Addition Practice

We've been working hard on addition so far this year. I've worked a lot on truly understanding what addition means, and what place value means. We started off by doing number bonds. I talk about it in this post {Singapore Math}. Pretty much we did A LOT of review on making ten, and bigger numbers and how to break apart numbers. With the help of Singapore disks (Thanks Donors Choose!), we made ten frames with dry erase markers on our desk and added one digit numbers. My principal got to see this, and luckly I didn't get in trouble for writing on the desks! :) 

After tons of practice with making ten and number bonds, we are working on simple addition to the thousands place. The method that has been really successful for me is expanded form addition.

By using expanded form addition, my students are able to add numbers in their head with lightning speed. I'm not quiet there this year, but last years' students amazed me with their math abilities, especially mental math. I think this form of addition also encourages a thorough understanding of place value, instead of following a rote procedure. Since CCSS asks that students do not learn the traditional algorithm for addition and subtraction, this helps students to be able to quickly and easily complete addition problems. This method also cuts down on errors from incorrect use of the standard algorithm.

This packet, with 13 worksheets for teaching this method of addition and number bonds is available at my TpT store {here}.

 

I think I survived!

Now that I made it through open house and the first few weeks of school, I might be able to breathe again. I am so tired, it is not even funny. I'm sure I will feel much better after sleeping 14 hours tonight! :)

Last night was Curiculum Night, and I think it went well. I once again did a scavenger hunt so parents could look around the classroom with their child in an organized way. I love doing this, because I'm not the center of attention!

In addition to preparing for Curiculum Night, we've been busy getting to know each other, creating goals, and learning all about Third Grade! For goal setting, we've created many goals, both academic and social or personal. We are graphing our NWEA results and creating a goal for when we take the test next week.

 I have been teaching Thinking Maps for the first time, which has been fun and challenging. So far I have introduced the Circle Map and Bubble Map. For the Circle Map, we used it to develop our rules, our classroom volume, and what a great student looks like. So far, I have used Circle Maps to teach about describing characters in a story and an apple. This was such a great way to introduce adjectives. They came up with some great words!

My focus this year is to delve deeper into Common Core for ELA. I have been using some great resources on Read Write Think. They had some great community building and conflict resolution ideas that were really helpful for establishing a positive classroom environment. This lesson, Getting to Know You had the students interviewing each other and completing a bio-cube as a culminating assignment. I used this activity to begin our study on asking and answering questions (RL.3.1).

To introduce the idea of bullying as well as how to respond to literature, we read A Bad Case of Stripes. Read Write Think's lesson helped me to develop the lesson.

We've done other things, of course, but this has what has worked really well for me these past few weeks!
If you are interested, the Curiculum Night Scavenger hunt is available {here} and my goal setting packet {here}.