Third Grade Maths Ideas

OK.....

Third Grade Maths is a daunting thing...  Maybe it's just here in Victoria, Australia.  Maybe we're a little different - I'm not sure what it is.  But for some reason the educational "powers that be" have decided that in the third grade children aged about 8 or 9 years old need to know the following:

• all the three dimensional shapes
• all about angles
• fractions
• decimals
• all the times tables up to 12
• measurements of liquid, solids, temperature, length, area and weight
• how to tell time accurately with analogue and digital clocks
• adding, subtracting, multiplication and division into the hundreds (at least)
• some crazy flipped out notion of "flipping, turning or rotating"
• how to represent data on graphs
• finding plots on grids
• number patterns
• rounding off to the nearest ten or hundred; estimating
• adding and subtracting dollars and coins

And

• chance outcomes (probability)

I am NOT joking. 

Marnie and I do Maths just about every day.  And I resent the time it takes enormously.  The only benefit I see to this investment of time is that it will make fourth and fifth grade a little easier.  I am certainlyl planning to spend less time on Maths next year. 

We move slowly through the material - another reason I believe that the benefits will emerge over the next few years.  I am guided by this book:

See the happy dolphins playing together in the water?  Yeah right...

No, really, I have found this book is very good for the way it  brightly introduces each of the (many) topics of third grade maths. The book only provides an introduction however, so to really learn the material through repetition and extension I use this book:



This book contains pages and pages of problems in all of the categories listed above.  The print is small and you might like to photocopy and enlarge the relevant sections, but Marnie is used to it now and just works through the problems.  They are repetitive and by the end of a unit of work your third grader should know that topic pretty well. 


This 'book learning' approach to Maths is pretty dry I know, and it goes against the grain for me.  I use it because:

• it works - Marnie really learns the material because it causes her to focus her attention, sit still and methodically work through problems
• Marnie actually doesn't mind working through material this way - she has always enjoyed sitting down and working through puzzle books

Here are some lessons I have learnt as a mum-home-educator of maths during this past year:

• we really need to do maths about four or five times per week because otherwise the 'learning' just doesn't happen.  Marnie will forget what we've been working on if we've left it for more than about four or five days.  We need to build slowly each day, or else we just end up going over the same lesson again and not getting anywhere.  If i were a home educating mum who could relate the maths lessons to everyday life then I'm sure the learning would consolidate - but it does not come naturally to me; so I guess it has to be done in a routined and consistant way.

• I've tried to incorporate other ways of learning and some things have been very succesful for maths - games, songs, moving around, projects (drawing and designing posters).  Here are some examples.

On a cheap books stall at a local shopping complex, I found this book and CD which contains  a heap of songs that help with basic addition:

Marnie, who is musically oriented, and I danced and jumped around chanting and singing the basic addition sums:  one plus one is two; one plus two is three: etc.

It is sung in an American accent which grates on my nerves but many of the songs have jivey rhythms that you can really swing your mamma hips to. The addition sums go up to 12 plus.  There are also pages of adding games where you use a dice and work through a maze or spiral where you must complete an addition sum before moving on.  Marnie adored it!  It was not until she reached the age of about 'nine and a bit' that I really thought she 'got it', and could confidently add two numbers together up to twenty or so. The book also has addition problems that are in the tens, and does not progress to the hundreds. 

I also found a website that was really useful:

http://www.mathcats.com/

This website had some great crafty activites that related to maths.  We made the 'three dimensional shape city' and also the weaving board. 

For subtraction we used two packs of flashcards I purchased cheaply that have the 'minus sums' up to about twelve.  I spread them out on the floor and we had a competition to see "how many subtraction sums can you find that equal 5".  She busily crawled around the floor snatching at cards and then using mental maths to work out the sums - it worked a treat! I also found (at the library) a simple board game that involved spinning a spinner and then subtracting numbers to move along the board to the finish line. 

For multiplication we have headed out of doors to the driveway, and chalked up pathways of numbers.  Then I ask her to jump in threes and shout out the numbers (for 3x tables).  I find this particularly useful for explaining division.  "How many jumps of three are there to reach twelve?"

Inspired by a Waldorf book I bought earlier in the year, we also have 'number journeys' along our number path.  Here's an example:

"A brave angel (warrior/knight/princess/frog... whatever) set out on a long journey.  She needed to complete a quest.  She traveled forward seven spaces and met four flying monkeys who bombarded her with coconuts!  (Child acts out ducking from the coconuts and fending off said flying monkeys).  She had to go back one space for every coconut that hit her on the head.  (Child steps back one or two spaces)  What number is she on now?  Five... oh so seven minus two equals five!"  You continue on with the story going backwards and forwards, making sure to clearly state each sum out loud "So for every magic jewel she finds, the angel can fly forward two spaces.  She found three magic jewels... So three times two equals Six!  She can fly forward six spaces.  What number is she on now?"

You could conceivably continue this story until sunset, but my sanity usually starts to give out after about fifteen minutes.  I have been known to continue these stories until after dark on a balmy summer's night - as long as i'm in a comfy chair, with sparkling wine in one hand and packet of chips in the other. 

This is the waldorf maths book I purchased online:

I Know it says second grade, but Marnie, still aged 8 at the beginning of this year was at a stage when this book was relevant and valuable.  As you can see on the front they have a story about the way numbers ordered themselves into hundreds, tens and units - according to the colours of the rainbow.  This was really useful for helping Marnie understand about how you need to line numbers up in columns to add and subtract.  In fact she made up her own story:  about the five black eyed quadrapusses (named Adam, Atticus, Max, Sam and Dan), who were completely out of control with their numbers until Adam quadrapuss pulled them into line and showed them how to get themselves organized.  I wonder about her choice of 'Adam' as the black eyed quadrapuss who sorted everything out - do you think it's significant - maybe she was tapping into some ancient archetypal encoded memory that sits unharnessed in her mind?!  Maybe not..



Another website I found useful this year was:

http://www.copacabana-p.schools.nsw.edu.au/Get_Smart_Pages/Get_Smart_Maths_s2_Space&Measure.html

Some really great games to play online:  a NSW primary school developed this website and I think it is fantastic; literally dozens of maths games to play.  Marnie did not even know she was doing maths. 

I also included maths in a couple of science experiments we did this year, where she needed to plot the results of experiments on a graph.  We did temperature and wind direction for the course of a week and then designed a bar graph and line graph.  We also focussed on measurements of all kinds for about a month - and this was one topic where I actually found that doing 'real life' stuff helped with the maths.  for example we talked about mass and cupsful, and litres as we shopped for the flour, or baked a cake.  I asked Marnie to design a poster that showcased all the different types of measurements and she applied herself well - produced a fine piece of work with all the different types of measurement - metres, litres, degrees, square centimetres, grams, etc. 

Finally, and I'm sure I'll remember other stuff after I post this:  there is the topic of 'logic' which is an intriguing but worthy topic to cover - I guess it comes under the "thinking skills" component of the VELS (Victorian Essential Learning Standards).  There are two sites that we used for this, I'm sure there are heaps more (including the quests on Club Penguin and Poptropica) 

http://www.anikasodyssey.com/  You follow a girl through the forest and you need to solve problems and challenges that she is confronted with.

http://www.garfield.com/fungames/scavengerhunt/scavengerhunt.html  This is as much fun for grown ups as kids;  try to find the donuts as you wander through the haunted house.  Logic, logic, logic....


Your feedback is welcome...





Grade Three Ideas for English

We haven't really applied ourselves to a detailed curriculum in English this year.  But here are a few ideas that I'll share with you.



I read to Marnie every morning.  I've done this for years - from picture books to more interesting series of novels.  The reasons I read to Marnie rather than have her read to me are:

• she enjoys it and so do I
• she can engage with material that might otherwise be too complex for her to access (she can enjoy books and stories that might be too hard for her to read)
• she is learning about the conventions of storymaking - character, plot, pacing, beginnings and endings.
• it helps her with expression, vocabulary and basic sentence construction
• I can have influence over  the types of books and stories she is being introduced to
• I believe that hearing stories being told to them is what children love and need

We enjoy reading this way, and it's easy and comfortable on a winter's morning to lay snuggled up in bed and do our first "lesson" of the day without having to jump out into the cold of the day and fight the morning traffic to get to school.  



I also encourage Marnie to read for herself, although she is not particularly enthusiastic about it - she can do it though.  And I must say that her reading has improved vastly this past six months.  She loves reading Garfield books that are set out in comic style.  She does not understand half of the jokes, but she enjoys Garfield's expressions and shenanigans.

Here are some of the books we've read this year:

• The Judy Moody series about a third grader in Virginia http://www.judymoody.com/ 



• The Sisters 8 series about eight, eight year old octuplets left to fend for themselves: http://www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com/features/sisters8/

• The Walk Right in Detective Agency; four books about two Aussie youngsters living in Milk Bay who open a detective agency:



• Ramona Quimby Aged 8; another third grader in America. 
• The Making Tracks series of Australian novels, each set in a different time period.  Some are better than others but we enjoy them.
• "Our Australian Girl" series - fantastic!  We love them, each series of four books is about a girl who is living in a different historical period.  Great way to introduce Australian History to children. http://www.ouraustraliangirl.com.au/





• Anything to do with cats: the Animal Ark books are Marnie's favourites.
• Earlier in the year we read some Roald Dahl books which Marnie seemed to enjoy. 
• We still occasionally pull an Edith Blyton book off the library shelf to read - Secret Seven and The Naughtiest Girl in the School remain our all time favourites in this particular genre.

We read a series of books called "Girlz Rock" and they were fine.  I felt that the characters did nothing but pursue hedonistic pleasure - there were no real moral dilemmas to work through or any earth shattering life lessons to learn by book's end.  On the other hand, they portray girls as strong and actively living their lives which is a good thing.  I don't know that I would recommend them as particularly great books to read aloud though.



I'm sure I'll think of more, but these books have been our highlights for third grade so far. 


I have not focussed on 'literacy' so much this year.  I tend to embed spelling and vocabulary into other subjects such as science or maths.  Our most recent spelling tests have been for The days of the week, the different geometric shapes (cylinder, triangular prism, rectangular pyramid), and some words related to a study of the skeleton (ossification, sternum, femur etc).  I still beleive that reading will improve Marnie's spelling, however next year I am going to give grammar, spelling, vocab etc. more time than I have this year.


I'll be using this book for the remainder of the year (till about Feb 2012 I'm guessing).  It has pages of reading, comprehension and vocab, spelling and grammar exercises.  Personally we have found it a little advanced so far this year, but I'm thinking that Marnie is probably at a stage now where she could work through the exercises with some assistance from me.



I found it very hard to enthuse Marnie about her handwriting.  She has avoided it whenever she could.  We completed a few weeks of 'joined up writing' which she enjoyed if she was tracing over the letters that I wrote first.  We had a real breakthrough a few months ago when I decided to find some overseas penpals for her.  Since recieving letters, Marnie is now much more enthusiastic about her handwriting, and writing in general.  Her handwriting is not great but then with practice it should improve.  I found a website for homeschooling families wanting penpals: Yahoo Homeschoolpen-pals.  To be perfectly honest I've struggled with the website - it's not easy to use or find your messages.  Anyway we have about three or four girls writing to Marnie now from different parts of the USA, so I don't have to bother with the website anylonger.  Also an add that Marnie sent off months ago into Grass Roots magazine also resulted in several girls from around Australia writing to Marnie as well.  So now she has plenty of handwriting opportunities!  (And she is learning about the conventions of letter writing: how to address an envelope and what will fit in a standard envelope!).


I'd love any feedback.  More posts coming soon!

The Big Gentle Boy

Once upon a time there was a mean, big, fat boy who was mean to everybody.  His name was Mean Ben.  For example, yesterday he chased the girls named Kayla, Michaela and Sarah.  Kayla said “Mean Ben, go away!”                    

Michaela said “Mean Ben don’t bother us!”   

          

                        

 

Sarah said “Mean Ben leave us alone!”  But Mean Ben would not leave them alone.

One day he did not let a little boy play with him when the little boy had no one to play with, because the girls did not want to play with him, and all the older boys would not play with them either. 

                                                                    

After he had bullied that little boy some more and school was finished for the day, mean Ben came home where he had a little sister whose name was Kelly.  And on the way home, Mean Ben was sitting next to Kelly and was punching her, and punching her over and over again. 

Mean Ben’s mother said “Stop it, Ben!  You’ve got to cut it out and you are grounded.  You are not to walk out of the door”

Mean Ben thought about it when he got home.  His bedroom was at the top of the stairs, and he thought to himself “She said that I was not to walk out of that door.  Did she say door?  Then I will climb out of the window!  Then I will not be walking out of the door.” 

So Mean Ben packed his bag, and then climbed down from the window without being heard, very quietly and rode his bike to have a sleep over with his best friend, who was also mean.  His only friend was named Mean Phelp. 

When it was dinner time back home at Mean Ben’s house, his mother called out “Dinner Mean Ben” but Mean Ben did not come.  So she called out louder “Come and eat your dinner, come and eat your dinner”.  But Mean Ben did not come so his mother yelled and yelled and yelled and said “Mean Ben come down now!  You are Mean Ben and that is where you got your name from so now you’re going to be known as Mean, Mean Ben.”

Then his mother thought a minute “he’ll probably pack his bag and climb down the window and go to Mean Phelp’s house”.  Then Mean, Mean Ben’s mother called Mean Phelp’s mother and said “Is Mean Ben over at your house?”   Mean Phelp’s mother said “Yes.  Didn’t he tell you?  He told me that he told you that he was coming here for the night.”  Mean Ben’s mother said “Well, I’m coming over”

Mean Ben’s mother drove in her car over to Mean Phelp’s house. She said to Mean Ben “I decided that your name was Mean Ben because you were so mean, but now your name will be Mean, Mean Ben.  And you are so grounded!  You are not coming out of the house unless I say to go to school.  In fact you might even miss school since you are double grounded!”  

So then Ben sighed and thought “I’m going to change.  Why did I get my name as Mean, Mean Ben?  Why did I get my name as Mean Ben?  Because I’ve been mean, and mean is not nice.  So I’m changing from mean to nice.  I do not want to be called Mean, Mean Ben, or Mean Ben either”. 

One day later he came to his mother and said, “I do not want to be double grounded”.

 His mother said “Well then you can be just grounded, not double grounded”  

But then Mean, Mean Ben said “I want to change from being mean to being nice and gentle”

So then his mother said “OK, be nice and gentle for one whole week of school and then I’ll see if your teacher says that you have changed.”

It was Monday when Ben came to school and tried not to chase the girls, but they still kept away from Ben.  He came to the little boy and was about to say “You can play with me” but the little boy was too scared and ran away.  And then he sat down lonely asking for someone to play with.  On Tuesday, the little boy and the girls came up with an idea.  They whispered “How about we see if Ben has changed.  We’ll go near him and we’ll see if he has really changed.  So if he chases us or bashes upthe  little boy then he is still mean.”

                     

 

So then they all practiced for awhile,  and the little boy pretended to be Mean, Mean Ben and another boy kindly said “I will be Mean, Mean Ben.  Then you can be sure if you want to go with Mean, Mean Ben and be his friend”

They practiced and they practiced until they were not scared if Mean, Mean Ben chased them again.  Then on Wednesday they asked Mean, Mean Ben if he would play with them and he said “Really, are you sure that you want to play with me?  Aren’t you setting up any tricks for me?  So that is why I might play with you just this once” 

On Thursday, Mean, Mean Ben and the girls and the little boy started playing a really, really good game.  So they did that all week until it was Saturday.

Mean, Mean Ben’s mother got a call from the teacher, and the teacher said “I’ve kept an eye on him all week and Mean, Mean Ben has been very nice so he does not have to be grounded”

Mean, Mean Ben’s name changed to Big, Gentle Ben.  And he was the best boy in all of the class and the best boy of the girls too.  And that was the story of Mean, Mean Ben changing into Big, Gentle Ben.