MATH
03/27/15: Our math facilitator, Susan Copeland, has created a math wiki to support parents and students as they are thinking mathematically at home. The wiki can be accessed one of three ways:
1-JV Washam Home Page-Select Math Information on the left bar-Click on the here link 2-JV Washam Home Page-Select Faculty and Staff-Click on the globe by Susan Copeland in the Support Staff section 3-Use the following link https://sites.google.com/site/jvwashammathematics Once in the site, click on Strategies for Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division to find PDF continuums that show how students develop understanding of these operations across grade levels and short video clips of strategies being used. Please let our facilitator know if you have additional requests for information on this site. Also in the site, the Resources and Favorite Links section contains a link to North Carolina Department of Instruction Math Wiki, which has explanations of the standards, activities, and example assessment items or tasks that can be used to provide extra practice for your child. Thank you for all that you are doing at home to support your child as he or she grows as a mathematician. 03/25/15: The mock EOG for reading will be Monday, March 30th and math will be Wednesday, April 1st. 03/24/15: Most students have completed the Unit 7 fractions/area/multiplication test. Many have been returned from Parsons' homeroom and Mize-Wilson's homeroom will bring theirs home today. If your child scored 85% or higher, the rest of this will not apply to you. YEAH!! If your child received a score of an 84% or lower, he/she will have the opportunity to improve the grade. The math team decided that instead of a lengthy retest, this time the students will correct their scores with detailed explanations. Most of the time, I marked the correct answer. On a separate sheet of paper, your child will need to highlight the ones missed, then use pictures, words, numbers, etc. to explain how to correctly solve each missed problem. The right one is marked for them, but they will need to explain WHY that is the right one. I'm looking for effort, details, neatness, and a true understanding of the concept. If your child does not turn this in by Friday, I will assume they are satisfied with their grade. This will serve as the "retake" and will be done for homework, due Friday, March 27th. A paper copy of this email will also go home as a reminder to the students. There will be no math homework today due to MAP testing. Math homework will resume Wed. night. 03/19/15: Tomorrow is the Unit test on Fractions. The students did an AMAZING job on the checkpoint quiz yesterday and are ready. 03/16/15: Grades are updated in PowerSchool for math/science/ss. For some reason all the science grades had disappeared sometime after progress reports. It's all fixed now so please take time today to check you child's grades. There are still a small few with missing assignments. Last week I wrote each child a note who had a missing assignment. I told them what assignment was missing and I attached another copy. There are still some of those that have not come back to me. If you see a missing assignment, please ask your child to check in their Hawk for another copy. As of now, there should be one more social studies informal grade and around 3 more science grades by the end of the quarter. Also, in math, there will be a final quiz in fractions (just like the first fractions quiz) on Wednesday and the final unit test on Friday (Or I may move it to Wednesday next week depending on readiness..Mon is field trip, Tues is MAP). 03/12/15: Parents,Attached is a review of fractions just in case you can't come to the math night tonight, this is the handout. Please see the Hawkeye for questions about math night.You can use this to help your child study for next Friday's test.
1/23/15: We will have our unit 5 math test on Monday. The students had a very extensive review on Friday and I feel they are really ready to show what they know about multiplication and division. There are a few 3-digit subtraction questions on there too for review. Students will be working to know their facts from now until the end of the year. Any support you can give to help them memorize those multiplication facts would be great!
Math: In math we are beginning our unit on area. Students will recognize area as an attribute of plane figures and understand concepts of area measurement. After area we will begin our fraction unit. Students will develop an understanding of fractions, beginning with unit fractions. They will solve problems that involve comparing fractions by using visual fraction models and strategies based on noticing equal numerators or denominators. 1/6/15: In math, students are working on multiplication by using arrays and breaking apart larger numbers to help solve equations. i.e. 4x7 can be thought of as 2x7+2x7 since 2x7 is an easier problem. 12/5/14: In math we are beginning our multiplication unit. Throughout the unit students will work to fluently multiply and divide within 100, using strategies such as the relationship between multiplication and division (e.g., knowing that 8 × 5 = 40, one knows 40 ÷ 5 = 8) or properties of operations. By the end of Grade 3, students should know from memory all products of two one-digit numbers. 11/19/14: I wanted to let you know we will have a unit 3 math test on Monday the 24th. A study guide will go home tomorrow for homework. We will go over it in class on Friday and it will come home for the students to continue reviewing over the weekend. 11/18/14: http://vimeo.com/m/110807219 Here is a video a wonderful parent sent me that explains a little bit about the new methods of teaching math and the reasoning behind it. Please take a moment and watch it. I hope this helps you understand the level of thinking I'm trying to create in your children. It's not about short cuts, rather it's about deeper understanding. Some students are still coming to class crossing out and carrying and having no idea why. Education evolves just like any professsion. Wouldn't it be a shame if doctors operated on us using the same methods as they did 30 years ago? When new, better methods are discovered, we need to embrace them with an open mind, especially when it makes our kids smarter, more critical thinkers ready for the 21st century! http://vimeo.com/m/110807219 11/6/14: Here is a Show-Me app to show you a couple of ways your children are adding 3-digit numbers. I know we are teaching addition differently than how we learned it, but I truly believe that these methods are real-life and lead the students into mental math quicker than the traditional ways. http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=Mhs1dOS 11/4/14: We are building on knowledge of place value to 1000. At this point, the students should be able to answer questions like....What is 40 more than 484? and What is 200 less than 843? We are doing great with the collections. Thank you to everyone who has sent in box tops and pop tabs (also soup tabs). We are up to 623 pop tabs and 521 box tops. Please continue to bring these in until we reach 1000. We use them to calculate problems like....623+_____=1000? 10/27/14: We are in Unit 3 of Investigations. Students will need to know that:
As part of building our concept of 1000, the classes are collecting items. Both blocks chose to collect items that will help give back to others. Block 1 (my homeroom) is collecting box tops to help our school. Block 2 (Mize-Wilson's homeroom) is collecting Soda tabs to help the Ronald McDonald House. I'd love for the two classes to support each other. Please ask everyone you know to save these items. I think the soda tabs will be hardest, as many said they don't drink soda, but the tabs can come from any can ;) 10/20/14: Today in math the students retook their geometry tests. After giving it last week and discussing it with other 3rd grade teachers, we decided that some on the questions were ambiguous and a student with full knowledge could still get questions wrong based solely on wording of the questions. We considered that as a "practice" test and retested today. This test had mostly multiple choice questions. If any students need to retake it due to getting below 84%, that retake will be Thursday. I'll have them graded tonight and returned to you tomorrow. Below, you'll find our geometry cheat sheet, as well as our review guide for Unit 2 in math.
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