August 10, 2016

     Dear Parents,

     Wow, this year is off to a great start!!  We have gotten to know each other better through several "break the ice" activities, organized and color-coded our class journals, completed our first cold read and cold write assessments, started our first class novel with "Stone Fox", begun our notes on Democracy for our first Social Studies unit, personalized the front covers of our Writing journals with photos that are important to us, created our student-generated class rules, taken our first computation timed test, and begun using our brand new agendas.  Having Mrs. Johnson visit our class and read "The Most Magnificent Thing" was an added highlight to our week!  I love the good work and thoughtful behavior your wonderful kiddos are showing in our class this week and am excited about this school year.  :) :) :)

       Here are the first standards we will be focusing on in Math:

Math On Level - 
MGSE.3.NBT.1 Use place value understanding to round whole numbers to the nearest 10 or 100. This standard refers to place value understanding, which extends beyond an algorithm or procedure for rounding. The expectation is that students have a deep understanding of place value and number sense and can explain and reason about the answers they get when they round. Students should have numerous experiences using a number line and a hundreds chart as tools to support their work with rounding. For example: Question: Round 34 to the nearest ten. Student thinking: "Let me locate 34 on a number line. I know that it takes four jumps (ones) to get back to 30 and six jumps (ones) to get to 40. This means that the closest ten would be 30."

MGSE.3.NBT.2 Fluently add and subtract within 1000 using strategies and algorithms based on place value, properties of operations, and/or the relationship between addition and subtraction. This standard refers to fluently, which means accuracy, efficiency (using a reasonable amount of steps and time), and flexibility (using strategies such as the distributive property). Students explain their thinking and show their work by using strategies and algorithms, and verify that their answer is reasonable. Example: There are 178 fourth graders and 225 fifth graders on the playground. What is the total number of students on the playground? Student 1 100 + 200 = 300, 70 + 20 = 90, 8 + 5 = 13 so 300+90+13 = 403 students. Student 2 I added 2 to 178 to get 180. I added 220 to get 400. I added the 3 left over to get 403. Student 3 I know 75 plus 25 equals 100. Then I added 1 hundred from 178 and 2 hundreds from 275. I had a total of 4 hundreds and I had 3 more left to add. So I have 4 hundreds plus 3 more which is 403.

Math Advanced-
MGSE3.G.1 Understand that shapes in different categories (e.g., rhombuses, rectangles, and others) may share attributes (e.g., having four sides), and that the shared attributes can define a larger category (e.g., quadrilaterals). Recognize rhombuses, rectangles, and squares as examples of quadrilaterals, and draw examples of quadrilaterals that do not belong to any of these subcategories. Students recognize shapes that are and are not quadrilaterals (four sided) by examining the properties of the geometric figures. A quadrilateral must be a closed figure with four straight sides and they begin to notice characteristics of the angles and the relationship between opposite sides. Students should be encouraged to provide details and use proper vocabulary when describing the properties of quadrilaterals.

 They sort geometric figures and identify squares, rectangles, and rhombuses as quadrilaterals. Students should classify shapes by attributes and drawing shapes that fit specific categories. For example, parallelograms include: squares, rectangles, rhombi, or other shapes that have two pairs of parallel sides. Also, the broad category quadrilaterals include all types of parallelograms, trapezoids and other four-sided figures. Example: Draw a picture of a quadrilateral. Draw a picture of a rhombus. How are they alike? How are they different? Is a quadrilateral a rhombus? Is a rhombus a quadrilateral? Justify your thinking.

MGSE3.G.2 Partition shapes into parts with equal areas. Express the area of each part as a unit fraction of the whole. For example, partition a shape into 4 parts with equal area, and describe the area of each part as 1/4 of the area of the shape. This standard builds on students’ work with fractions and area. Students are responsible for partitioning (splitting) shapes into halves, thirds, fourths, sixths and eighths.

        Please let me know if you ever have ANY questions or concerns by e-mailing me at magisgraves@fultonschools.org  Thank you for all of your support!!

        Mrs. M-G