North Pole or Bust...How we Spent Our Last Day Before Winter Break

Third graders were so excited for December 19th to finally arrive!  One more day of school and then it would officially be Winter Break.  During the final week of school in December, many third graders struggled through illness, but we persevered through the week.  Best of all, nearly everyone in the class scored either an A or a B on the Chapter 4 Math test!

But, despite all of the early week, hardships, we still incorporated some learning into our final hours together.  Ms. Amstutz continued the "Mapping the North Pole" theme by integrating some of our recently learned math skills with our Social Studies skills.

First, students were asked to choose who they would want to be if they lived at the North Pole.  They could choose from Santa, Mrs. Claus, an Elf, or a Reindeer.  Students were given an image to color.  Once colored, they placed their image on a bar graph.

Cayla colors Mrs. Claus.

Once the bar graph was completed, Data was gathered and recorded from that graph.

Kaylin counts how many students wanted to be Mrs. Claus.

Each student had a recording sheet of their own.  A master copy was completed on the STAR Board.  Students took turns coming to the board to record their findings.

Diamond records tally marks.

Sharnetta shades in a bar graph.

The official class results.

Once the results were complete, students used this data to complete some simple questions taking note of observations and making comparisons between the data.

Students used this data to complete some mathematical calculations.  Students had to use problem solving and reasoning to determine which operation (+, -, x, or ÷) needed to be used.  Students determined how many steps were needed to complete the problem.  For example, in number 7 below:

• First, students needed to subtract 2 from the number of Santa votes we had in our class:  6 - 2=4
• Next, students needed to compare that number to the number of Elf votes.  4 Santas is (< , > , =) 5 Elves.  4 Santas is LESS THAN (<) 5 Elves.
• Then, we had to re-read the question to make sure we answered it correctly.  The question wanted to know if there were more Santas or Elves.  Our answer would thus be Elves. 

Students also determined if there were any addition properties or mental math strategies that they could use to help the solve more easily.  For example, for question number 3 below:

• 6 + 2 + 8 + 5 = ? can be more easily figured if we first use the Commutative Property of Addition which tells us that the order in which we add the addends does not change the sum.  Therefore, we can rewrite it as 2 + 8 + 6 + 5 = ?
• Next, we can use the Associative Property of Addition to group numbers that are easily added.
  (2 + 8) + (6 + 5) = ?  These numbers are grouped together because they are easy to add mentally since they either "make-a-ten" or are a "doubles-plus-one" fact.
• From there, we add what is in parentheses:  10 + 11 = 21

After we completed this activity, we moved on to another fun North Pole mapping and math activity.  In this activity, students got a sneak peak at area.  Area was introduced here, even though it is a standard typically not taught until later in the school year, because it is closely related to arrays in multiplication which was taught in chapter four.  Coincidentally,  Grid Maps are an example of an array in Social Studies.

Students were given a packet of buildings found at the North Pole and a blank grid map with areas in which to place those buildings.  Students were instructed to determine the area of each building prior to placing it on their map.

For regular quadrilaterals, students were ready to use prior knowledge of arrays to solve for the area.  By identifying the number of rows and the number of units in each row, students created a multiplication sentence and a repeated addition sentence to solve.  Students also identified that they could solve by skip counting.  By realizing that there are many possible ways to solve a single problem, but that some methods are more efficient than others, they are becoming more prepared for real-world problem solving.

Sharnetta works to complete area calculations on simple arrays.

Now, for the challenge problems.  Students had not had exposure to irregular shapes and area thus far this year.  Prior to attempting to solve, students were asked to make observations about the shapes in front of them and to offer suggestions about how they might solve for these irregular shapes.  Not surprisingly, students suggested counting each individual unit (shaded square).  However, once asked if they saw as part of these irregular shapes, what looked like a regular array, students were quick to notice that, indeed, there was an array of equal rows and equal columns.

 Students were asked to come to the STAR Board to outline the array that they saw in each of the shaded areas.  A multiplication sentence was determined using our "___ rows of ____ =  ____ " formula to get to  "___ x ___ = ___ "  But, what about those extra units that aren't part of the array?  What do we do with them?  When noting that the multiplication sentence is only giving us the area of the array, students were able to determine that we must add the others to the product of our multiplication sentence.

• As demonstrated in the photo above on the bottom left, 4 x 2 = 8.  8 + 2 = 10 square units.

Shy'Diamond finds an array within an irregular shape.

Cayla calculates the area of a regular quadrilateral.

Once the area of all of the buildings on the North Pole were found, students could finally color and cut out the buildings and glue them on the map.

Lavon's North Pole grid map.

Ms. Amstutz asked students to add letter and number labels to the grids to make their maps a true grid map.

Jayda proudly displays her North Pole Map.

After our morning math and social studies efforts, the afternoon was left for fun.  We spent the afternoon celebrating reaching our December behavior and learning goals by having our P.R.I.D.E. party.  With a Polar Express theme, students wore their pajamas to school, drank hot chocolate and snacked on chocolate chip cookies.

TaMya, Cayla, Jayda, and Shy'Diamond enjoying the show, cookies and all!

Ms. Amstutz shared a special gift for each of them, a stocking filled with a specially selected and dedicated book, a Disney Frozen poster, stickers, a pencil,  and some candies.  

Lavon and Justice enjoying their gifts from Ms. Amstutz.

Ms. Speelman, our Title 1 Reading tutor gifted each student a Slinky, mechanical pencil, and candy cane.  She was also kind enough to bring in holiday cupcakes to share with the class as well.

Lavon and Da'Marieon showing off the gifts from Ms. Speelman.

We also had a special visitor!  Santa Claus (Mr. Gonzalez, our Title 1 Math tutor) came to visit our classroom and handed out candy canes.

Happy Holidays from Room 177