Multiplication Strategies for Nines

Multiple sof Nines
Look for patterns
For every multiple of 9, the digit in the tens column increases by one ten, while the digit in the ones place decreases by one.
9x2=18
9x3=27
9x4=36
9x5=45
9x6=54
9x7=63
9x8=72
9x9=81

No matter what you are multiplying by 9, as long as it is between 1 and 9, the two digits of your answer will always add up to 9.

Last pattern:
All the possible answers have reverse answers.
1x9=09   9x10=90
2x9=18   9x9=81
3x9=27    9x8=72
4x9=36    9x7=63
5x9=45    9x6=54

Also the students have learned a  hand  trick to help them with multiples of nines.

Tall Tales Reader's Theater

Reader's Theater helps students improve their reading fluency.  Students work on intonation, volume and expression.  The students completed Reader's Theater for the tall tales, Johnny Appleseed and Paul Bunyan. The students evaluated themselves on reading with expression and accuracy and the ability to keep the reading moving smoothly. On Friday the students performed for Mrs. Bromwich's class.  The kindergarten students are a wonderful audience for our performances.

Bloom Amaryllis, Bright and Beautiful

The students have potted their Amaryllis bulbs.  There are a few different kind such as White Christmas, Cinderella, Apple Blossom and Red Lion.  The students compared the planting and watering directions between the different types of flowers.  The students determined that the directions were the same.The students are keeping a journal about the growth of their flowers.  For the first entry, the students wrote down the planting and watering directions.  We also researched how long it will take them to bloom.  It should be between 6 to 8 weeks.  The students also drew pictures of their plants and measured the length of the leaves in order to track the growth of their plants.  Our room should be ablazed with beautiful, colorful flowers in December.

The Doorbell Rang

Literature was integrated into the math problem solving lesson.  The book, The Doorbell Rang, was used to help the students better understand division and its use in the real world.  In the story two children have 12 cookies to share between them.  Then two more friends come. Now there are 4 children to share 12 cookies.  Then two more children come to share the twelve cookies.  Now there are 6 children to share the twelve cookies.  At the end, there are 12 children to share  12 cookies.  After reading the story, the students acted out the story using counters. The students also wrote the division number model sentence to go with the problem.  The students drew an illustration for each problem and shared their illustrations with the class.

Thoughtful Reading Log Entries

Today the lesson was on thoughtful  log reading entries.  These are  the following suggestions:
Respond personally to the text
Respond to the theme and/or author's purpose
Offer opinion of text
Ask questions
Make predictions/inferences
Respond to the writing style or author's language
Respond to the traits and/or actions of the characters
Share connections
Evaluate the text

Today the students were working on responding to the traits and/or actions of the characters.  Their  reading entries were for their independent reading.

Poetry Celebration

On last Thursdy the third grade students invited their kindergarten friends to a poetry celebration. The third graders read their free verse poetry to their reading friends.  It was a very successful and fun event.

Habit 3 First Things First

Suppose your planning your evening activities which includes homework. How do you know what's really important for you to do?
This habit helps students decide to put first things first. The students prioritize the important activities in their evening schedule.  The students set goals on how to spend their time in order to accomplish their important evening activities. First the students wrote their evening activities for Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.  These are the days they often have homework.  Then the students created a homework plan for these days.  The students wrote the time in the evening they would complete their homework, where they would do their homework, and what they would do to make sure  their homework was handed in the next day.  These plans  seemed to be very effective for most of the students.