Pillars of Care

Congratulations to Yousif, Shaylea, Issac and Talia the Pillars of Care winners for the month of December.  Awards ceremony followed by carol signing tomorrow afternoon at 12:30.

Fun lunch tomorrow.

Report cards will come home tomorrow.  Please take the time to discuss them with your little learner.

Have a great break!
See you January 6

Wild Christmas Reindeer

Did you know that Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer was a girl??  We do!  The female reindeer carry their antlers until February while the male lose theirs in November which actually means all of Santa's reindeer are female!  Ask your little learner about other facts we found out about reindeer.

In a back pack near you are tickets to a Calgary Roughnecks game - we will be hosting a lacrosse instructor in the new year who has sent these tickets ahead. 

Red and green day tomorrow or wear your ugly Christmas sweater

Carol signing @8:15

Number Talks

"What are the sums possible when rolling two dice?"  "What's the greatest sum possible?"  "What's the smallest sum we can get?"  This were the questions we attempted to answer today.

Ask your little learner what they found out during this discussion and what they found out when we played a game using a number line and rolling dice.

Wednesday is green and red day or ugly Christmas sweater day

Leaving on a jet plane

We packed our suitcases and went to India today!
After looking at a couple of videos to introduce how far away India is located, the varying mountains and oceans, and  markets for food we discussed what we might need to take with us.  We noticed that the people of India may not be having all their needs met and that they live very differently then we do.  So now, we are getting ready to leave on a jet plane!

Ask your child what activity they completed in math today - some were on Mathletics, some were completing addition and subtraction questions with multi-digits and some worked with me on calendar patterns.

Next week Wednesday is Green and Red day
Report cards will come home Thursday

Needs vs. Wants

Wh have been through 4 or 5 different strategies for adding multi-digit numbers.  Ask your child which one they prefer.

Needs vs. wants and how to know the difference.  This was our discussion today.  I need it!!  I want it!!
Needs being the things we cannot live without - air, water and food.  But also we have needs to get through our daily lives such as shoes, paper and clothing.  Sometimes a need turns into a want when we need a pair of shoes but we want to have 49 pairs of shoes!  Figuring out the differences between needs and wants was our task today.  We are sorting and in some cases defending our wants and needs.

Fun lunch order sent home today

Addition with regrouping

We all learn to do things in different ways and this in no different in math.  To better understand addition with regrouping we have been exploring different strategies.  We've spent a long time learning about place value so we can truly understand the WHAT and WHY of addition with regrouping.  We used blocks today to build numbers and move them on our place value mats.  We were able to make the groups of ten, re-group them and carry them into the next column.  Knowing that we cannot have a digit larger than 9 in any column.  Students had the opportunity to share their thinking and ask questions.  We will continue with this method tomorrow until everyone is very clear how this works.

We began exploring the roles of grandparents in our families today and read the story, 'A Morning With Grandpa.'  We were just about to do some writing about our own grandparents and how we are connected to them when we were called to concert practise.  The writing will have to wait until tomorrow.

Winter Celebration tonight see you at 6:30!

Knock Knock

Knock Knock is the math game we played this morning after Ingnite.  It would be a great game to play as a family so I am including the rules for you to try at home.  Enjoy

Materials: 2-4 players
1 deck of cards
10 counters

Knock Knock

1. Aces are worth 1; face cards are worth 10.
   
2. Each player is dealt 4 cards, and the remaining cards become
   the draw pile.
   
3. The players take turns taking the top card from the draw pile,
   and discarding one of the cards in their hand.
   
4. They are trying to make the greatest possible total value.
   
5. When one player thinks he/she has the largest total, he/she
   says Knock, Knock. Everyone else has one more turn.
   
6. Players then add their totals. The winner takes one counter.
   
7. The game is over when counters are used up.
   

Winter concert Wednesday December 4 curtain call is 6:30 pm.

Rocks and Minerals Jeopardy

We played a rousing game of Jeopardy this afternoon with categories such as Types of Rocks, Minerals, and Vocabulary.  The orange team walked away with a deceive win but were challenged to a re-match tomorrow afternoon.  Ask your child what questions they were able to answer during Rocks and Minerals Jeopardy to help their team.

Princess Hyacinth is our anchor book this week and we are trying to determine if the story is a fairy tale.  We have explored the elements of a fairy tale, our favourite fairy tales and where they come from but Princess Hyacinth is not an old story nor is she a typical princess.  Little learners have responded to the text with their own thinking around the problem she encounters and how Boy helps out.  What we do know is that friendship can be found even when you aren't looking for it.

We ordered numbers from greatest to least and least to greatest this morning and then finished up our Game of More with our partners.  A quick refresher of regrouping was provided for those students still in the muddy waters around when to borrow.  It would seem more practise will be in order next week.  We will have a quiz on comparing numbers tomorrow.

Pillars of Care assembly Friday morning at 8:15

Things That Make Me Happy

We read 100 Things That Make Me Happy together - noticed that the list the author created rhymed - then talked with a partner about what made us happy.  We all then began a list writing campaign of our own and created personal lists of things that made us happy.  You could hear a pin drop in here while the writing was going on and that's what makes me happy!

We are coming to the end of our Rocks and Minerals unit and everyone is busy testing their own rock to see if they can determine if it is igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic.  We have come pretty familiar with the rock cycle and can give facts about each type of rock.  Everyone has been writing their own book and they will share that with you once they are published.

Game of More - great game today of making the largest number possible using the three cards dealt to us and then deciding which partner had more (the bigger number) and then finding out how much more by subtracting.  Higher order math people!!

Pillars of Care Assembly Friday @ 8:15

See You All Tonight

See you all tonight or tomorrow morning for student-led conferences.  Please note that the students will be leading the conversation so it is important that they attend.

Good Canadian Children

Thanks to all those good Canadian children who were dressed for the weather today!!

This is the kind of snow that is fun to play in when you are protected from the wet!  Keep up the good work.

Reverse aging tomorrow - students dressing like teachers (Mr. Hebert was wearing a button down shirt and sweater today and Mr. Sadowsky wears shorts and t-shirts;)

and teachers dressing like students tomorrow.

Please book a student led conference time for Thursday evening or Friday morning on-line.

No school Friday 

Reading Salad

Wednesday is reverse day at Beddington Heights - students will dress like teachers and teachers will dress like students!

Please book a student led conference for Thursday evening or Friday morning and be sure to bring your little learner with you as they will lead the discussion.

We made a reading salad all together today - into the salad bowl we put green books (lettuce) to show us reading the text and red brains (tomatoes) to show our thinking.  We discovered that real reading is thinking because there was way more thinking in our salad then text.  We also decided that we enjoyed the story more because of the thinking.

How hard is a rock?

How hard is a rock is the question we are attempting to answer in our science work.  We are testing different rock samples  by scratching them with our fingernail, a penny, and a nail.  We will then compare the results to the Mohs Hardness Scale to help us decide if the rock is igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic.  Next week we will test our own rocks - please check with your little learner to see that they have a rock at school.

Knew and new.  Two words that sound the same but have different meanings.  When making connections to fiction readers usually have personal experiences.  With non-fiction texts we usually make connections because we have read a book, seen a video or been there!  When approaching non-fiction I like for us to find in our brains the things that we already knew and then move into the information that is new.  When we watched a Magic School Bus episode about rocks and erosion we discovered that we already knew a lot of information!  The new information we are able to store into our heads!

Scholastic book orders due Friday.

Read 20/10

Rounding

My classroom is covered in number lines!  We began our unit on rounding by making interactive and very visual number lines. We then posted them all around the room.   When students have a good grasp of rounding, they are capable of making reasonable estimates.  Rounding and estimating are useful tools in real life situations.  We use them to see if we have enough money when shopping or when trying to get somewhere on time.  We will be working all week to round numbers - stay tuned.

"What parts of your body do you use when you read?"  this was the question I asked this morning and the answers were VERY interesting.  Students aren't aware that their brain is an active part of reading and so I introduced my reading friend, Benny the Bookworm, and we looked in his brain for all the things he does while he is reading.  Benny can make connections, visualize, ask questions, infer and transform.  He is a pretty amazing reader.  We will continue talking about what our brain is doing while we read all year long.  Tomorrow we will begin practising paying attention to our brain!

Read 20/10

Scholastic book order due Friday Nov. 15

A Poppy is to Remember

Remembrance Day will be observed at assembly tomorrow at 10:30 am.  Our wreath of poppies is ready to be laid - ask your child why the poppy has become the symbol of this very important day.

MART - where we combine an art activity with math.   We took care of the art part today drawing and painting a fall tree.  We were careful to stay in the lines with the paint, keep the paintbrush up on its toes like a ballerina and not smashed into the paper, then stamping fall leaves onto and around the tree.  Tomorrow we bring in the math part by estimating the number of leaves on that tree then finding a strategy to determine exactly how many leaves we put on that tree.  A good strategy would be making groups of ten, skip counting by 2's etc.  MART.


Read 20/10

Assembly tomorrow @ 10:30

No school Monday

Reading Goals

Currently we all have a reading goal and strategies to reach that goal on our Iris accounts.  You can view your little learners goal when you come to Student Led conferences November 21 or 22.  Ask your child about their goal.

Four corner planner is one way for young writers to plan the story they want to tell.  We have each planned a story about things we have done for the first time that we can tell a story about.  On each corner of the paper we drew a picture of each of our firsts.  We brainstormed things like our first concert, first trip to Disneyland, first time at the circus that come out of our memory pockets and we can write about.

Dodgeball club started today -

Read 20/10

Remembrance Day assembly Friday @10:30

No school Monday

Healthy Learners

Our morning snack break is an opportunity to fit extra nutrients into your little learners diet.  Snacks should consist of nutrient-dense food like fruits and vegetables, whole grains and seeds.  This will help keep the blood sugars even and the tears at bay!  A health snack has about 100 calories in it and has about 7 grams of sugar.  Consider anything that comes in its own wrapper - apples, oranges, grapes, tomatoes, carrots etc.  All those pretty pre-packaged foods are a trap.  Beware!!  As part of our health unit we will be talking about super foods and how they affect our brains and emotions.  Foods that power our brains.  Please keep the Halloween candy at home for the occasional treat.

Sometimes being almost right is good enough!!  Estimation is an essential skill in math and we began today by estimating the number of rocks in a jar.  We made a referent group of 10 rocks and then continued counting by making groups of 10.  We had all agreed that counting by 10 was efficient and easy to do.  Taking our work a little further some of us were able to find the difference between the actual number of rocks in the jar and our estimate.  Which brought us to the various ways to subtract bigger numbers.  It was a lot of work for a Monday morning!

Ask your child about the facts they learned this morning about Winnie-the-Pooh.  Probably my favorite mentor text, 'Finding Winnie' tells the Canadian story behind the making of the beloved Disney character.  We were all amazed!!

Prepare to Write

"What makes a good piece of writing?"
In our teams we discussed this question, put ideas on sticky notes and grouped those sticky notes into like ideas.  When we looked at each groups thinking we noticed a lot of similarities.  We were then able to create two writing goals for ourselves, making our writing interesting and making our writing clear for our readers.  We all now have goals that we are working towards and are pretty proud of ourselves!

Ask your child about our nesting monkeys that were used for determining continents, countries, provinces etc.  They were a great hit as we endeavor to know where in the world things are located.

I'm sure you heard we started handwriting.  Probably the most anticipated grade 3 outcome next to multiplication and division.  Handwriting is a long road but we made a great beginning!

Reading Give It A Shot - read 20/10 today I gave away 1 hockey card.

Pillars of Care assembly Thursday Oct. 31 @ 1:30 congratulations to Julia, Roua, Daven and Adrian.

Black and orange day tomorrow.

Dodgeball

Dodgeball intramurals is being offered to grade 3 Wednesday's at lunchtime.  If your child wants to participate then they should have a form in a backpack near you for signing and returning to school by  Monday Nov. 4

We took a bookwalk through our social studies textbook today taking note of the features of non-fiction.  We noticed lots of maps, pictures, fact boxes and the table of content.  We used the map of the world at the back of the text to look for Canada, oceans, the equator and the northern hemisphere and the southern hemisphere.  Continents and oceans were located and named.  We have discovered a textbook to be a very interesting piece of writing indeed!

We continue to work on patterns in math - noting there are a variety of strategies to be used to solve pattern problems.  Help your little learner by noting the patterns in the house - in the wall tile, floor tile etc. 

Read 20/10
Reading Give it Shot - I gave away 5 hockey cards today -

Reading Give it a Shot!

In a backpack near you is a tracking sheet for Reading Give it a Shot!  The whole school is reading their way to Calgary Flames hockey cards.  Every 100 minutes will earn your little reader one hockey card.  Once they have collected all 24 cards they will be able to earn their way to Harvey the Hound.  This is an incentive program for readers but their reading time must be tracked by you.  Every time they read at home please note the time and sign their paper.  Today we recorded our quiet reading, buddy reading and for some of us Ignite reading and so we are well on our way!

Walking trip tomorrow to Confluence Park - dress in layers, good walking shoes, hat, mitts, water bottle and snack! 😎

Community Walk

In a backpack near you there is a note about our community walk on Friday.  Please have a look so your little learner is able to enjoy their morning outside.

We had a look at the words First Nations in social studies -  the people who were here first and then their belief that everything is connected.  First Nations people see themselves connecting to everything so we drew a target with 5 circles around it to show all the things we are connected to - our family, community, homes, land etc.

Patterns

Centres were introduced in math this morning all about patterns.  In grade 3 little learners need to be able to demonstrate an understanding of sorting objects, increasing and decreasing patterns and describe, extend, compare and create patterns.  We will be using picture books, task cards, Mathletics and working with the teacher!  Yay for us.

Our anchor book this week is 'A Bad Case of the Stripes' by David Shannon.  We enjoyed a great story with silly pictures but also understand that the main character just needed to be herself.  We drew the main character and then wrote adjectives around her.

Read 20/10
Scholastic book orders due now.

Walking Stories

Read 20/10
Scholastic book orders due Monday Oct.21

Authors write stories that describe something ( a person, a place or a thing),  stories where something happen and poetry.  Today we looked at what would be in a walking story and read "17 Things I'm Not Allowed To Do Anymore" as an example.  Little authors then began their own writing telling a story about themselves, their own 5 things they aren't allowed to do, stories about their pet etc.  This is a work in progress as we only had about 20 minutes to write this morning.  It will be our goal to finish our stories next week.

Everyone has a Mathletics account that we started today.  Your child will have a log in card to bring home to practise Mathletics.  Tomorrow they will each get their Raz-Kids account and will bring home that card too-

Under Your Feet

What is under your feet?  Scientist want to know!!  So, being scientist we went outside to dig in the ground to find out.  In the poem, Under Your Feet we read that there could be snake, bunny, worm, leaf and twigs.  We are not so sure so we went to find out.  Tomorrow we will dump out our goody bags and investigate.  Ask your child what they dug up today!

Scholastic book order due Monday October 21

Scoot Games

We played two versions of a scoot game today - one in math to read base ten blocks and write the expanded notation and one in language arts to search for capitals and periods in sentences.  Scoot games have us up and moving about the classroom looking for cards hidden around the room.  When a card is found it has one question on it that is answered on personal answer sheets and then students 'scoot' off to the next card.  It's a great way for us to show our learning and move at the same time.

Ask you little learner if they enjoy scoot games.

Woot, woot!!  We finished up our last Student Learning Assessment this morning!!  Yay for us😀
If I Could Be A Teacher For a Day was the topic given to us by the province.  We watched a video, we talked to our elbow partner, we brainstormed as a group then we went and wrote our stories.  Done.  One set of SLA's.  We will repeat this same process in May.

Read 20/10
Lunchroom Expectations form due back please.

See you Wednesday!🦃

Good readers adjust their predictions

Part 2 of the math SLA assessment was completed today.  Ask your little learner how they felt about the test.  It was long.  It had many questions.  It was hard for some of us but we stuck with it and most of us are finished.  Tomorrow we will do the digital portion of the reading test.  Headphones would have benefited those children without.

Edward the Emu is the mentor text we are using this week to practise making predictions.  Not only did we confirm and adjust our prediction about Edward but we drew him as well!!  Great fun to end the day with a directed drawing.  Our emus are actually adorable!

Read 20/10
Fun lunch orders due Thursday

Thanks for dressing for the weather!!  I have a lot of black mitts, snowpants and lunch kits in my coat room that don't have names in them.  Please make sure your child's name is on their things.  You would not believe how many things do not belong to anyone!

Good readers make predictions

Ask your child how they felt after their first Student Learning Assessment.  We completed the written portion of the math test which focused on patterns.  Colour patterns, number patterns, skip counting and extending a pattern.  Tomorrow we will complete the digital component of the math test.

Good readers make predictions before, during and after reading.  We all had a look at the cover of Edward the Emu and made a prediction about what the story could be about based on the picture and title.  Tomorrow we will read the story and confirm our prediction or adjust it.

Read 20/10
Fun lunch due Thursday

Monday October 7

Library books need to be at school on Monday October 7.  We will have our library exchange on Monday next week due to a blip in the schedule.

SLA testing will begin on Monday.  Headphones at school please.

In a backpack near you is a purple fun lunch notice.

Ask about today's art project!

Headphones at school

Monday October 7 we will begin our SLA testing.  Please ensure your little learner has headphones at school.

Representing numbers in various ways based on their place value was our work today.  We can use standard form (35), expanded form 30+5=35, word form thirty-five and base 10 blocks to draw a number.  Representing in various ways allows a mathematician to think flexibly about numbers.

Read 20/10

Syllables

We are working on breaking down big, unfamiliar words in our reading.  We have done a great deal of work around the difference between a letter-sound vowel and its-other-sound vowels.  Today we layered in the use of a syllable.  Big words can be broken into word parts called syllables and each word part has a vowel sound.  Each part is a syllable.  We can hear word parts by clapping.  We can identify syllables by seeing how many times our chins move when we say words.  And, we practised figuring out the syllables in everyones name and then we looked in our books for the biggest words we could find and then determined the syllables.  The biggest word we could find was uncomfortable.  Do you know how many syllables?

Read 20/10 - everyone has new books from the library to read tonight!

Orange Shirt Day

It was great to see all the Canadian children dressed for the weather today!  It made our community walk for Orange day and our phys. ed. time much more comfortable.  

We spent some time with Mrs. Harmony this morning on the topic of Orange shirt day.  She gave a presentation to all grade 3 students about Phyllis Webstad and the origins of orange shirt day.  Ask your little learner what the focus is of orange shirt day.

I introduced the digital math portion of the Student Learning Assessment this morning and we all practised questions together.  We saw that there will be some basic facts questions, some graphing, some ordering, some adding of two digit numbers and so on.  The tests are based on the grade 2 curriculum and play like a game.  Headphones are required.

https://public.education.alberta.ca/assessment is the website you can practise at home too.  Just click on Practise Questions

Library book exchange tomorrow
Read 20/10 tonight

School Apparel

T-shirt, hoodie and sweatpant orders are due tomorrow.  No money is required at this time.

In a backpack near you is a notice about our neighborhood walk to coincide with Orange Shirt day on Monday.

Ask your child for a fact they found today while doing a book walk through rocks and minerals -

Quiz

12 question math quiz this morning on how to skip count, tell what number is odd or even and what comes before and after a number on the hundreds chart.  Very straight forward.  Ask you little learner how they think they did.

Read 20/10

Headphones at school please.  We will start to practise for SLA testing next week. 

Toonie for Terry

We have a school wide goal of $ 500.00 for our Terry Fox run.  If we are able to collect $500.00 then Mr. Shackelton will allow the grade 6 students to dress him up and Mrs. Young will cut her pony tail and donate it to the Cancer society.  Please have your toonie for Terry at school by Friday.

Ask your child how many laps of the 500 metre course they ran today.

We were working with even and odd numbers today it makes a great dinner table conversation!

Read 20/10
We were in the library for book exchange today your little learner should have new material this evening.  Once they are finished their book it can come back to school for exchange - it need not wait until next Tuesday.

What is a compound word?

Compound words were our focus today.
We worked with a partner to read pictures of compound words.  We looked for compound words in a list we were given.  We looked through the books we were reading to find compound words.  We made an anchor chart of our compound words.  It was a compound kind of day!

We learned to play Flip 10.  Ask your little learner to show you how to play (deck of cards required)

Read 20/10
No school tomorrow.  System wide PD day -
See you tonight.  Here in room 11.

Check for Understanding

The reading strategy of check for understanding is a very important comprehension strategy that was introduced today.  I modeled for students with my checkmark for understanding that good readers stop and ask themselves what is happening in the story.  Good readers ask questions such as "Who is in this story?"  "Where is this story taking place?"  I also modeled for them what happens if I don't know what is happening in the story, I can't remember or it doesn't make sense.  A good reader backs up and rereads.  Your little learner then practised with a partner and a checkmark for understanding the reading strategy of check for understanding.

Please join the grade 3 team tomorrow evening for Meet The Teacher.  We will introduce to the wonders of grade 3 and you will have opportunities to ask questions about life here at Beddington Heights.  Please book a time slot on the website.  We will be here from 6 - 7:30 pm.

No school Friday

Ignite

Ignite is a program we are running Monday and Thursday mornings school wide to give students the opportunity to have choice around their learning and make good decisions for themselves.  Ask your child about Ignite and where they went today.

Looking at patterns on the hundreds chart today we played with an interactive hundreds chart to talk about patterns we can see.  Help your child be skip counting with them at different starting points ie: count by 10 starting at 3 or count by 25's from 100.

We read 'Sheila Rae the Brave' and found out she wasn't so brave - and we also worked on the story elements of setting, characters, problem, solution and 3 important events.

Scholastic book orders due tomorrow.
Digital citizenship forms due.

What Are The Pillars of Care?

We worked today around the question, "What are the Pillars of Care?"  Your little learner knows that Care for Learning, Care for Self, Care for Others and Care for Place are the four main pillars and in the month of September we are also including belonging.  We've read stories about including others, making friends, being a steward to give little learners ideas of what the pillars mean.  We have begun some work around this topic that you are invited to view on Thursday September 19 at our Meet the Teacher night.

In a backpack near you there should be a September school calendar and a few other papers from the office.

Read 20/10
Scholastic book orders due Tuesday September 17
Demographic papers all due
Digital citizenship forms due

Foundations

We are busy laying the foundations of our classroom -

We have launched Read to Self with 3 Ways to Read a Book, Building Stamina and How to Find a Just Right Book.  Your learner should be able to tell you the best way to find a book that is 'just right' for them.  A 'just right' book is one they can read with accuracy, enjoy and is a good fit for them.  We will work all through September around the importance of 'just right' books and then through out the school year to empower students to select just right books on their own.

In a backpack near you is the school's blue important folder with the digital citizenship form in it and the September Scholastic book order.

Digital Citizenship needs to be returned before your student can use technology in the building.  Please review that they are promising to use the equipment with care for educational purposes only.  Grade 3 students will also require headphones to complete the grade three Student Learning Assessment in October and can come to school at any time now.  More about that at Meet The Teacher next week.

Scholastic book orders can be paid on-line, by cheque or by old fashioned cash.  When you order from Scholastic they place books into our classroom and that is a wonderful thing.  A literate classroom will have over 1000 book titles for learners to access every day.  My classroom library would not be possible without your help.

Ask you learner about READ 20/10

Welcome!

Welcome back to  school and welcome to grade 3!
Please watch backpacks for information coming home from the office.  You should have received a package today that requires your attention before September 10.
Please check with your little learner that they are getting enough to eat during the day.  Students may be finding they are tired and a little extra 'pick me up' may be in order.  That should come in the form of fresh fruit, vegetables and water.
Our work is well underway and we are looking forward to having a great year together!

Green Garbage Bag Day

Tomorrow is GREEN GARBAGE BAG DAY. 
What is green garbage day you ask?
Think Calgary Flames in April when they clean out their lockers and Calgary Stampeders cleaning out their lockers in December.  They put everything from their locker in their green garbage bags.  Some little learners who shall remain nameless have their entire lives in their desks and will require a green garbage bag to get everything home.  A back pack just won't cut it tomorrow.  So expect everything home tomorrow and plan on sitting down together and looking through things to see how much your little learner has grown this year.

In a backpack near you is a notice that Wednesday morning all the grade 3's will be walking over to Confluence Park.  We will take our backpacks with water, snack, rain gear and and extra layer.  The park is within the CBE walk distance so no permission is required.  If you would like to join us you are most welcome!

Grade 6 Farewell assembly tomorrow at 1:00pm

Creative Bridges

We had some great bridge presentations today.  Everyone was able to talk about the type of bridge they built, materials used and how it was held together.  Almost all the bridges were able to support the 1 kg. weight.  We continue to work on our box projects also - they should be done in the next day or two.

We will be cleaning out desks on Tuesday.  Your student will probably need more than their backpack to get their things home.  Consider sending some bags to school.

Calgary Public Library

Calgary Public Library were here today to promote their summer reading program.  Library cards are free at any library and then the reading can begin.  They are offering prizes such as ipads, bikes and a Nintendo Switch!  Check it out to maintain those reading skills we worked so hard at all year long!

Sports Day is tomorrow as well as the parent council fun lunch.  The forecast for tomorrow is very iffy.  Come prepared with layers, rain coat and good shoes.  If we need to postpone our back-up day is Monday.

Bridges due Thursday June 20

Everyone is busy cutting and fitting their box into something else.  If you are missing things at home chances are they are now part of a Magnificent Box project!

Scrap material

Your little learner may be searching the house tonight for items to build with such as toilet paper rolls, material, cans, etc.  Hopefully they check with you before they make it their own!  They are changing the box they brought to school into something else as part of our building unit.  They have analyzed their box for special features, holes, flaps etc.  We will be working on this project all week.

Bridge projects due Thursday, June 20.

Sports Day Wednesday June 19 in the afternoon - weather permitting

Fun Lunch

We analyzed our boxes today as we began our latest project.  We looked at our boxes for their special features, size, shape, words etc.  We described our boxes in writing and then drew them.  We read, "What To Do With A Box"which was a gentle reminder that a simple box can be a child's most imaginative plaything.  Next we will make a plan for what we can turn our box into.

We practised our key boarding skills and wrote our informational poem about how to be a mouse on the computer.  They look great displayed on our wall but it was difficult for some of us to remember that all of the sentences had to start with a verb.  Trying to make our writing interesting for our reader.

Fun lunch order form may still be in a backpack near you.  This lunch is free from parent council they just need to know how many of each kind of hamburger to make.  Please help them out by filling in the form and sending it back to school by tomorrow.

One kilometre

We had a great day at Kamp Kiwanis - I hope you got the chance to talk with your student about the activities they participated in.  Hands down, the favorite was the Animal Game that we played in the forest after lunch.  It is a pretty complex game of tag but such fun.

Today we did some writing about our day at Kamp Kiwanis and relived a few memories.  For sure many of us a hoping to go the Kamp Kiwanis when we are old enough to be a summer camper!

This morning we estimated how long it would take us to walk one kilometre.  We then estimated how many laps of the school field would make one kilometre and then we went outside to find out the answer!  Ask your little learner how many laps we walked of the field and how long it took.  What a great day outside.

Kamp Kiwanis Reminders!

Thank you to the parents who have volunteered to join us tomorrow - we can't do these programs without your help😎

We are so excited to get out and play tomorrow!

Couple of reminders:

• have a good breakfast - playing outside tends to make little learners hungry!
• be on time!  the bus will leave at 8:15 am
• be an onion (students made that up) dress in layers
• snack, big lunch, water bottle
• good shoes
• hat and rain gear

Box

Please remember your little learner needs a box on Monday for science.
Any size will do - just not a box you want back in the same condition.  It will come home in a new state!

Bridge projects due Thursday June 20

Volunteers

I am sorry to say that we do not have enough volunteers to go to Kamp Kiwanis.  If we are unable to collect a couple more volunteers we will have to cancel our trip.  Please consider helping us out.  It is a beautiful location and the forecast looks good.

Kamp Kiwanis

In a backpack near you are the field trip forms for Kamp Kiwanis.  Please fill out the forms carefully and send in your $11.00 by Friday, June 7.   Parent Council have helped fund this trip so we don't have to send along the actual $24.00 charge to you - so thanks very much to our council.  

Bridge Project - homework

The fire department visited us this afternoon.  With lights and sirens.  The fire bell was pulled by little fingers as we were all coming in from lunch.  Our students did a great job of evacuating the building, we had had a fire drill just before lunch and we all know what to do.  But, this brings up the conversation of only using the fire bell in emergencies.  As a class we talked about all those trucks and fire fighters responding to our emergency call when there was no need and someone else having a real emergency and not able to get help.  Please reinforce this message at home.  Perhaps a good time to review your family evacuation plan.

In a backpack near you is a little letter outlining our bridge project that is due Thursday, June 20.  This is a great activity and I hope you enjoy the process with your learner.  I would highly recommend you start sooner rather than later as there is some trial and error involved.  Keep in mind this should use items around the house - not involve a shopping trip!

Volunteers Needed

My apologizes for the lack of communication the past 5 school days but I went down and I went down hard!  I actually don't succumb to the germs in here very often but I do believe in going big or go home!

The good news is a lot was accomplished while I was away and we are right on track to finish up some units in the next couple of weeks.

Congratulations to our May Pillar's of Care award winners:  Sol was a two time winner (remember students vote for the peer they feel is most deserving of the award) Ally and Karter will be front and centre at assembly 8:15 tomorrow morning.  If you care to join us.

Tuesday June 11 we will go to Kamp Kiwanis but we can't go without some parent volunteers.  If you are free for the day I've ordered sun, sun and more sun for the day and Bragg Creek is beautiful this time of year -

Welcome Back

I trust you all had a great long weekend despite the weather.

Thanks to all those parents who came to see me for Student Led Conferences on Thursday.  If you didn't get a chance to swing by give me a phone call or drop me an email and we can discuss your learner.

We had a visit today from Sir John A. McDonald junior high band.  Our grade 6 band played, their jazz band played and their regular grade 8 and 9 band performed.  Ask your student what songs they recognized.

We used geoboards this morning to shift shapes as we read "The Greedy Triangle" by Marilyn Burns.  The story introduced us to the correct names for geometric shapes and we were able to make them on our boards as well as with our bodies on the floor with the help of some friends. 

Tuesday June 11 we will be going to Kamp Kiwanis for the day - we will be required to take volunteers with us so if you have a police clearance on file in the office we would love for you to join us!  We can't go without your help.

May Fun Lunch

Student Learning Assessments are all done for us!
We are so happy with ourselves.  Thank goodness we can read better!


Wok Box fun lunch order is in a backpack near you.  Orders are paid online by Friday May 24 please.
See you all tomorrow!
No school Friday or Monday

So far...

Ask your learner how they are feeling about SLA tests so far.  We worked super hard today and accomplished many great things!

Scholastic book orders due Wednesday
Please book a student led conference for sometime on Thursday and we can get together!
No school Friday.

Life Cycles

Bill Nye told us that all living things have a life cycle - this was new information to some of us and some of us knew this!  We watched Bill Nye and then wrote in our science journals new information and the information we knew.  We will apply this knowledge around life cycles to our research about mice.

We have completed the digital portion of the math SLA - must say things went smoothly.  Tomorrow we will take care of the written portion.

Scholastic book orders due Wednesday please

SLA Testing

Next week we will spend a large portion of our time repeating the Student Learning Assessment that we first did at the beginning of grade 3.

Monday - Digital math
Tuesday - written math and story writing
Wednesday - Digital comprehension

It's only a three day week because we are hosting Student Led Conferences all day Thursday and Friday is a system P.D. day

Everyone will need headphones.

Your student is feeling confident about these tests because they know we have worked hard this year.  Hence why I am exhausted😉

30 Days Has September

Remember the little poem to figure out how many days are in every month?  We began memorizing it today in order to be able to relate the number of days to a month in a problem-solving context.  Ask your learner if they have been successful.

30 days has September

April, June and November

All the rest have 31

And February's great with 28

But a leap years fine with 29.

We began a little project today that will be on display when you come next week for interviews.  It takes us back to the importance of connecting when we are reading.  

Please remember headphones for Monday

Pigs Will Be Pigs

Pigs Will Be Pigs and eat all the food in the fridge the same day that mother bought it and need to go out for supper.  So we helped Mother Pig and Father Pig count their money up and figure out how much they could spend while out for enchiladas!  So went our math task this morning.  Give your student as many opportunities as possible to handle money - making change and determining if there is enough.

We all wrote about the food of India today.  Great comparisons were made between our own families and those in India.  Our greatest discovery was around the tools in the kitchen or there actually being a kitchen!  The use of utensils and that food was often prepared on the floor!

Everyone will need headphones at school on Monday please.

June 11 we are going to Kamp Kiwanis for the day.  Please check your calendars and see if you can join us - we can't go without your help.

Food of My Family

Our discussion today in social studies centred around the food that our families traditionally eat.  We talked about who cooks for us, what is in our kitchen and where our food comes from.  A variety of food is consumed in our class from perogies, to rice, vegetarian and curries.  We have started watching a video on food consumed in India.  The first thing we noticed is not everyone has a kitchen.  The food was also very colourful.  This makes a great discussion point around the supper table tonight - help your child to realize what foods are from your cultures.

Next week we will be repeating the grade 3 provincial exams that we did way back in October.  Students will need headphones to complete the digital portions of the exam beginning Monday.

Basic Facts Brush-up

In a backpack near you are a basic facts test and the bi-weekly math story problem.  We have reviewed the story problem and your child should be able to tell you what they needed to do to 'bump up' their mark.  Their basic facts test is a reminder that we are looking for those facts to be mastered by the end of grade 3.  Some flash cards, dice games, and card games are simple 5 minute builders at home that help with the confidence and strategies.  Xtramath is an option at home as well as our daily use at school.

Have a great week end!  Enjoy a good book together😀

Tom and Jerry

Remember Tom and Jerry?  We looked at a little cartoon clip of them today.  The lesson at school was how to avoid the cat in the house.  The ways of mice.  Fun.  It led us into the discussion of how to be a mouse.  We decided to write the instructions of How To Be A Mouse, but first we need to become experts by gathering facts about the behaviour, appearance, habitat, enemies, and food of mice.  Once we have gathered facts about mice we will turn them into instructions by starting with action words.  This will take us several days but ask your student what they already know about mice.

We wrapped up our testing of arches and squares today.  Your student should be able to tell you that an arch is a strong shape because the mass is distributed evenly.  Many bridges and tunnels are built using arches because of their strength.  When driving around our city point that out to your student.

What is a structure?

What is a structure led our whole discussion this afternoon.  We looked at some great videos of natural structures and man-made structures.  We discussed structures in our classroom, structures in our community and famous structures.  Ask your student what their favorite structure was.

Everyone has new reading material as we visited Mrs. Paolini in the library today.
Read 20/10.

The Web Files

We used Margie Palatini's picture book, The Web Files, with it's references to the old detective show, Drag Net, to talk about fact and opinion.  Duckdective Web and his partner try to quack the case of the pilfered peck of perfect purple almost-pickled peppers.  Nursery rhyme characters are the usual suspects.  The humour of the story allowed us to discuss many different aspects and then create a working definition of 'the facts'.  We sorted facts and opinions about mice into our novel study journal.

We are wrapping up our unit on fractions with a listening exercise and some story problems to solve.  On to Shape and Space next.

We are testing arches and squares in science to see which will hold more mass.  Today we were busy making a hypothesis, testing and evaluating.

What do you think engineers do?

What do you think engineers do?  This is the question that began our new unit in science.  We had a look at the video,  What is engineering?  Ask your student what an engineer does.

Fractions have been our focus in math this week.  We can represent equal and unequal parts, explain the parts of a fraction and demonstrate a fraction in pictures and numbers.

Pillars of Care assembly tomorrow morning at 8:15.  Congratulations to Hafsa, Arianna, Hannah and Yousif our winners for the month of April.

A little of this and a little of that-

Tomorrow is Superhero day - wear your favorite logo!
We have started a little craft for students to make a wristband of their favorite superhero so if they don't have something at home we've got everyone covered.

Spring photos were taken today -

We have finished the lower case alphabet in handwriting and so a little test will be up coming before we begin the upper case letters.

Equal Schmequal

Library day tomorrow -

Today we worked with the words equal and not equal.  First we decided that equal means exactly the same and then we were able to take shapes and cut them into equal and unequal pieces.  We labeled the pieces as one half, one quarter and one eighth.

We are writing letters of encouragement to Despereaux as he has been chucked down the dungeon stairs with the red thread of death around his neck.  We all feel very sorry for him and have bits of advice for him.  This piece of work allows me to see how students are coming along with their use of capitals and periods, complete sentences and subject-verb agreement.  We have almost finished Book The First.

Read 20/10 tonight

Exciting news!

We began our day by making our own fraction kits.  So far we each have a whole, two halves, and 4 quarters.  Grade 3 is the first formal look at fractions for your student.  At home use the language of fractions, half, equal share and help your student see where fractions are useful - in the kitchen, building, sharing a treat.

Exciting news!! We started a new dance today with Jenn from the dance company that was at school a couple months ago.  She started us on a new dance with some pretty complex movements.  Ask your child to share!

Sugar Shock

We had a look at the amount of sugar in our morning snack today and were shocked with how much sugar we are eating.  The amount of sugar in a juice box is almost the daily recommended amount! (6 tsp. per day or 24 grams is the recommended daily amount).  Students who were eating oranges, apples, carrots, grapes, cucumbers were awarded a free sugar star as all those contain natural sugars that our bodies need.  Did you know that cheese and popcorn are also free of sugar?   We also looked at all the words that mean sugar such as glucose and corn syrup.  Your student wrote a sentence about they learned measuring out and comparing sugar containers ask them about it!

I will have some sugar free challenges for them next week.

Thanks to those who came out to math night!

This and that

Scholastic book order for April put in by Friday please.  Students will receive a free book if they order on-line.  You can still send cash or cheques to school if you prefer.

Have your student bring their favorite snack on Friday - necessary for a lesson

Our next unit in science will require a few items from home - the first being a box.  Any size box.  Perhaps some interesting building things like toilet rolls, Pringle chips cans, paper towel rolls.  I will let you know when these things need to come to school.

Math test tomorrow.

Did you know...

Did you know that mice make sounds that are higher pitched than humans can hear?  We do.  As we are learning about mice along with our novel study and hearing and sound in science we discovered this interesting little tidbit.  Cats don't even hear all the sounds that mice can make.  Who knew!
Today we continued reading Tale of Despereaux and that darn mouse has done something terrible - ask your student what he did!

We wrapped up Hearing and Sound in science today with a great little game.  Tomorrow we will have a little 'brain dump' as an opportunity to share everything that we have learned. 

We have also come to the end of our division unit so we will have a unit test on Thursday and finish up our visual journals.

Fun lunch orders must be placed by Friday.
Please make sure you send a snack on Friday as we are looking at active children eating

Chapter 1

We have officially started our novel study of Kate DiCamillo's The Tale of Despereaux.  Today we only read chapter 1 and then we wrote words that describe the character Despereaux.

We are solving some great division problems in our math work - ask your student how they feel about the work they are doing!

Fun lunch order form is in a backpack near you -

Non-fiction text features

We are working our way through a non-fiction text features scavenger hunt - looking for things such as titles, headings, pictures, labels, glossaries and maps in our mini India books.  This allows readers to access information in a fun and light hearted way.

Couple of rounds of math centres were completed this morning as we work our way through division.  Students are able to model equal sharing, represent division with a number sentence and recall facts to 25.

Just another Tuesday

Sticker math was a bit of a challenge today - strategies were shared about how to get started.  Ask your student how they felt about today's math question.

We explored the life and work of  Kate DiCamillo this morning.  We found out she has a brand new book being released today!  I am off the Chapters.

Fireball.  A great gym game.

Library tomorrow -
Read 20/10 tonight

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to school!  I hope everyone had a sunny restful week off.

We were very busy today and right back at things.
We took a deep dive into division today with a box of raisins.  There was a box of raisins for everyone to estimate how many delightful little pieces of fruit were inside.  After estimating we had a peek inside to see how many raisins were on the top.  Students were able to revamp their estimate based on what they could see.  After finding the range of our raisin box estimates and questioning why some boxes were fuller than others and exclaiming the unfairness of that concept we counted how many raisins in our boxes.  Interesting to me that some of us are still counting one by one while others are automatically putting things into groups of friendly numbers to organize thinking.  After grouping our raisins we talked about the strategies people used to arrive at their total.  Some of us counted by 2's while others counted by 10' and 5's.  We wrote sentences such as 4 groups of 5 with 2 leftovers and 6 groups of 4.  Table groups then determined how many raisins they had altogether and then divided out the raisins equally to everyone in our table group.  So much math in one little box of raisins and we are not done yet!

We began a novel study this afternoon by drawing artifacts from the story and making predictions based on what we saw.  Students had some great ideas and I can't wait to share one of my favorite chapter books with them!

Remember to read 20/10

Our Birdhouse

We had a great morning with Teacher's Pet building and painting our birdhouses!  A great time was had by all and your student should be able to tell you about the importance of the walls being 'flush'.  We used glue at school to put things together but your child was sent home with nails and the dowel for the bird perch for you to help them nail in.  The neighborhood will look great with all the new birdhouses!

Have a great spring break!
See you Monday April 1

Annotation

$10.00 for Teacher's Pet is now due.
Socks Out - Wednesday wear your crazy socks

Math had us modeling equal sharing and equal grouping using pictures, blocks and symbols.  The division seems to be moving along - check with your student if they know their fact families!

We each created our own annotation anchor charts for our desks.  Reading is an active sport so we use stickie notes to make quick notes of:

? - I have a question
∞ - I have a connection
⚬ - I don't know this word
* - This is important

International Question Day

Did you know it is International Question Day?

To ensure understanding we read wordless picture books with a partner, some stickie notes and our thinking paddles.  As students read with their partner they wrote down questions as they went along.  I am looking for the deep thinking questions - questions that go beyond the text, questions that we have to look elsewhere for the answer.  Questions that matter.

In a backpack near you are some assessment papers of your students basic facts check-up and problem solving.  Make sure they share them with you and that 'how do you think you are doing?' conversation is held.

Pillars of Care assembly tomorrow at 8:15
Jump Rope for Heart due tomorrow
Teacher's Pet $10.00

Jump Rope for Heart

Jump Rope For Heart donation envelopes are due in Friday if you are raising money for our school goal of $7,000.

Congratulations to our March Pillars of Care winners - Seraj, Arianna, Taylor and Teya.  Assembly will be on Friday March 15 at 8:15 am

$10.00 for Teacher's Pet by Thursday March 21

We read 'The Stranger' by Chris Van Allsburg today focusing on questions that have deep meaning.  We know that the best questions are the ones that make us think beyond the book and look for answers else where.

Teacher's Pet

There should be a notice in a backpack near you regarding our in-school field trip Thursday March 21.  We are having Teacher's Pet back into our classroom because we enjoyed them so much when they were here in January.  This time round they will be helping us with science.  If you can help out that morning drop me an email.  This project has a $10.00 price tag please.

We have started looking at the comprehension strategy of asking questions before, during and after reading.  Good readers ask themselves questions as they read to understand the text and figure out the deep meaning of the book.  We have brainstormed question words (who, if, what, does) and talked about THE MOST important one of all, I wonder...  We already know that quick questions are easy to ask, easy to answer and are right there in the book while deep questions are the meaningful questions that make us think beyond the text and may not have an answer at all.  Be prepared for some questions tonight!

Pleasant and unpleasant sounds have been our focus in science and the reason behind our thinking. 

Pillars of Care assembly Friday 8:15 am

Homework due

Did you know that 'springing ahead' is hard?💤
We all could have used a nap this afternoon!
Representing division using equal sharing was our math work this morning - we are learning to equally share items and the language of this new math.  Division. 
The Doorbell Rang homework that went home on Friday should be on my desk tomorrow-

Weekend Homework

The Doorbell Rang
Math summary
Weekend homework
Sorry
What you will see represents about 2 hours of classroom time.  Please have your student complete the task of retelling the story in pictures, numbers and words.  The book is available online for those who 'can't remember' the story.
Each box will tell a story about how many children are in the kitchen and how many of the 12 cookies they will get.  In box 6 grandma will come with more cookies to share among the children - now there are 30 cookies and 12 children.  How many cookies will they each get?  In the last two boxes they are telling their own story.  Number of children and number of cookies is up to them.

Thank you for supporting your student at school!

Skip to my lou..

We offered our support to the kinders in the gym this afternoon.  They are learning how to skip and we made fantastic instructors.  Some of the little people didn't say a word to us but we fought through and got them all so they can skip.  Almost.

Ask your student about their fact box about Henry Brown.  They are all so proud of their boxes!

We are working through the meaning of division and the different strategies to show division.  Any opportunity to share items at home, put things in equal groups or ask 'how many will each person get?' would be beneficial for your student.

Scholastic book orders due Monday March 11

March Scholastic book orders

March Scholastic book orders are in a backpack near you.  If you order online this month Scholastic are offering you a free book pick.  Orders due Monday March 11.

Read 20/10 tonight we all have new reading materials from the library.

We continued discussing the character Henry from "Henry's Freedom Box" today in terms of who he was and our thoughts on mailing ourselves in a box!  Students then completed a sequencing activity showing they are able to recall events from a story.

We have finished watching a series of videos about going to school in India - we have noticed many things about their schools that are very different from ours. 

FAST

Ask your student about the acronym F.A.S.T.

We had a presentation from the Heart and Stroke Foundation and students have brought home a pledge envelope to raise money in the next two weeks.  We have set a school goal of $7000.00.

Recorders arrived in the classroom late this afternoon and are waiting on desks for music tomorrow.

As we continue to identify different types of literature we had a look today at historical fiction.  We read "Henry's Freedom Box" discussing the time of slavery and the Underground Railroad.  We then worked together to describe Henry in terms of who he was.  Students felt he was brave because he put himself in a box for 27 hours and mailed himself to freedom.  We thought he was a risk taker for wanting to be free at any cost.  We then wrote in our reading journals about taking risks ourselves and seeking freedom.

"How does access to school affect quality of life?"  is the question we are attempting to answer as we watch the video series Going to School In India.  Today we saw that some girls only go to school at night because they have to work during the day for their families.  This led to a discussion about the importance of an education to get a better job as an adult.

Library exchange tomorrow -

Science Presentation tomorrow

Yay for a marginal warm up that allowed us to ski this afternoon!  From all reports it was hard work but fun was had by all!

Science projects will be presented tomorrow morning.  Please help your student by ensuring the work has been done and they can confidently speak about their process and the pitch and volume control.  This is always a great presentation and I am looking forward to seeing the work!

No school Friday

Read 20/10 we were in the library today so everyone has new material to read!

Just another Tuesday in grade 3

Cross country skiing tomorrow.  Fingers crossed that Mother Nature cooperates.
Pink Shirt day tomorrow to stand up for bullying.
Science projects are due on Thursday.

We had a super busy day today and accomplished many great things.  We identified all the parts of the ear and the job those parts do, we played a mystery game of 'What's That Sound?', practised reading with a partner and by ourselves, cursive writing letter p, read a non-fiction book Medieval Moments and talked about the role of a table of content and a glossary, learned about a suit of armor, wrote contractions, did a retell using the graphic organizer Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then, solved a rather complicated sticker math question, did our basic facts and created an anchor chart together on the topic of making connections in math.  Oh - and we went to gym.  It's no wonder we are exhausted at the end of our day😅

Our Monday

Mother Nature was not cooperating with us this morning to allow for our cross country ski lesson.  Tomorrow doesn't look hopeful either.  We are aiming to give skiing a try on Wednesday.  Fingers crossed.  Everyone cooperate.

Sticker math this morning had us thinking in arrays and using money all at once.  Ask your student how they got started this morning and we will finish up tomorrow.  We are wrapping up our multiplication unit and getting ready to move onto division.

Last week we read Princess Hyacinth the Surprising Tale of a Girl Who Floated when we started looking at what we could find in a fairy tale - today we drew and labeled the problem and solution from that story and we wrote about the contractions that we could find.

Science projects are due Thursday - your student has a handout in their backpack.
Science today had us looking at good ole Bill Nye and his Sound video.  We then labelled all the parts of the ear and talked about their function.

No school Friday

February Pillars of Care

Congratulations to our Pillar of Care award winners for February - assembly is tomorrow at 8:15.
This months winners as voted by their peers - Cayleigh, Sol, Evie and Yousif.

Cross Country skiing will start on Monday at 8:30 for us.  We will ski for 40 minutes.  Please help your child be prepared with snow pants, mittens, hat and jacket.  Best to be dressed in layers the forecast is a bit daunting💨

Read 20/10

We accomplished many great things today - ask your student the projects they finished up and handed in!  So great!

What do we find in a fairy tale?

Fun lunch tomorrow -

We did a little brainstorming about what elements we would find in a fairy tale.  Suggestions were made for magic, Once upon a time, happy endings, royalty etc.  We then brainstormed fairy tales we are familiar with such as Cinderella, Little Mermaid, The Three Little Pigs, thank goodness for Mr. Disney and his love for bringing these stories to life on the big screen.  This week and next we will be identifying types of literature such as fairy tales and reading a few new stories.

We have almost wrapped up our unit on multiplication.  Your student should be able to identify an array, tell the addition and multiplication equation that matches it and solve problems.  We have created a nice hallway display of our math/art work from the last couple of weeks and we hope you get the opportunity to see it!

We were also in the library today for book exchange so everyone has new material for 20/10 tonight!

Paul Klee and math

Next week we will cross country ski on the school field with the Foothills Nordic Ski Club.  There is no cost to students but proper dress is required on their part.  Hat, mittens, jacket and snow pants - all the things good Canadian children wear to school daily!  There is a notice in a back pack near you from Mr. Sadowsky outlining the plan.

We looked at the art work of Paul Klee this morning.  He was a Swiss German artist that experimented with color and different art forms.  We used his idea of color and put it into our multiplication basic facts creating a tessellation of sorts.  His work depicted his sense of humor and moods and we are trying to capture that in our work.  MART.  Such fun to integrate the two components.

Family Day long weekend

We wrapped up our swimming lessons today and everyone seems happy with the progress they have made at the pool.  It usually takes instructors a week or so to write evaluations and as soon as Mr. Sadowsky receives them from the pool we will get them home to you.

The week of February 25 we will be cross country skiing on the school field.  Watch for further information coming home next week.

We have started a piece of writing on the topic of swimming - first we drew a picture of a swimmer then we brainstormed words that you might find in a swimming story and then everyone started writing!  I am looking for good first impressions (sound word, action, dialogue, a question) to peak my interest and then detail in sentences that will draw me a picture in my head.

No school Thursday, Friday and Monday😀
Have a great extra long weekend!
Don't forget to read a good book

Making a Musical Instrument

Students will be making their own musical instrument at home for Sound and Hearing Science unit D.  The project is to use recycled and up cycled materials.  Please don't spend any money on this one but be creative!  Go to the public library and check out books on instruments and sound and hearing or check out the internet together.  Projects will need to produce a quality sound that demonstrates a variety of pitches.  Project due date is Thursday February 28.  I will get you printed instructions and a rubric as soon as our printers are up and running in the building - until then happy building!

Scholastic book orders are due Wednesday Feb. 13.  Order online, with cash or cheque.  Thank you for supporting readers in our classroom.

Fun lunch orders due tomorrow.

No school Thursday, Friday and Monday

Paint Project

We started a little painting project this afternoon with acrylic paint.  If you've never painted with 23 8 and 9 year olds in a room with no sink it is an experience!  Watch for your students project to come home next week.

Next Thursday is Valentine's Day and students in room 11 are welcome to bring a valentine for each person in the classroom.  Due to the Freedom of Information and Protection act I cannot send home a list of student names.  I would suggest that students just sign the card with their own name and not worry about addressing individual names also making it much easier to deliver the valentine.  Please do not send little treats along with the valentine as we do have allergies and food restrictions.

Thank you for the snow pants, hats mitts and gloves!  We did go out for lunch today and 20 minutes is a long time if you are not prepared.  Looking forward to the warm up!

First Day of Swimming

Our first day of swimming was a success!  Everyone got wet and had some fun.  We will swim tomorrow and that will be it for this week.  Next week we will swim Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.

We've been talking about making connections while we read and in math to help us make sense of the information.  Today we used sketches as a way of helping us think about our connections in science.  We looked at Magic School Bus in the Haunted House sketched something from the video and made connections and wrote facts around our sketched.  For example, sound waves make me think of ripples of water.  Paying attention to the connections will help us understand and learn.

Swimming Tomorrow

We start swimming lessons tomorrow.  Leaving the building at about 9:50 and returning just after 11.

YAY for the good Canadian children!

YAY for the good Canadian children who were dressed for the weather and got to school today😄. Although we were inside all day and the long range forecast says we will be for awhile the moment we have a window of opportunity we will take it and get outside to move and breathe fresh air!  Please ensure that your student has all that they own to put on everyday.

We start swimming on Wednesday this week and we talked this morning during our morning meeting that that means in the backpack there will be a towel, swimsuit/underwear, a brush or comb and a bag to put the wet things in.  We will snack before we leave for the pool so a little bigger healthy snack might be in order and then return in time for lunch.  A little bigger lunch might be in order too.

During sticker math this morning we talked about all the things a person could do to help themselves solve a math problem.  Once the numbers have been circled, the question underlined, and important words boxed the question becomes what are they asking me to do?  What do I already know? What can I do now?  In part, the answer is draw a picture.  Get out the tools (blocks, number line, hundreds chart) that will help to solve.  In an effort to eliminate students who sit and wait for the answer to fall into their laps I am encouraging them to use some strategies.  Ask your student if they were able to solve sticker math this morning.

Writing homework due

Writing homework describing a pair of mittens is due tomorrow.

Contractions - the topic of a classroom game we played today.  In grade 3 we are responsible for being able to use an apostrophe to form a contraction.  So we watched a little video clip about contractions and then the apostrophe, brainstormed some words and played some games.
We were also in the library this morning so everyone has fresh reading materials for 20/10 tonight.

We took care of some problem solving in math.  I modeled for students how to think through a story problem using multiplication, we worked together to solve another problem, then students tried on their own at the carpet to share their thinking and solve.  Students then went and solved a new problem on their own.  Much like our morning sticker math but this model of thinking requires they show all their thinking including the picture they hold in their head.

No school Friday -

Homework due back Thursday

We packed our suitcases and headed off to India today😉
Noting where India is located in the world, the oceans around it, the mountains that boarder the country and where the equator would be we decided what things we would want to bring with us on a trip to India and packed our suitcases for a great trip abroad!

Currently in student backpacks there is a small piece of homework.  We started last week by reading The Mitten Tree then we drew our own mittens (favorite or fantasy), created a mitten tree (looks, feels, are) of words to describe our mittens and began a paragraph to describe our mittens. Over the course of several days we also read The Mitten, The Winter Mittens and Missing Mittens, inspiration for our own writing. Our paragraphs should paint a picture for our readers of exactly what our mitten look like.  Using specific picture words to help our readers visualize.  This descriptive paragraph needs to be finished at home and returned to school for Thursday January 30 please.

We continue to model multiplication using arrays, tiles, equal groups and recording our thinking.  We can relate addition to multiplication and make equal groups.  It is a lot to think about slowly but surely it is coming together.

No school Friday

Freerice.com

We discovered this afternoon how easy it can be to make a difference in the life of someone else.  We used the website free rice.com to answer questions and donate rice.  For every question we were able to answer correctly the World Food Programme received 10 grains of rice!  Super simple and we felt really good about being able to help.  Because we have done the math, we know how quickly rice can add up.  We read One Grain of Rice an Indian folktale about a village girl who asks the raja for the reward of one grain of rice doubled day by day.  In no time she had millions of grains of rice and was able to help people who were starving.  We can do that too!

Sticker math this morning had us thinking about various ways to plant 24 carrot seeds in a garden.  There is a variety of solutions that would answer this question.  I am looking for students who can make arrays to show their thinking and give me more than one answer - 24x1=24 or 8x3=24 or 6x4=24 etc.  Students are to be using pictures, numbers and words to explain their thinking.  We have been working on visualizing while we read and so we began this morning by visualizing a garden with flowers and vegetables and a white picket fence around it to keep out the rabbits!

No school Friday

Fun lunch in backpacks

Lots of fun lunches returned to the classroom this afternoon please check backpacks to make sure there is not food in there ...

Cityscapes were worked on in math this morning and we added one more step of writing a story problem about the picture just created with arrays.  As we continue to focus on problem solving students in grade 3 also need to be able to write a story problem.

Our gymnastics unit has one week left in it - Mission Impossible!  Rules continue to be enforced so we are looking for no jewelry, no hoods, no open sweaters and long hair tied back.  Mission Impossible is a ton of fun so we all want to participate!

Vibration - a rapid motion that causes sound.  We looked at a of fun videos to try and see a vibration. We also listened to the sounds in this classroom for 30 seconds and there is a lot going on.  Try listening to all the sounds at the supper table tonight and determine if they are the same sounds we hear in here!

Pillars of Care assembly tomorrow 8:15 am

MART

We are all exhausted, we worked so hard today!
We used Amanda Bean's Amazing Dream that we read yesterday to find examples of equal groups.  Then we looked around the classroom and found the calendar, telephone key pad, bingo cards and brick walls that had arrays.  Students were then challenged to create a city skyline that shows arrays.  To be successful they had to use straight lines and on each building include an array (windows) they can add extra detail of stars or snowflakes in an array.  They are then writing about their city scape using multiplication sentences.  Mart.  (Math and art together) Love it!!

Votes were cast for Pillars Of Care - congratulations to Arianna, Carman, Yousif and Whitney.  Assembly will be on Friday at 8:15.

We have started our new science unit Sound and Hearing.  We created a chart of things we think we know and questions we have today.

Swim forms please.

Amanda Bean's Amazing Dream

In the story Amanda Bean's Amazing Dream, Amanda is a child who loves to count anything and everything.  She counts windows, books on a library shelf, cookies on a trays, tiles on a counter top and so much more.  But sometimes Amanda can't count fast enough.  Her teacher tries to persuade her that multiplying will help but Amanda is not convinced.  We read her book this morning stopping to count with Amanda and learned that multiplication is a helpful tool.  The situations in the story allowed for the discussion about repeated addition, skip counting, and the essential idea of an array.  We learned to represent multiplication through the use of any array.  An array is made of columns and rows and is a visual tool we can all use.

These are my favorite days because we also got to read the book Frog Belly Rat Bone as we continue to talk about picture words that authors write for us to visualize in the readers head.  It's a fun story about a boy in cement land who is looking for treasure.  It was great fun to draw all the things he was doing.  Ask your child about visualization.

Swim forms due please.

Circles and Stars

Scholastic book orders due tomorrow please.

We've been playing a game in math called Circles and Stars.  It begins with a roll of the die.  We would then draw that number of circles on our page.  Roll the die again and draw that number of stars in each circle. We would then figure out how many stars we drew and write the total down.  An addition sentence would be written and then a multiplication sentence.  So if I rolled a 3 first I would draw 3 circles.  On my second roll if I got a 2 so I would draw 2 stars in each of the 3 circles.  The addition sentence becomes 2+2+2=6  and the multiplication sentence of 3x2=6. 3 groups of 2 equals 6.  Today we looked at all the totals we had when playing this game and found out that with two dice you can not get the product of 7,11,13,14,17,19,21,23,26,27,28,29,31,32,33,34, or 35 and numbers like 12 come up more often. So now we will use this information to play multiplication bingo but students will build their own bingo card using the numbers that come up in multiplication the most.  Hopefully.

Details

Let's have those January Scholastic book orders back to school be Tuesday January 22.
Return swim forms with $26.00
Return white report card envelopes.
Read 20/10.  Everyday.

January Scholastic

How is the new years resolution to read with your child and around your child going?
Did you get to the new downtown public library yet?
Did you know there is another new library in the new YMCA in Seton?  Not only is it the WORLD'S largest YMCA but they have Calgary's 21st public library and it has a decommissioned Alouette III helicopter in the children's section!!  I don't even know what that means but I know that every child in this classroom would love to go and sit in it and climb in it and play with the controls!
Read 20/10 tonight.  Everyone!


The January Scholastic Book orders are in a backpack near you -
Thank you for helping put books into our classroom by ordering from Scholastic.  Everytime you order they send books for students to read in the classroom.  It's a win win.  You can pay for your order in cash, cheque and this month when you order online they will send you a free book too!

Equal groups

WOW!  Tuesday's are long days.  I don't know about you but we seem to struggle on Tuesdays to attain to task. Perhaps the weather is changing.  Or maybe there is about to be a full moon.  Could be that we weren't holding our tongues just right today.  Many plausible reasons.

In grade 3 we are responsible for knowing that multiplication is repeated addition that can be expressed as equal groups or arrays.  We have to be able to draw multiplication and write about it.  We are also responsible for recalling the multiplication facts to 5x5.  Again today we brainstormed from our schemas experiences we have had that can be described as multiplication - so things that come in groups. Legs on a chair.  Sides of a die.  triplets.  Days in a week.  To solidify equal groupings.

Ask your student about the story they wrote this morning about a pig.  First we drew Piggie from a Mo Willems how to draw video then we brainstormed vocabulary for stories with page in them then we wrote our own stories.

Return swim forms please.
Return white report card folders.

Introducing Multiplication

We have reached the most anticipated event of grade 3!
The one thing every student expresses they can hardly wait to learn in grade 3.
Multiplication.
I love to teach multiplication.  There are so many fun ways to make real world connections and use hands on exploration.  I launched our multiplication unit with a question about chopsticks.  Since I love Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese food I brought in a pair of chopsticks and told students that Saturday we went to our favorite restaurant and I ordered the BIG bowl (that's what the waiter told me😋) not a problem, leftovers are a marvelous thing!  My question was then: if there are four people at the table how many chopsticks did we need?  We recorded student thinking and let me tell you there were at least 5 different ways of thinking about this question - but they were all right!  So then I extended the question to be: if I were planning a Chinese meal for everyone in our classroom how many chopsticks would I need to bring?  Real world problems.  We then started to brainstorm things that come in groups of two.  This helps students make a connection between equal groups and multiplication.  Students then went to work making lists of things that come in equal groups of three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven and twelve.  This will help to tie in the visual student to multiplication as we go along.  YAY for us!

Gymnastics has started in our gym.  Students will need to have their hair tied back, wear socks or shoes, have everything tucked in and leave all jewelry at home.  Following the rules set out to keep us safe also means no hoods or dresses for this unit.  Please help your child as we go to gym everyday and they want to participate.

We started reading about Martin Luther King Jr. and the key events of his life.  Biographies are another genre we use to become better readers.  Good readers can determine what is most important information and what is fluff.  The fluff, although meant to keep the readers interest, is not important to the overall picture.  `

After Teacher's Pet

Ask your student about our Teacher's Pet inservice about Tunisia.  It was excellent!  We sorted Tunisian imports and exports, played a trivia game, made a mosaic, and learned how to play Mancala along with looking at several artifacts.   After our facilitator left we wrote about our morning using sentence started like; "If I were the teacher I would have..."  "One question I still have about Tunisia is ..."  "I'm wondering..."

Fun lunch information went home today it is due back at school January 18.
Swim forms due back Feb. 1

Teacher's Pet

We are very much looking forward to our presentation tomorrow morning about Tunisia.  We hope tom come away with a better understanding of the quality of life in Tunisia.  Presentation will run from 9 - 11 am.  I'm still in need of volunteers if you find yourself with some free time tomorrow drop me an email.

We continue to practice our visualization skills.  Today we found out that our images change from the beginning of the reading to the end.  Good readers are able to take in new information to change their way of thinking.  We practiced with some poetry again by a Canadian author - the pictures were great fun!

Teachers Pet form and $10.00 by tomorrow please.
Return white report card envelopes signed please as soon as possible.
Swim forms are in a backpack near you.

Goods and Services

We had a look at the meaning of goods and services today while we read the story "On Market Street". We decided that a good is something you can use, see and feel.  A service is something that is done for you and you paid for it.  We will now have a look at goods and services in Tunisia as we prepare for Teacher's Pet on Thursday morning.

We are practicing our visualizing skills by making movies in our heads while listening to stories and poems.  Good readers can visualize to better understand the author and they do that by taking the author's picture words and creating a mental image.  We will then transfer these skills into our personal writing.  Today we drew a picture to match the poem, "Shop, Shop, Shopping."

Teacher's Pet form and $10.00 by Thursday please.
We require 3 volunteers for Thursday morning - if you can give us a hand please drop me an email.
White report card envelopes need to be signed and returned.

Happy New Year

I trust everyone is rested, relaxed and rejuvenated for 2019!
We had a great first day back - students were ready to see their friends and take on new challenges.
Our day started with what turned out to be a great challenge.  Huge challenge.  People are surrounded by things containing numbers - addresses, room numbers, signs and telephone numbers.  Did you know your student does not know their telephone number?  We worked on strategies to add numbers quickly today as a review using telephone numbers.  The students in this classroom had no idea their own telephone numbers.  I anticipated that and had cards ready for them but this is a gentle nudge that to know ones telephone number and address is a life skill.  Help your student to learn a telephone number.


Teacher's Pet field trip notice is due back.  $10.00 with the form please.
Report card envelopes need to be signed and returned.
Swim notices were sent home today please check a backpack near you.