Introducing Multiplication

We have reached the most anticipated event of grade 3!
The one thing every student expresses they can hardly wait to learn in grade 3.
Multiplication.
I love to teach multiplication.  There are so many fun ways to make real world connections and use hands on exploration.  I launched our multiplication unit with a question about chopsticks.  Since I love Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese food I brought in a pair of chopsticks and told students that Saturday we went to our favorite restaurant and I ordered the BIG bowl (that's what the waiter told me😋) not a problem, leftovers are a marvelous thing!  My question was then: if there are four people at the table how many chopsticks did we need?  We recorded student thinking and let me tell you there were at least 5 different ways of thinking about this question - but they were all right!  So then I extended the question to be: if I were planning a Chinese meal for everyone in our classroom how many chopsticks would I need to bring?  Real world problems.  We then started to brainstorm things that come in groups of two.  This helps students make a connection between equal groups and multiplication.  Students then went to work making lists of things that come in equal groups of three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven and twelve.  This will help to tie in the visual student to multiplication as we go along.  YAY for us!

Gymnastics has started in our gym.  Students will need to have their hair tied back, wear socks or shoes, have everything tucked in and leave all jewelry at home.  Following the rules set out to keep us safe also means no hoods or dresses for this unit.  Please help your child as we go to gym everyday and they want to participate.

We started reading about Martin Luther King Jr. and the key events of his life.  Biographies are another genre we use to become better readers.  Good readers can determine what is most important information and what is fluff.  The fluff, although meant to keep the readers interest, is not important to the overall picture.  `