Math News

Math Fact Practice

As you know we are building our fluency with math facts daily.  Students are working at independent levels and are progressing through additiion facts and then on to subtraction facts.  Information on how to help your child has gone home and copies of these letters are available on the Weekly Homework page of this website.  There are also some wonderful interactive websites that allow viewers to practice their facts on the computer.  I do have a link on my Math Links page of this website that provide some great practice.  Take a look at this site and you may find that this is a great way for your child to get some extra practice.  Most children need some level of adult support or guidance with their homework.  Using good internet websites can be a real help to parents and students.  Check it out and see if works for you and your child.

More Addition & Subtraction

We are beginning our 2nd unit in math.  It is called Collections and Travel Stories within the Investigations program.  This math program breaks the 3rd grade addition and subtraction work into three units.  The 1st unit was heavily inbedded with our place value work.  This unit will continue to reinforce our work with place value, but will work on larger numbers.  We will be heavily focused on 3-digit numbers right up through 1,000.  We will build on the work we did with adding numbers by place value, adding numbers in parts, and adding with number lines.  We will also work with subtraction in the same manner.  This unit will do more work with subtraction than we did before.  Included in our work will be developing and/or reinforcing our understanding of the relationship between addition and subtraction; of how we can use our knowledge of one to help with the other.  For example; 2+4=6 and 6-4=2, and we can use understanding this with larger numbers too.  Please note that we are NOT stacking the numbers to add or subtract with the traditional algorithm, the way most of us were taught to do so.  We truly need to fully master our understanding of numbers, their value, and how we can put them together and take them apart before we can use the algorithm efficiently and effectively.  In the past we taught children the algorithm and they memorized the steps; their application was inconsistent because they often did not fully understand the concept.  Our third and final unit towards the end of the year will pull all of our work together and we will be working with the algorithm by then.  Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions.  Students are truly demostrating strong math skills, especially mental math abilities than ever before.  It's really exciting!

We will continue to work with data.  We will continue to collect data, build a variety of graphs (bar graphs, pictographs, and line plots), and interpret the graphs.  We will focus on speaking and writing clearly about the data. 

Place Value & Addition & Subtraction

We completed our1st unit in math.  We have completed the end-of-unit test.  The results are good and tests will go home at Parent-Teacher conferences.  We have worked with addition and subtraction with 2-digit numbers to clarify our understanding of place value.  We focused on how the two in 27 is of greater value than the seven; the two is worth 20 or 2 tens, while the seven is worth 7 ones.  We have also spent a great deal of time additing numbers together.  We focus on breaking the numbers down into parts or chunks to combine them by place value or adding numbers in parts.  For example using 26 + 31; we might add the 20 + 30 = 50 then the 6 +1= 7 for a total of 50 + 7= 57.  Or students might do 26 +30 = 56 then 56 +1 = 57.  This work lays the foundation for the traditional algorithm when we stack the numbers up and carry tens.  Students are not ready for that method yet.  Many might memorize the steps to the algorithm, but they are usually very inconsistent in applying it properly.  We will work on addition and subtraction in three separate units this year and will not  deal with the traditional algorithm until the last unit.

Data & Graphing

We are working with pictographs, bar graphs and line plots.  We collect data, organize it, and make observations about the graphs we have created.  Students are doing wonderful work that surpasses what 3rd graders were capable of ten years ago!  The challenge of the  work is in the language of the math.  How do we state clear and accurate statements about our data.  They know what they see, what they mean to say, but can struggle to find the right words.  Then I ask them to write about it!  What a challenge!  They are striving to meet this demand and it will be exciting to watch them develop this skill over the course of the year.  Data and graphing will be integrated into all our work for the rest of the year.