March into New Learning!

Can you believe it is March already? With a new month comes new things to learn! In math, we are finishing up our unit about graphing, and will be learning about fractions very soon! In Social Studies the students are learning about explorers, while in Science we are learning about all kinds of natural cycles. During literacy the students are reading stories with the theme of "Animal Habitats." We will also be writing an animal research report. We are "Marching" right along toward new and exciting learning each and every day!

Classroom Fun!

We have been learning about patterns in math and to help the students gain more experience with this concept, we created "pattern masks" last week! The students created an input/output chart with a number "rule" and glued this pattern onto the back of a paper plate. Next, they decorated the front of the plate like a robot mask. Lastly, they walked around the classroom asking other "robots" for numbers to enter into their input/output "robots" and they tried to solve for each others' rules! They had a great time problem solving!

Happy New Year!

Can you believe almost half of our school year has already flown by? Time does fly when we are having fun! I am certainly having fun with your children each and every day sharing new experiences and learning new things. Right now we are learning about Ancient Civilizations, Multiplication and Division of larger numbers, how to make inferences when we read, and how to write comparison/contrast pieces. Whew! We are busy! Thank you for all of your support at home to help your children be so successful at school. It is very appreciated!

Mega Scarf Company!

Production for the Mega Scarf Company begins this week! We are so excited to become 'business owners' and produce scarves to make money to donate towards the local Dream Come True Playground! For our economic unit, the students have learned all about money, spending, saving, making economic choices, bartering, natural resources, human resources, and capital resources. This unit, and our Mega Scarf Company, allows the student to integrate this information in a fun and realistic way! The students will produce the scarves, advertise for the company, and then sell the scarves to the school community! We hope you will support our company! The scarves go on sale today for only $5 apiece and they are adorable!

Multiplication Mania!

Keister third graders are busy learning all about multiplication! You can help at home by having your child practice their basic facts for a few minutes each night. You can use flash cards or games to practice. If you are using flash cards, try just using part of the deck of cards (such as the 2's, 5's, and 10's) until your child shows mastery of those facts. Then add in more difficult cards, such as 3's and 4's, one number at a time, until your child can do all cards quickly. If you choose to use games, you can play a simple game such as rolling a few dice and having your child multiply the numbers together to find the product or playing a simple game of "multiplication war" using a deck of playing cards. It is also fun to play multiplication facts games online using websites on my portaportal (see the link from the Keister homepage for lots of ideas!) or if you have an iPad or smartphone there are many great free apps for multiplication fact practice! Try to make the challenge of learning these facts fun for everyone by trying something new every few days. Play a family game and challenge each other! How fast can you learn those facts?

Try These Fun Sites!

Sometimes students need some extra practice at home. Why not use your computer to make it more engaging? Try some of these websites for some extra practice with place value!

http://www.learningbox.com/Base10/BaseTen.html

http://www.free-training-tutorial.com/place-value/clickthedigit.html

http://www.funbrain.com/tens/index.html

Learning Is Fun!

The students had a great time learning all about bird beak adaptations using the iPads in science! On the iPads the students were able to manipulate beaks of many different birds and see how these beaks would be adaptations for these birds.