Challenge for the Weekend!

*Thank you so much to those of you that have been able to bring in soda to help with our soda walk for Fall Festival! You still have until Wednesday to donate (if you can)! We are hoping to get enough in so that we can win the 3rd grade contest (or at least beat Ms. Mathews' class and win for our pod)!*

We have been working SO hard using all of our properties in math to solve multiplication and division problems! Your students have been analyzing errors and working together in groups to solve some really challenging problems this week! Today, one of our problems dealt with the Distributive Property again and so I challenged them to solve 8 x 9 using the Distributive Property in as many ways as they could! I'm going to check over all of their work and determine the winner on Tuesday! Here are some pictures of your students solving through the problem! 

Maddux showing off his work!

Pablo filling in all of his squares! 

Sneak peek at Jayden's work (he had more on the back)! 

Savauna and Melody 

worked hard in a group with me! 

I let them know that I would give them a challenge over this long weekend so I hope they are up for it! I want your child to solve 7 x 8 using the Distributive Property in as many ways as they can! Have them write down all of the possible ways and solve them out on any piece of paper you have at home and bring it in on Tuesday. The person with the most ways (solved correctly) will win a prize :) Happy Challenge Weekend! 

We also have been studying about plants, their parts and what each part does to help the plant live and grow! We compared plants outside today after lunch! Find a plant this weekend and ask your child what kind of roots they think the plant has and why! They should be able to tell you either a taproot or a fiborous root and give you some evidence for their thought! 

Brittney, Lucinda and Genesis 

checking out some sunflowers! 

Sam, Savauna, John Michael, Nicola,

Asiah, Sarah and Pablo looking at flowering plants! 

Maddux and Kadin in the other

flower garden! 

This Week in Math: The Distributive Property!

Our students have been working so hard in math to strengthen their multiplication and division strategies! We are starting to move away from picture models and move toward numeric strategies! This week, we really focused on the Distributive Property and we got to explore and practice it using marshmallows and string! 

The Distributive Property is where the student will solve the problem by breaking up 1 of the factors (either 6 or 8) into two smaller numbers that when added together, equal that factor (example: break 6 up into 3 and 3; break 8 up into 5 and 3). 

Here are some pictures of the ways your students broke up the number sentence: 6 x 8.

 Broke up the 6 into a 3 and 3

New number sentence: (3 x 8) + (3 x 8)

Broke up the 8 into a 5 and 3

New number sentence: (6 x 5) + (6 x 3)

Broke up the 8 into a 2 and 6

New number sentence: (6 x 2) + (6 x 6)

Broke up the 8 into a 1 and 7

New number sentence: (6 x 1) + (6 x 7)

**Have your student solve this number sentence using the Distributive Property: 4 x 7! Ask them to draw an array to represent the number sentence, break up the array and tell you what number they are breaking up, write the new number sentence to represent the 2 new arrays and then solve! Have your child bring in the paper they solved this problem on with your signature and they will get a prize for all of their hard work :) 

Thank you for your continued support! 

Welcome to 3rd grade and our class blog! I will use this site to update you on what your child is working on in class and will be able to post pictures so you can have an inside look at our classroom. Sometimes I will give an update, sometimes I will have something for the students to share with you and sometimes I will ask for responses! I look forward to working with you to help your child be successful this year! Thank you for all of your support on this journey!