The Hour of Code! We Love Coding!

Last week 3B students participated in "The Hour of Code".  Information about the Hour of Code can be found at https://hourofcode.com/us.  This was a movement set up to get all students across the world to participate in at least one hour of coding.  3B was part of this great activity and we loved it!

It is believed that all students will have to have some understanding of coding to be an effective working member of society in the future.  Learning to code at our level involved some great apps and online sites.  Many great coding activities are also found on the "Hour of Code" website at https://code.org/learn.  Students did not want to stop once they figured out how to code.  It was really a great week-long activity that we will continue throughout the year.

Along with this, students also did some coding in TECH class.  They loved coding the cars and bugs to move and drive!

I am excited to say students in 3B can code!  Can you?

Multiplication Madness

Sorry it has been so long since I have made a blog post.  I find posting things and activities via Facebook and Twitter quicker and easier, but I also realize that many of you do not have Facebook or Twitter accounts.  So sorry for the lack of blog post lately. Be reassured that 3B has been a busy place.

Multiplication is what the focus is in math and students are working hard to build their multiplication and division facts.  Yesterday everyone learned a game called Baseball Multiplication which reinforced the need to know our facts.

Along with this, students have been building their multiplication facts by earning gumballs.  Starting with the 1s, 2s, 5s, and 10s, students earn a piece of gum and start filling their gum ball machines by getting all the facts done on the page in 1 minute.  It is definitely a challenge as there are 25 problems. We will do these minute assessments every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday.  Students will receive their gum the following day when they master a fact family.  I can definitely tell which students have been practicing and which need to keep practicing.  The first 4-5 students who master all their basic multiplication facts will get a gumball machine filled with bubble gum!

Just a reminder to parents that students can work on their multiplication facts at home as we do not spend a lot of time in class working on them.  We have some apps the students use during "Math Technology" to build recall of facts, but there are also many activities online listed on the side of my blog page students can access at home and play.