Right on Target

You know, teaching has a way of keeping a person humble.  Near the beginning of the year, my third graders and I spent time learning how to round numbers to the nearest 10 and 100.  We did several hands on activities and practiced on several occasions.  These numbers were used to estimate sums and differences in the students' Everyday Math journals as well as other assignments.  I was pleased with everyone's progress (you know, feeling pretty confident) and thought we "had it."

Fast forward to the test covering our unit on addition and subtraction.  Suddenly I had 6 or 7 kids lined up asking for help how to round numbers and then add or subtract them.  Huh?!  I wanted to ask where these darlings had been for the last 3 weeks, but of course, I didn't (well, I might have asked it in my head).  Sigh.

So much for my quality teaching first time around.  I clearly missed the mark.  Let's try again, kids. In order to correct my missteps, I pulled out a rounding chart I've used for years to help kids who are struggling, but I made a few changes in hopes of getting the desired results.  I added some color and other aids to give kids even more clues about where to land with an answer when rounding to the nearest 10 and 100.

Here's a look at the rounding chart while I was working with a few students in a small group. This first picture shows the chart for rounding to the nearest 10.

Here you can see we were looking at the number 37.  We first identify the two tens 37 is located between--30 and 40.  Then using the marker, we can see that 37 is closer to 40 than it is to 30.  The arrows also help the students identify if the 10 should stay the same (red) or go up (green).  You could also laminate this page or put it in a plastic sleeve and have the kids write the actual number in the correct box.

The idea is mostly the same for rounding to the nearest 100.

In this case, we were looking to round the number 127 to the nearest 100.  Again, we look at which hundreds the number is between and then decide which one is closest.  This visual aid is very helpful in getting the kids to recognize their only two choices when rounding.

After spending a day working on just this rounding piece, we moved to playing a rounding bump game to put our skills into action.  Here's a look at a couple groups playing the game.  You'll notice both groups kept the rounding chart handy to make sure they were still getting it.

Grab the Right on Target Rounding Freebie here!!

So far, so good.  We have spent most of our time mastering rounding to the nearest 10.  Our next step will be to put that to use when estimating answers to addition and subtraction problems.  Then we will do the whole thing again with the charts and games to work on rounding to the nearest 100. My fingers are crossed, but I think we are headed in the right direction and are back on target.

You can get all these materials at my TpT store.  And (insert trumpet sounds here)...TpT is having a big sale on November 28 and 29.  Here's your code and link!

Happy Thanksgiving to you all!

Government, Elections, and Veterans--Oh my!

Whew!  What a week!  I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm exhausted after this crazy week.  I'm not sure where life was busier--in my classroom or out of it!

We started the week by finishing our unit on the three branches of government.  I allow the students to choose one of the branches, and then in groups they become the experts through lots of research.  Each group then teaches the rest of the class about their branch.  Take a look at the beautiful posters each group created.  Here they are in progress...

And here they are finished...

Seriously, how can you not just fall in love with 3rd grade artwork?  Sometimes when we just let our students work, the results are stunning.  Not to mention, they shared wonderful information about each branch.  The groups were responsible for sharing who was a part of each branch, where they work, and what they do in terms of the law.  They also shared some interesting facts they learned.  Good stuff.

The finish of our unit timed perfectly with the presidential election.  Of course we voted as a class, but we did not predict the winner.  Nor were we close.  :-)  I have a feeling lots of people are feeling that way right now.  Oh well, forward we move as models for our students!

The week ended with a celebration of Veteran's Day.  All of the 3rd graders made flags (a 3 x 5 index card was the perfect way to do it), and then we lined our school driveway and walkway with them.  It was small, simple, and beautiful.  Here's a look at the flags in progress and in front of the school.

And finally, my class did some reading and writing about the meaning of Veteran's Day.  We created some acrostic poems to show our learning.  So in love with these, too!

In spite of this week being a little crazy, it was the perfect opportunity to teach my students about so many important issues happening in our country, and how they can be citizens who actively participate to make their community and country better.  I'll take that kind of busy any week!

The Truth in Nonfiction Reading

After teaching 3rd grade for so many years, I've learned a few things that always seem to be true.

Truth:  Third graders haven't really changed much in 20 plus years.  Sure, their toys and music have changed, but they are basically the same kids.  They are learning to be big kids now instead of little ones.  They are learning how to be responsible for themselves.  They are testing the waters to see what's acceptable at home and school.  This is a year where a lot of growing up happens.

Truth:  It doesn't really matter how many years I've been teaching, but something about having my principal come in for a formal observation is nerve-wracking.  Does everyone else get worked up about this too?  I know my teaching is solid, and I know I'm giving kids my best, but I still feel the need to be extra impressive.  Luckily, this latest observation went well and now I can relax and get back to just doing my thing.

Truth:  Third grade readers are approaching a whole new stage of reading.  They are moving from learning to read and headed towards reading to learn.  This can be a little tricky because most times we have kids with toes on both sides of this line.  And rarely does this show up more than when we are reading nonfiction text.

This past week we started our unit on reading nonfiction text.  The primary goal is for students to be able to determine the topic, main idea, and key details of a text.  Over the course of the unit we will review text features and how they are used, learn how to identify different text structures including vocabulary used with each, and read many many different authors and texts.

As I was planning for the week, I knew that my observation lesson was coming up.  I also knew that we were just getting started in this new unit, and I would need to spend some time reviewing what they had learned in 2nd grade (We are very lucky at my school because our 2nd grade teachers have our kids very well prepared!).  I decided it would be important to begin with reviewing the differences in reading fiction and nonfiction, and then move straight into text features.  We spent a day looking at different examples of text features and where we might find them.

Here's an example of a diagram with labels that was part of our study.

The following day I wanted to dig a little deeper, so I created a sort for kids to match the text feature and its purpose.  The kids worked in partners to complete the sort.  It was a bit challenging, but overall the kids were very successful (I have already modified it some by changing a few words in the descriptions).  We then went through the sort as a class, and I had examples of each text feature to be placed with the example and purpose.  You can see our steps here:

This is the beginning stage of the student sort with all the pieces spread out for sorting.

Here is a finished student sort.

This is the completed sort we did as a class.  You can see the examples of each text feature after the example and purpose.

I decided I then wanted to take it one step further (this was my observation lesson).  I put my students into pairs again and gave them a choice of 2 different articles I had written about Yellowstone National Park (that's where my family went for vacation, and it's such an interesting place!).  I explained that yesterday we were thinking as readers, but today we would be thinking as writers.  Their job was to read the article and decide what text feature or features would be of most benefit to readers.  They then created those features for a nonfiction page they might see in a book.  It was interesting to watch them work.  Some groups knew right away what features they would include, and others needed more guidance.  But after a few quick questions, most went right to work.  I worked with my ESL students to read the article and discuss what helped them most when reading something.  Overwhelmingly, they said pictures, so we decided that photos and captions would be the best route for their groups.  Here are a few of our finished pages:

As I monitored the groups while they were working, I liked hearing their conversations.  Some pointed out words that were difficult and decided a glossary would be helpful.  One group of boys was curious about the workings of a geyser, so they set out to create a diagram.  Others knew that photos and captions would be the things to help them the most.  What I liked the most was that kids were genuinely thinking about the purpose of the text features and why an author would choose different features for different pieces of text.  My goal, exactly.

Truth:  Nonfiction reading is a crucial skill for all readers, and most of what we, as adults, encounter on a daily basis is just that.  With a little more practice and the addition of a few more skills, these 3rd graders will be ready for the challenge.

These products can be found here at my TpT store.