ring that fits your third grader, please email me and let me know. I am thinking that at our Town Meeting on Monday, we will present interesting facts from A to Z on Florida as a cumulative activity to the end of our study. The children don't know this yet, so don't spoil the secret. But, do email me so I can see how many if any that I would have to use as props.
Make sure you read over the parent letter for our new Unit in Math. We will doing a great deal of measuring in this unit.
I hope everyone has a great evening!
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