Hello 3^rd grade families!

I hope you are all having a wonderful Saturday afternoon.  It was nice to finally have a drop in temperature.  I’ve lived here for 6 years, but still struggle with the climate difference! 

Anyways, I have been posting a weekly blog on our 3^rd grade Facebook page, but I know not all of you are on Facebook, so I figured I would send out an email and also post the blog.  Thursday of this week, we will have a unit assessment over multiplication and arrays.  We have been working very hard on these two topics. I have had one parent request a study guide to be sent home before the assessments, so I will be sending that home on Tuesday.  The study guide is an actual test from the Envision math curriculum that we use.  It’s just an alternative form of the test.  The problems are different, but they are along the same lines.  I will also include an answer key on the back.

Also, it was brought to my attention that there are many parents who are wanting more practice at home for their kiddos, so I am going to be sending the practice sheet (which we usually do in class) home on Monday for homework, and it will be due on Friday.  It will be taken for a grade.  If your child is struggling with the practice sheet, please have them bring it to school and I will help them during one of our guided math rotations.  I will also be sending home a optional homework page on a daily basis, which will cover what we did in class, and it will be due the following day. 

Please let me know if you have any questions or concerns.  I hope you have a wonderful weekend!

Mrs. Ebel 

Why I Do What I Do

Happy Friday 3rd grade families! 

Red Ribbon week was a great success.  The kiddos seemed to enjoy dressing up, and I'm sure that they are going to love our book character dress up day even more!  Mrs. Thorum and I have a big surprise planned for our students in terms of our costumes.  I had to search for days for the right socks.  Accessories, accessories! 

I've been talking to students in our small group math instruction about what their plan is for the future, given our district theme of "What's Your Plan?"  Today, one of my students told me they wanted to be a teacher when they grew up, and then proceeded to ask me why I became a teacher.  I hate to admit I wasn't completely honest with this student.  I told them I became a teacher because I wanted to help people.  That I love learning, and love sharing knowledge, and the biggest enjoyment of my day is when a student has an "aha!" moment.  But in reality, that's just part of the reason.  When I was in 7th grade back home in Seattle, I had a math teacher who was well liked and respected.  Everyone thought he was the most amazing teacher, both parents and students alike.  I had done well in math all through elementary school, but when I hit junior high, I began to struggle a bit.   Algebra was too complex for me at the time, I excelled at reading, but math was my weak point.  He would write problems on the board and then call students up to answer them in front of the class.  During class one day, he called on me, and I walked up to the board, shaking and sweating with anxiety.  I did my best to solve the problem, and turned around to face the class.  He began laughing at me, and the whole class joined in.  He then proceeded to mock me and degrade me in front of the class.  That was my turning point.  From that moment on, I knew that I wanted to be a teacher, so that at least in my class, there would never be a student who would feel degraded or humiliated.  They would always feel safe to take a chance, to solve something incorrectly, to learn, and be supported. 

Of course, there were other teachers as I progressed through school who motivated and inspired me.  And I took bits and pieces from things I learned and applied them to my own classroom.  I love teaching, and I love each and every one of your kids!  So as we move our way through multiplication and (gasp!) division (that sound effect was directly from some of my students!) I hope they feel the excitement of learning new math skills. 

We will continue multiplication through November 10th, and then move on to relating multiplication to division.  After Thanksgiving, we will work on applying our new skills of multiplication and division to two-step problems.  That will continue until Christmas break. 

I hope you all have a restful weekend!  As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me. 

Warmly,

Mrs. Ebel

Upcoming Events:
October 31st - Book Character Dress-up Day
November 7th - Early Release
November 7th - PISD Showcase: 5:30-7:30 p.m.

Our new unit

Hello 3rd grade families!

Today marked the beginning of our new unit, which will be on multiplication and division.  I am excited for this unit, and so are the kids!  When I asked them to guess what we would be studying next, and someone guessed multiplication, they all cheered!  I love their excitement and desire for learning.  It's contagious :)

I sent home the optional homework today, which covers some of the things we have learned since school started.  There was also a home-school connection letter, which provided you with some ideas on how to help your child with the concept of multiplication.  We are starting with multiplication as repeated addition, and then moving on to arrays.

For science, our next unit will be on weather.  Mainly, how the seasons change and how meteorologists predict the weather.  I literally laughed out loud when I saw the lesson about changing seasons, because here we are almost to November, and it's still 80 degrees outside!  I guess we will learn about hypothetical seasons instead!

As always, please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions or concerns.  I hope you all have a wonderful week!

-Mrs. Ebel

Upcoming Events:

October 31st - Book character dress-up day
November 7th - Early Release & Showcase

Data, data, everywhere!

Good evening 3rd grade families!

This coming Friday will mark the end of our unit on data.  However, I will continue to review data throughout the year.  Dot plots, pictographs, and bar graphs have all been the topic of conversation in my room this last week.  I posted pictures of my two math classes participating in a fitness test, and then using data sheets to make a bar graph.  Our next step will be to compile all of our data and share it with Coach Polasek! 

I've really enjoyed teaching this unit, and I think that my students have enjoyed it as well.  I've postponed the unit assessment for data until October 25th.  We will review on the 24th, and then take our test on the 25th.  There were many factors that influenced my decision, but mainly because the 3rd grade play is on Tuesday, and we have two learning checks this week (one for math, one for science).  The next unit will begin on the 25th, after our test, and it will be on multiplication. 

I remember when I was in school (probably 3rd or 4th grade), and had to learn my multiplication facts.  I struggled to memorize them, and I couldn't for the life of me memorize the 8's and 9's.  No matter how many songs or rhymes the teacher taught me, I could not commit it to memory.  It took time and a lot of patience from both my parents and my teacher, but I finally mastered them! 
I know there will be students who will struggle with the concept of multiplication, and there will be those that pick it up quickly.  No matter where they are on their learning journey, I will do my best to help them build confidence and guide them on their way. 

I hope you have a great weekend!

Warmly,

Mrs. Ebel

Upcoming Events:

October 18th 9:30 a.m. - 3rd grade play
October 31st - Book character dress-up day

October

Hello 3rd grade families!

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend.  This week is full of activities!  Tuesday we have our awards assembly, Thursday will mark the beginning of our life skills classes, and Friday we have a unit assessment and an author's visit.  Our unit assessment on Friday will be over addition and subtraction, this unit will end Thursday and we will review then for the test Friday.  Our next unit starts Monday, October 10th.  During this unit, students will learn about pictographs, bar graphs, and dot plots.  This unit will end mid-October, and then we will begin multiplication! 

For science, we finished our unit on properties of matter, and will be moving into investigating matter and change.  We will complete a short unit on weather during the second six weeks grading period. 

Our guided math framework is up and running fairly smoothly, and the students are really enjoying all the different activities.  During guided math, the students rotate through four different stations.  The math facts station gives them the opportunity to build fact fluency.  Right now, we are working on mastery of addition facts.  The teacher's choice station is where I hold small-group instruction, and the hands-on station is where students can work with manipulatives or other "outside the box" math tools to practice what we are working on in class.  The last station, the at your seat station, is where students will practice what they have learned at the teacher's choice station.  We rotate through each station about every 20 minutes, so it provides variety and a change of activity to keep them engaged and excited about math. 

If you have any questions for me, or need anything, please do not hesitate to call or email.  I hope you have a wonderful week!

Warmly,

Mrs. Ebel

Upcoming Events:

October 3: Booster Club Paint Party Fund Raiser

October 4: 1^st 6 week Assemblies K-2 8:00, 3-5 8:30

October 10: No School

October 18: 3^rd Grade Musical

October 21: Picture Day

Fall Is in the Air

Hello!

When I stepped outside this morning to leave for church, I could feel the crispness in the air.  Fall is definitely here!  Growing up outside of Seattle, there was never really a noticeable change in the seasons.  One thing I love about the Panhandle is when it rains.  It reminds me of home!  It was six years ago this month that we moved to Pampa.  Of course, Miah was born and raised here, so it wasn't a huge change to him moving from Houston.  It took me a while to get used to the weather changes, but the thing I noticed first about this area was the people.  I have felt welcomed into this community since the first day I moved here.  Of course, there is no place that is perfect, but Pampa is a good town, with good people.  I see it in the school through my 3rd grade team of teachers and our administrators.  Everyone truly has the best interest of kids at heart, and that's an encouraging thing! 

As we head to the end of the first six weeks, I want to let you know of a couple of dates coming up this week.  Our math and science learning checks will be this week.  Math will be given on Wednesday, and Science will be given on Thursday.  The learning checks are mini-assessments that we give our students to see what concepts we have taught that might not be clear to them.  That gives the teachers a chance to clear up any misconceptions and re-teach material, if needed.  These are not used for a grade, just for information.

Mrs. Thorum and I are having parent-teacher conferences on October 14th.  We had a sign-up sheet during open house.  If you were unable to attend, but would like to meet with us, please let me know. 

This week for math, we are going to be practicing addition and subtraction with larger numbers.  We will review place value and ordering numbers from least to greatest.  Our next unit will be on data analysis, and will start October 11th.  In science this week, we will continue to work with mixtures and matter. 

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact me.  Here's wishing you a productive and blessed week. 

-Mrs. Ebel

Unit 2: Addition and Subtraction

I hope everyone is having a great weekend!  I have been busy looking over our next unit for math class.  We just finished a review of 2nd grade standards, and are now moving on to our second unit, which will be on addition and subtraction.  This unit will last until October 6th, and our next unit assessment will be October 7th.  I will have Mrs. Thorum send out a Remind101 to all parents a couple of days before.   I am looking forward to this next unit.  In addition to adding and subtracting (we will eventually work up to 3 digit numbers!), we will also be working on finding the perimeter of a polygon. 

The guided math framework that we are using in our classroom allows for small group instruction and different activities for all students.  The students seem to be really enjoying it! 

Last week, I sent home logon information for Think Through Math.  If you ever have any questions or need help, please don't hesitate to contact me.  I have found it to be a very helpful program, as it is student-centered, and tailors the lessons to where they need additional help. 

For science, we are going to start our fall planting soon.  I have contacted the Gray County Extension, and they are going to partner with us to provide supplies and resources for our garden.  I wish we could do spring planting, and then harvest in the fall.  The only issue with that is that there is no one here consistently in the summer to water the plants! 

As always, please let me know if I can do anything to assist you.  I enjoy having each and every one of your wonderful kiddos, and value the unique qualities they bring to our classroom.  I wish you all a restful weekend!

Warmly,

Mrs. Ebel


Upcoming Events:

September 15: Boy Scouts, 6 p.m. in Cafeteria

September 19: Kick-Off for Booster Club Fundraiser at 2:45 in the gym.

September 22: Austin Open House 6:00

September 26: Board Meeting

September 30th: End of 1st 6 weeks

Whew!  What a fun and exhausting week.  We have spent the last three days going over routines and procedures.  The kiddos have done an amazing job!  We have practiced hallway behavior, as well as basic classroom routines.  Today, we went out to look at our flowerbeds, and prepare them for fall planting.  They dug deep into the dirt and really cleaned up all the weeds.  In hindsight, I wish I had taken pictures!  I will definitely remember to take some when we start our planting.  This next week, we will start our first math unit.  We are going to begin with place value and a brief review of the 2nd grade math standards.  I love both of my classes and can't wait to get to know each student even more.  Thank you for sharing your children with me!

-Mrs. Ebel

Upcoming Dates:

September 5th - Labor Day, No School

September 22nd - Open House, 6 p.m.

I have so many great things planned for this school year! The last two years I have taught reading and social studies, and so the switch to math and science is very exciting. We will be doing guided math this year, which will allow for more small group instruction, as well as plenty of time for students to practice hands-on math skills. I am looking forward to an excellent school year! My plan is to update this blog weekly, and provide parents with important information about upcoming events. If you have any questions, please contact me at tricia.ebel@pampaisd.net, or through the blog platform. We have also set up a Facebook page for our 3rd grade parents, feel free to join in!

Upcoming Dates:

August 23rd - Meet the teacher, 4-6 p.m. Class lists will be posted at 3:30

August 24th - First day of school!

September 5th - Holiday (Labor Day, no school)

September 22nd - Open House, 6 p.m.