Grade 3 News
Newsletter #1: How We Express Ourselves UOI
UOI 6: Who We Are
An inquiry into the nature of the self; beliefs and values; personal, physical, mental, social and spiritual health; human relationships including families, friends, communities, and cultures; rights and responsibilities; what it means to be human.
Central idea: Our body is made up of different systems that are interdependent.
Key concepts: form, function, connection
Related concepts: living, health, movement, systems, interdependence
Lines of inquiry
- Body system (skeletal, muscular, digestive, respiratory) (form)
- How the brain controls the body systems (function)
- How different systems work together (connection)
In-House Guest Speakers
What Are We Learning This Unit?
Math
New Homework:
Students are no longer doing the weekly spiral review for homework. Ms. Ahmed, the fourth-grade teacher, has requested that ALL third-grade students fluently know their multiplication facts prior to starting fourth grade. Students start fourth grade with long division and multi-digit multiplication, and it becomes challenging to learn these new concepts if they are not completely fluent in their multiplication facts.
To help students with their multiplication fluency each student is given fluency homework on www.xtramath.org. They are required to practice for 15 minutes every night Monday thru Thursday. (If they would like to practice more than 15 minutes, that is completely okay, and if they want to practice on the weekends, that is okay too.)
If you have any questions or need further clarification on this homework, please email me and I will try my best to clarify, inshaAllah.
Red, Yellow, and Blue Groups
The final module of the year offers students intensive practice with word problems, as well as hands-on investigation experiences with geometry and perimeter.
Topic A begins with solving one- and two-step word problems based on a variety of topics studied throughout the year and including all four operations (3.OA.8). The lessons emphasize modeling and reasoning to develop solution paths. They incorporate teacher-facilitated problem solving, opportunities for students to independently make sense of problems and persevere in solving them, and time for students to share solutions and critique peer strategies.
Topic B introduces an exploration of geometry. Students build on Grade 2 ideas about polygons and their properties, specifically developing and expanding their knowledge of quadrilaterals. They explore the attributes of quadrilaterals and classify examples into various categories, including recognizing the characteristics of polygons (3.G.1). Students draw polygons based on their attributes, producing sketches from descriptions like, “This shape has two long sides that are parallel, two short sides, and no right angles.”
Students next use tangrams and tetrominoes (see examples to the right) to compose and decompose shapes. They reason about the relationships between shapes and between attributes. For example, students understand that quadrilaterals can be decomposed into triangles and recognize that the two smallest triangles in a tangram puzzle can be put together to form a parallelogram, a square, or a medium triangle.
Students tessellate to bridge geometry experience with the study of perimeter in Topic C. They first decompose a quadrilateral and then rearrange the parts. They use the new shape to tile. Students then define perimeter in two distinct ways: (1) as the boundary of a planar region and (2) as the length of the boundary curve. Students see varied examples from the tiles used to tessellate. As they learn about perimeter as an attribute of plane figures, students apply their knowledge to real-world situations through problem-solving (3.MD.8). They measure side lengths of shapes in whole number units to determine perimeter and solve problems where side lengths are given. They use string and rulers to measure the length around circles of different sizes. This variation prompts students to think more flexibly about perimeter, understanding that it can be the boundary of any shape and that its measurements are not limited to whole numbers. The topic ends with problems in which some measurements around the perimeter of a polygon are unknown but can be determined by reasoning. Students consider the efficiency of their strategies and identify tools for solving; for example, they use multiplication as a tool when measurements are repeated.
Topic D utilizes the line plot, familiar from Module 6, to help students draw conclusions about perimeter and area measurements (3.MD.4). Early in the topic, students find different possible perimeters or areas for rectangles based on information given about the rectangles. For example, using knowledge of factors from experience with multiplication, students find the following:
Different perimeters of rectangles composed of a given number of unit squares (3.MD.8).
For example, given a rectangle composed of 24 unit squares, students find four possible perimeters: 50, 28, 22, and 20 length units.
Different areas of rectangles with a given perimeter and composed of unit squares.
For example, students use unit squares to build rectangles with a perimeter of 12 units and determine that they can do so using 5, 8, or 9 unit squares. (Forming rectangles with unit squares results in whole number side lengths.)
Students use line plots to show the number of rectangles they were able to construct for each set of given information. The line plots are tools that students use to help them analyze and draw conclusions about their data. Students draw their rectangles on grid paper and reason about their findings. They notice, for example, that for rectangles of a given area, those with side lengths that are equal or almost equal (more square-like)
have smaller perimeters than those whose side lengths are very different (a long and narrow shape). By the end of the topic, students are able to conclude that there is no direct relationship between area and perimeter. If an area is given, there is no way of knowing a shape’s corresponding perimeter without more information about the side lengths.
In Topic E, students solve problems involving area and perimeter. After an initial lesson of problem-solving with perimeter, students create a robot composed of rectangles. Given specific perimeter measurements for the rectangles, they reason about the different possible side lengths. Students compare and analyze their work, discussing how different choices for side lengths can affect area while conforming to the criteria for perimeter. Students synthesize their learning in the final lessons through solving word problems involving area and perimeter using all four operations (3.OA.8).
Topic F concludes the school year with a set of engaging lessons that briefly review the
fundamental Grade 3 concepts of fractions, multiplication, and division. This topic comes after the End-of-Module Assessment. It begins with a pair of lessons on fractions, engaging students in analyzing and creating unusual representations of one-half, such as those shown to the right. Students analyze and discuss these representations, using their knowledge of fractions to justify their constructions and critique the work of others. The final lessons in this topic are fluency based and engage students in games that provide practice to solidify their automaticity with Grade 3 skills. Using simple origami techniques, students create booklets of these games. The booklets go home and become resources for summer practice.
Purple Group
Students extend their work with whole numbers. They begin with large numbers using familiar units (hundreds and thousands) and develop their understanding of millions by
building knowledge of the pattern of times ten in the base ten system on the place value chart (4.NBT.1). They recognize that each sequence of three digits is read as hundreds, tens, and ones followed by the naming of the corresponding base thousand unit (thousand, million, billion).
The place value chart is fundamental to Topic A. Building upon their previous knowledge of bundling, students learn that 10 hundreds can be composed into 1 thousand, and therefore, 30 hundreds can be composed into 3 thousands because a digit’s value is 10 times what it would be one place to its right (4.NBT.1). Students learn to recognize that in a number such as 7,777, each 7 has a value that is 10 times the value of its neighbor to the immediate right. One thousand can be decomposed into 10 hundreds; therefore 7 thousands can be decomposed into 70 hundreds.
Similarly, multiplying by 10 shifts digits one place to the left, and dividing by 10 shifts digits one place to the right.
3,000 = 10 × 300 3,000 ÷ 10 = 300
In Topic B, students use place value as a basis for comparing whole numbers. Although this is not a new concept, it becomes more complex as the numbers become larger. For example, it becomes clear that 34,156 is 3 thousands greater than 31,156.
34,156 > 31,156
Comparison leads directly into rounding, where their skill with isolating units is applied and extended. Rounding to the nearest ten and hundred was mastered with three-digit numbers in Grade 3. Now, Grade 4 students moving into Topic C learn to round to any place value (4.NBT.3), initially using the vertical number line though ultimately moving away from the visual model altogether. Topic C also includes word problems where students apply rounding to real life situations.
In Grade 4, students become fluent with the standard algorithms for addition and subtraction. In Topics D and E, students focus on single like-unit calculations (ones with ones, thousands with thousands, etc.), at times requiring the composition of greater units when adding (10 hundreds are composed into 1 thousand) and decomposition into smaller units when subtracting (1 thousand is decomposed into 10 hundreds) (4.NBT.4). Throughout these topics, students apply their algorithmic knowledge to solve word problems. Students also use a variable to represent the unknown quantity.
The module culminates with multi-step word problems in Topic F (4.OA.3). Tape diagrams are used throughout the topic to model additive compare problems like the one exemplified below. These diagrams facilitate deeper comprehension and serve as a way to support the reasonableness of an answer.
English Language Arts
Science
We will also learn how the brain controls all the body systems, and how different systems work together, for example how the skeletal and muscular system work together so that we can move.
AQI
Arabic:
- Students are learning the body parts (inside and out) and how to describe their body.
رأسي كبير أنفي صغير عيوني واسعة
- Students are going to learn the human body systems in Arabic vocabulary
كلي كبد قلب عظام مخ عين
- students are going to learn the preposition words for dual and more than two.and dual nouns.
Quran:
- Memorize & Understand General themes of Surat At-Tariq, how ِِِِllah created the Human.
- Fluency: read pages 11-15 from Surat Al-Baqarah.
Islamic Studies
- Different between the humans and angels.
- Akhlaq: Thinking good of others, sharing, kindness to parents, speaking the truth, saying a good word.
- Hadith: rights of the body,
Art
Students will learn to integrate complex geometric designs with the family of Persian biomorphic motifs and explore more compositions. New patterns will be introduced.
Students will compare between floral and geometric patterns and also learn about stylisation in islamic art.
Targeted MSDE Standards:
1. Create images and forms from observation, memory, and imagination and feelings
a. Experiment with art media, processes, and techniques to generate ideas and express personal meaning.
b. Manipulate art media, materials, and tools safely.
c. Create artworks that explore the uses of color, line, shape, texture, form, space, and selected principles of design, such as pattern,
2. Investigate a variety of ways that artists develop ideas and organize the elements of art in response to what they see, know, and feel
b. Identify and describe color, line, shape, texture, form, space, and selected principles of design, such as pattern, repetition, contrast, and balance in artworks that convey what they see, know, and feel
Grade 3 Team
- Ms. Ali - hali@tarbiyahacademy.org (Hmrm)
- Ms. Megahed - mmegahed@tarbiyahacademy.org (AQI)
- Ms. Taame - otaame@tarbiyahacademy.org (Art)
Email: info@tarbiyahacademy.org
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