Haha, but seriously how?? This first month has FLOWN by! We have done some great things and we have started to settle into routines. Since I moved from second to third grade last year and kept some of my kiddos I felt like we did not have to take as much time setting up routines because they knew most of them. This year, I have to set up the routines again, and that takes a lot of time. I also have a full time aide this year and I need to get used to having someone in the classroom all the time again; as I haven't had one for a couple years now. This aide came back to elementary from high school and she is still trying to navigate the differences between grade three and middle school expectations and the way we learn.
So on to my topic for this post, MATH. We have been doing some great things in math this month and I thought I would share with you some of those things. I started interactive notebooks this year, and I must say, I am LOVING THEM. It shows me pretty quickly who understands the concepts we have been working on and who is still struggling. I think I will do more pages a week as we are still into place value and it is almost time to move on to addition and subtraction with regrouping (the subtraction section is never fun because it's just so hard for them to get!).
So we have been playing games, like expanded form dice games: students roll place value dice and use them to build 4 digit numbers which they record in expanded and standard form.
We did Place Value Scoot, which I made the task cards for, (thanks to Ashley Schroeder's Schroeshow Periscope on how to make task cards). The kids loved moving around the room, and they really showed that they understood how to represent a number 4 ways (in a drawing, in standard form, in expanded form, and by looking at a pictorial representation). It also showed me which kids need more direction and step by step assistance (which was only a handful, PHEW). If you don't know what scoot is, you can also go to Ashley Schroeder's website and there are posts about it there. There are cards placed around the room with different questions or activities on them that the students have to complete. They move from one question to the next and see how many they can get finished in the time given. I had 28 cards and 4 or 5 got them all done in 30 min. One person only did 4 (which I was a little shocked at, but they can be a day dreamer, so I know for next time to really monitor them). Student record their answers on a recording sheet whose numbers correspond to the numbers on the cards. So they look at the number on the card they are working on and then write their answer in that box (so if they are working on card 15 they write their answer in box 15 on their recording sheet). If you didn't have time to put them on the wall, you could put them on desks and have them move from one desk to the next. They don't have to wait for their classmates to finish a card before they can also work on that card, they just join them, so they can work at their own pace. It was so neat to see them all engaged and reviewing the concepts we have been learning!
I think that when we get back from Thanksgiving (I am in Canada so that is coming quick), I will take pictures of our interactive notebooks so you can see those, but for now, these are two of the fun things we have been doing in place value.
Now to a freebie (it's my first and the only product in my TPT store). My kids have been loving playing what I call "The Dice Game" They roll a double 10 sided die and add the two numbers rolled together to get the sum. Then they colour the sum in on their recording sheet to create a kind of bar graph. The goal is to see which sum will "win". It gets them practicing their addition facts as well as having fun playing a game. I will be posting a multiplication version soon as well. Here is a multiplication version if you are interested. It's not fancy or cute, but it is fun and the kids are practicing math facts so that makes me happy!
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