Fall is in the air!

I stole this image from Starbucks website, but I'm thinking this is free advertising, right? :)

I adore this time of year! I am so happy to be sipping Pumpkin Spice Lattes (Starbucks of course!) and groovin along at school. This is the sweet spot for getting so much done. I've taught them how to be in small groups and now we are moving fast! This week I will be finished with my first unit of study (shhh.. I was supposed to be done weeks ago! But you have to move slow to go fast, right?) We've learned how to ask and answer questions (we're still working on that citing evidence part) and we've done some prefix and suffix stuff, and also figurative language.

We are going to finish the unit this week with Lovin Lit's freebie featured in TpT's newsletter this Sunday. It says for grade 4-8, but I think my third graders can handle it! Is it bad that it caught my eye because it was teal chevron?

We will also be starting on rounding. Normally, rounding was really hard for third graders, but I learned last year how to make it a ton easier. First, we start off by counting by tens and hundreds in our counting circles. This helps them better understand where numbers end up. I also teach them expanded notation addition which helps them to know what the number "means" not just what it says. Finally, I teach them how to make a number line for finding the numbers that they are between before they start to round.

When they understand how to round on the number line, then we start using chants and other things to help us remember in a pinch.

I also show them this visual of a car. We talk about if they were on the road and the gas station was at zero and 10 and when they got to a certain point they would need to decide to turn around or go ahead. This is a great visual for them to understand. There are little cars with numbers for us to practice as a class where the car should go.

Finally, with these visual reminders, we are able to do the kind of rounding that is more likely to show up on a standardized test, where they are just given a number. I also included the car visual to help them remember!

I'm excited to get started and I think they are going to get a kick out of the car graphics (made by my hubby!)

If you are interested in Rounding Road you may purchase it in my store! There is a freebie rounding page in the preview as well!