Logging into Clever-- Please use this link to find directions for logging into Clever at home.
Clever Instructions for Families
Halloween Activities-- Just a reminder, starting in 2nd grade, students do not dress in Halloween costumes at school. However, as part of a fun Halloween activity, we are going to be doing a mystery science activity, Why do our skeletons have so many bones? Students consider what would happen if their body didn't have bones. In an activity that combines science with art, they trace their hands and then add see-through bones to their picture, making their own skeleton hand. Please note, we will be putting vegetable oil on paper as part of this project. If you have any allergy concerns about your child using vegetable oil, please reach out to me through email.
Conferences- Conferences are scheduled for Thursday, November 6th and Friday, November 7th. Conferences are scheduled for 20 minutes and we have back to back conferences scheduled throughout both days. In order to keep everyone on schedule we’ll need to adhere to your scheduled block of time. Please be looking for an email coming soon that has more information and a link to the online conferences.
Math- At this point in the year, we have started Unit 2 in math. In this unit your child will:
❚ Solve story problems involving multiplication
❚ Represent problems involving multiplication using skip counting, number lines, arrays, and ratio tables
❚ Develop efficient strategies for multiplication facts through 10 × 10, including learning to apply the associative and distributive properties when multiplying.
Feel free to use the free Math Vocabulary Cards app that accompanies our math program for additional support in practicing multiplication. You can find these at mathlearningcenter.org/apps. Another great resource is IXL Fact Fluency Zone. Fact Fluency Zone can be found under the learning tab, and includes fluency games, worksheets, and videos. You can access IXL through this link https://www.ixl.com/signin/nashoba You may need to log into google to use this link.
ELA- Next week, we will be wrapping up Unit 3. Students have been analyzing learning challenges faced by others, specifically with reading and writing. We’ve used the book, My Librarian is a Camel to research learning challenges and the access to books that people face in other countries. Using this book, we explicitly taught and scaffolded how to write an informative paragraph, using text evidence. Students have been using colored pens to help them identify each part of the paragraph. For example, they use red for a focus statement, blue for detail, and green for evidence. The students will combine these paragraphs to create a five paragraph essay to answer the question, “What are some learning challenges people face around the world, and how do they overcome them?” Please look for these essays to come home mid November.
Science- As we finish up the month, we will be wrapping up our unit on weather and climate. Soon, we will start our new Science unit on Forces, Motion, and Magnetism. In this unit, students explore the forces all around them. They investigate the effects of balanced and unbalanced forces, the pushes and pulls of bridge structures, and the effects of gravity and friction on the motion of objects. Students also explore the power of magnetic forces and design solutions to everyday problems using their knowledge of these forces.
Social Studies—Our focus has been on the First People of Massachusetts. Our focus question is, who were the Wampanoag, and how did they live in the land we call Massachusetts? We will discuss how the Wampanoag lived according to the seasons and in their everyday lives. We will also create a flipbook to show our knowledge.
Homework- In order to grow as readers and mathematicians, students should dedicate 30 minutes each night, Monday- Thursday, to homework.
Reading 20 minutes a day at home is important. This could be done daily or as a total of 80 minutes. per week. We want the students to choose high-interest, “good fit books.” The goal of reading daily is not only to grow as a reader but also to instill a love of reading. We don’t assign students books to read at home, but trust that they’re choosing a book that they enjoy, and will help them develop reading for meaning skills and further develop their vocabulary.
Math fact fluency is the building block for higher-level math concepts, and by the end of third grade, students should know by memory all products of two one-digit numbers (3.0A7). Students should spend 10 minutes each night practicing their multiplication facts up to 10x10. Math fact fluency also helps students solve more complex math problems more quickly. If they have mastered their math facts, these concepts will be significantly easier, and they will be better equipped to solve them at a more efficient speed. The benchmark for trimester one is that students will “Know from memory all products of factors 0,1,2,5,9 and 10.” They can practice in a number of ways. Traditional flash cards, reciting facts aloud, writing them on paper, or using an online program. We suggest that students start with 0, 1, 2, 5, 9, and 10.
Xtra Math- In math we use the online fact program XtraMath to monitor their progress. It is an online fact fluency program that helps students develop quick recall and automaticity of their basic math facts. Although it is a timed fluency program, we remove the visual timing elements from the screen so that students are not distracted or become anxious by this. Within the program, students have 3 seconds to type an answer. If this is not completed, the program reinforces their learning by giving the correct answer, having students read the correct answer, and typing it in before moving on. We will be introducing this program next week and having each student take the placement quiz to determine their initial fluency score. Once the placement quiz is completed, each day students will be given a two minute progress quiz to check what progress they have made. Based on this progress quiz students are given an individualized set of 10 facts for the students to work on. Spaced repetition is used to solidify knowledge of these particular facts. Students are asked to complete a full round of XtraMath each day, which is 10 minutes or less. Students with a strong foundation of basic math facts will have an easier time when they begin to tackle more advanced math, like fractions or algebra in the higher grades.
Dates to remember:
October 24- Early Release
November 6- Early Release (Conferences)
November 7- No school (Conferences)
November 9th- PTO Worcester Railers Hockey game
November 11- No school Veteran’s Day
November 26-28- No School (Thanksgiving)
December 3rd- Picture retake