Arnold

Money and Your Child! What do they really know? What do they need to learn?

As we get into money in third grade some truths become self evident......

Many students have little to no exposure to counting, touching, and understanding money. This comes as little surprise when we see how we have become a debit card and credit card society. What we all used to do when we were children has vastly changed for the real world expreriences of our own children.

If you have a change jar at home like many of us do then please have your children sort coins, identify them, and then count them. Also have them put them into equivalent sets. For example:

25 pennies in one pile and that is the same as 1 quarter and also 2 dimes and 1 nickel and then 5 nickels. This is really something simple and yet for some of my students at this time seems overwhelming to them. Have them figure out various ways to make a dollar using change and bills.

If you have money and go to a restaurant or buy fast food allow your child to pay and then count change. Counting change is very difficult for many third grade students.

In class we give senerios such as: You have $5.00 and want to buy a toy that costs $4.50. How much change will you get back? Some students can answer this very easily and others look at me blankly with no idea of what to do.

Money and understanding the value of money is a life skill that each child needs to be exposed to, they need to think about it, use it, touch it, and give some critical thinking to this skill. I was surprised today to see what gave some students so much trouble.

Also in our guided lesson we talked about how to write money using a decimal point to separate the dollars from the change. Even after the guided lesson, doing one example from their paper with them, some students had no idea where to put the decimal point. I think that some of this is a listening and reading problem or actually a bit of academic laziness since one example had been done for them, and other examples were on the board. We will be covering this again in this week and hitting on it again in the weeks to come. Whether laziness or confusion we will address this again and again as I see this confusion on paper.

The best way for your child to become comfortable with and truly gain an understanding of money is to work with money in "real world" type situations. These can be real life ones or senerios that you make up that simulate real life money experiences.

If you have money at a store let them pay for something and then figure out how much change they will get back or count the money that they receive back. Show them how to use addition and subtraction to work with money problems. Use First in Math and Study Island and let them work on the sections that deal with money. There are so many easy ways to expose a child to this needed conceptual skill.

Begin working with your child with change and you will quickly see what they do and do not know and find out where their learning gaps are if they have any.

One thing that is harder for kids today than in the old days when I was a kid is that money has changed in looks so very much. They have played around with the pictures and symbols on them. We have the dollar bill and then they came up with the Susan B Anthony coin. In the old days most pennies, nickels, and dimes all looked exactly alike. Now there are slight variations on them. This can be very confusing as your child begins to work with money.

The first time we came home  on furlough from Burkina Faso, West Africa our oldest son was in fifth grade. He had virtualy no contact with American money but was used to our African Francs instead.

We went to McDonald's and had purchased some items. He wanted some extra french fries so we sent him to the counter with a handful of change by himself, never thinking about how he might not be comfortable with money. He came back shaking his head. He said, "The lady at the counter helped me but I am confused. Why is this small coin worth  10 cents and this larger one only worth 5 cents? That does not make sense. The bigger one should be worth more don't you think?" This was our Aha moment about how we needed to help him adjust to the money in America.

Work with your child and money and let me know if you find any AHA moments of your own!

How can I help my child in areas of struggle and how can I enrich them at home too?

These are the most frequently asked questions to teachers and they are both very valid and necessary questions to have asked and asnwered.

The school has graciously and generously supplied Study Island and First in Math (Study Island Log in information sent home and First in Math is taped inside of binders)  to our third grade students this year. Both of these programs will help both the struggling child and the gifted child in their areas of weakness or strength to prepare for the CRCT and enrich and test them academically. There are games, pre and post tests, lessons, and so much on these sites. All you have to do is avail yourself of the resources provided to you.These sites can help your child in both math, reading and general language skills. But just like a treadmill that is never used, it will not work if it just sits in the corner collecting dust. You have to acutally get on it and move to gain the benefit from the machine! (smile)

If your child is weak in any academic area then that is the area that they need to spend the most time on. Occasionally they should also work in areas they are better at to practice their skills and build their confidence as well. The brain needs a workout to continue to grow those dendrites! There is no shortcut to progress. It comes with an investment of time, enegry, effort, and hard work. I, as your child's teacher, am able to log on and monitor their time logged, their scores, and their progress. You just need to get your child working on these programs and over time you will indeed see the results.

Research has shown that in this age of technology and visual stimulation for children many students are loosing the art of silent-independent reading. Most of school involves reading and critical thinking. We have to read in every subject area of school and even now in math a lot of math depends upon reading and critical thinking skills. Reading is not to be minimized in its importance.

None of us like to do things that are hard for  us. But if your child struggles then they need to invest extra time in reading independently. They may need to read and then even reread a book before testing. If your child struggles with fluency (the rhythm of reading with expression) then they should read a book and then have you read it to them at home aloud. If time is in short supply as it often is then just read a page or two to them so they can hear what the fluency should sound like. After you read a page have them read it back to you to practice what they heard. This is priceless in improving this area of reading for them.

After reading a book a student should be able to give you an oral summary of the book. Who were the characters? What were they doing? What was the problem in the book and how was it solved? Was it fiction or non fiction? etc. If they cannot answer questions then they obviously need to reread it again.

All of us, even adults, have times where we read, but our mind is really someplace else. When this happens we have no choice but to reread and make our brains engage in the activity to gain maximum benefit from the activity.

If your child is bright then that child needs to begin to read not only some short books on grade level for pure pleasure but also begin to check out one chapter book at a time to stretch them for reading longer works and for longer periods. They need to have a break from technology stimulation and to begin to dive into the written word with an engaged mind. They will gain more from this than from additional rote memory exercises like additional spelling words or challenge words. They will be exposed to more vocabulary and use more reading strategies that we work on in class in this independent reading time than by simply learning words in isolation.

Also some bright students excel in academics but some struggle in the area of writing and/or creative writing. Beginning a journal is a great way to get your child to begin to improve in this area. I have some cousins who live in Burkina Faso and each day they write just a pargagraph or two about what they did that day. As you read these entries you can help them with ideas on how to improve in the mechanics but more importantly in becoming a descriptive writer.

If your chlid does not know their basic math facts then they need to learn them. This takes time and practice and flashcards are the best way to work for mastery. Again there is no shortcut, it takes hard work and practice and repetition. Use First in Math and Study Island Math also to help them in areas of weakness.

If your child is still weak in subtraction with regrouping then just give them two problems a day, everyday, to practice this multistepped operation until they gain confidence and math fluency.

I have the expectation for every child to read a minimum of 2 books a week at home and test on them in class for AR. My AR minimum goal is attainable for every child and truly each child should be able to exceed this. We check out books every Wednesday and they are allowed 2 books each check out time.

Hope this helps to answser these frequently asked questions.......

Paul Revere: How did the life of Paul Revere impact US history?

Paul Revere: his life and impact on US History

Paul Revere was a silversmith like his father before him. He lived in Boston, Massachusetts which was one of the 13 colonies ruled by Great Britian. His father came to live in the colonies from France when he was 13 years old.

The Revere family lived near the harbor where many goods were shipped and also brought in for the colonists. When Paul took over the family business he kept very careful records and soon his business included engravings which were a way of making pictures for books, newspapers, and magazines. He also made political posters and cartoons.

A group that Paul joined was called the Sons of Liberty. This group believed that the colonists should be free of British rule and later they became known as Patriots.

In the 1760's and 1770's the British placed taxes on many of the goods that the colonists needed and the people found these taxes to be very unfair. The Sons of Liberty wanted the colonists to boycott or refuse to buy the items so the British government would know how unhappy they were with these taxes.

In 1773 Paul helped to plan a very famous protest against the taxes on tea. It is known today as the Boston Tea Party. The group climbed aboard a British ship carrying tea and threw it all into the harbor.

Soon after this Paul got a new job of carrying mail for the leaders of Massachusetts. The would ride his horse as fast as he could and bring news and important papers to leaders in other colonies. He had to be very careful not to be arrested by British soldiers as much of this mail had to do with protests against the British.

The most important ride of his life was not a mail delivery but his famous ride along with William Dawes to warn the colonists that the British were coming to destroy their supplies and capture their leaders. He made sure the people knew he had seen two lit lanterns in the Old North Church tower that meant the British were coming across the river. Revere and Dawes were joined later in this ride by Samuel Prescott. These brave men helped the colonists win their fight against the British. When the British finally arrived instead of a sneak attack they found the colonists waiting and ready to fight. The battle at Lexington was the first battle in the American Revolution. When the war ended in 1783 the colonists had gained their independence and formed a new country called the United States of America.

During the war Paul used his skill with engraving to print new money for the cuontry. He also fought in the war himself.

In 1860, 85 years after he took his famous ride, Henry Wadsworth Longfellow wrote a poem that made Paul Revere famous. That is one reason he is remembered today as an American hero.

The house in Boston where Revere lived is now a museum and visitors come and see many of his silver items in his old shop. A famous bell made by Paul Revere and Son Factory in 1804 still stands outside the house. This famous bell weighs 900 pounds!

The third Monday in April is a holiday called Patriot's Day in the state of Massachusetts and Maine. On this day actors perform Paul's famous ride and the battles of Lexington and Concord.

Important Dates:

1773: Boston Tea Party

1775: Lanterns signal to Patriots from the Old North Church

1787: Revere built new business Paul Revere and Son

 

 

 

            This year, third graders will learn about several Americans who expanded our rights and freedoms in our democracy. The first individual we will study is Paul Revere. Paul Revere was born in Boston, Massachusetts in 1734. He grew up to become a silversmith and made a wide variety of items from tea sets to false teeth. He also joined secret patriot organizations that worked to bring independence to the American colonies. He was a skilled rider and often delivered messages for these groups to New York and Philadelphia on horseback. Among the important information Revere transported was news of the Boston Tea Party, an event in which colonists threw chests of tea into Boston Harbor as a protest against unfair taxes. Revere knew the details of the event well since he had participated in the Boston Tea Party himself. However, the most important and most widely known   message that Paul Revere carried was his warning that the British were marching to Lexington, Massachusetts to arrest Samuel Adams and John Hancock. While the sexton of the Old North Church hung  two lanterns in a church bell-tower to signal to local patriots that the British were rowing across the Charles River, Revere headed to Lexington by horse. Along the way, he awakened as many colonists as he could to   warn them that the British soldiers were on their way. He made it to Lexington in time to warn Adams and   Hancock. Just one day after Revere’s historic ride, the Revolutionary War began.

            The “Midnight Ride” of Paul Revere was a dangerous mission that he made to help bring freedom to American colonists. His work was inspired by the patriotic atmosphere of Boston and the rest of New England in the days leading up to the Revolutionary War. Today he is remembered as an American hero who displayed the character traits of cooperation, diligence, a love of liberty, and freedom of conscience and expression.