Third graders are learning that division is the opposite of multiplication.  One way we can find a quotient is to use a multiplication table.  This week we practiced  this on the white board with the projector and then used computer applications to create our own tables.  

Third graders celebrated Valentine's Day with a day of LOVEly activities! The class favorite was a funny Valentine Mad Lib story.  Laughter filled the room with hilarious renditions of the story, and they initiated their own share time to read their stories aloud.  The students thought this was just a fun party activity, but I secretly had them practicing grammar by reviewing parts of speech!  Sharing their stories is a great way to practice oral language skills as we refine and develop confident public speakers.  

We use a lot of learning stations in third grade!  This enables me to differentiate student tasks, integrate movement around the classroom, monitor progress in small groups, and provide a variety of different activities in shorter bursts.  I often break up my literacy and math blocks with a rotation of different activities to make the most of my instruction time.  We get a lot accomplished, and the pace of the shorter activities maximizes short attention spans.  Best of all, the kids enjoy them so student learning increases with their positive engagement.

Last week we used snowflakes to integrate our math and language lessons!  The students wrote an informative paper to describe what we did so I will let their words do the explaining!

"Brr!  It's very cold outside, but the only snowflakes we've seen are in our classroom.  We made paper snowflakes and used them to learn new things.

Making the snowflakes required us to listen carefully and follow the directions exactly.  Then we used creativity to make a unique design.

Then in our math groups we used the snowflakes to find polygons and angles.  My snowflake design had quadrilaterals and triangles.  Then we looked for angles.  My design most had obtuse and acute angles.

Later in language we made a big list of adjectives that described our snowflakes.  My snowflake is blue, paper, and pretty.

Our snowflakes were a fun way to learn.  Maybe it will snow outside and we can have fun with real snowflakes!"

Just a few days later our beautiful campus was covered with a blanket of snow.  After an unexpected day out of school, we came back and made "indoor snow" and sipped cocoa while we designed marketing plans for our own hot chocolate stands!