Weekly Update: February 7, 2020

Happy Friday 3B Parents!

Important Upcoming Events:

• Thursday, February, 13th---Topic 7 Math Test
• Friday, February 14^th---Valentine’s Day Party
• February 17^th-February 21^st---School Vacation

Math: We are almost finished working through Topic 7. Students have been introduced to division. As we dive deeper into this concept students are naturally beginning to confuse division with the rest of the operations. To help their understanding students have learned key words that help them know which operation to use when working through a word problem. They will be having a math test next Thursday. 

You can help: Try giving your child different types of word problems to see if they can decipher which operation to use. Look below for examples and important key words to include.

Addition-putting equal or unequal groups together to find the whole. 

Key Words: in all, altogether, total

Mrs. Ferullo has 4 red pens and 5 green pens. How many pens does she have altogether?

Multiplication- putting only equal groups together to find the whole/total. These word problems tell us how many groups and how many are in each group. 

Key Words: product, each, multiply, times, twice as many, multiple, per, in all, altogether

Mrs. Ferullo has 4 clusters of desks; there are 5 desks in each cluster. How many desks in all?

Subtraction-   Taking something away, comparing numbers (who has more, how many/much more), or finding a missing number.

 Key Words- difference, how many left, how many more?

Mrs. Ferullo has 35 pencils. She gives 17 away. How many pencils are left?

Division- Sharing equally. In these word problems, we already know the whole and have to find either how many groups or how many in each group.

 Key Words: quotient, divided by, each group, how many groups, how many in each, shared, split, separated, equally.

Finding Groups:

Mrs. Ferullo has 21 students. She has 3 desks in each cluster. How many clusters does she have?

Finding How Many in Each Group:

Mrs. Ferullo has 21 students. She puts an equal number of desks in each cluster. If she has 7 clusters, how many desks are in each cluster?

Reading: This week lessons continued to focus on cause and effect. Students learned that cause is why something happens and effect is what actually happens because of the cause. We read Alexander's Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day. We then discussed the different causes and effects that occurred in the book and listed them on an anchor chart. 

Next, we read Strega Nona. We then discussed how one big cause, can have multiple effects. 

In the book Strega Nona told Big Anthony to never touch her Magic Pasta Pot. We find out that when Big Anthony disobeys Strega Nona and touches the pot, many different things happen!

Writing: Students are working very hard on their personal narrative stories! Students will soon be ready to revise, edit, and lastly publish! This week we focused on using sensory details in our writing. Students used their "mini office" writing resource to help them replace basic words with vivid verbs and descriptive adjectives and adverbs. They are getting very good at including what they saw, heard, smelt, and felt while they were living through their moment. I am very impressed with the writing I am seeing from this group!

Grammar: Students gained a greater understanding of adverbs this week and are seeing the benefits of using them to be more descriptive in their writing.