Beginning Division

Although our recently implemented Iowa Core includes a great deal of division in 3rd grade, we're all still adjusting to the changes in teaching sequences and my kiddos are brand new to division this year.  No fear, we're great with our multiplication facts so this should go smoothly - right?  Perhaps I'll keep dreaming.

We did get started with division last week though and they seem to be catching on quickly, I even began some long division with one of my small groups during guided math and although they were giving me blank stares at first, were able to complete at least one problem on their own!  Baby steps! 

Here is the booklet I created to use as a guide for my lessons last week.  We worked on a skill idea each day and then either filled it into our booklet or I save the space for the next day to use as a review before the lesson.  Although I'm becoming hooked on the idea of math notebooks for all of our vocabulary and examples, they are not something I've started this year (next year!) so I love having something like this booklet for each subject we study.  This way they can keep it in their math folder and pull it out when they need reminders.

Perhaps it will be useful to someone else as well!

Snow Day #2

After an incredibly warm, mild winter with NO snow our area has suddenly been pounded this week.  It seems winter decided to show up after all!  We had a snow day Friday and were just cancelled again today.  Although I'm starting to miss my students and hate giving up our valuable instructional time I am NOT going to complain about a day off!  I am always grateful for extra time to work on things - and sleep! :)

On the agenda for today?  Getting my grad school personal statement in line so I can send it on to some mentors to be read through before I hopefully submit it in the next week or two.  I also plan to get ahead on some of my planning for school, finish some cleaning I pushed off this weekend, and nap - naturally.

I may run over to school this afternoon, but with 4 inches of snow on top of the freezing drizzle from yesterday currently covering the roads I think I'll sit tight and enjoy my coffee on the couch until things get cleaned off a bit.

One thing I did finish up this morning already (yes, I did still get up at 5 - that's when the district's first automatic call came through!) are my Area and Perimeter posters for our room.  We began looking at these areas last week and if we ever go back to school we'll be finishing them up and using them to do some problem solving this week.  My kiddos picked up the concepts quickly, so these posters are more of a reminder for them of when to add or multiply.

AND....I'm sharing them!  You can download them here: http://www.scribd.com/doc/79092971