Tuesday Fun Day With our Grade 1 Buddies

Here's just a quick post to let you in on some of the fun that we had today with our grade 1L buddies. As one of the older grades in the school, it is very important for our grade 3s to model appropriate behaviour and to show the grade 1's what it looks like to be a good buddy. We are so lucky because our students in 3FM take their roles as a buddy pretty seriously and in turn, model an important part of being a good citizen - volunteering their time to help others - and doing so in a respectful, thoughtful manner. It is so important to be able to work with other students - and I am so proud of 

this class during our buddy activities.

Here are a couple pictures from this afternoon:

Although at times, I did have to remind them to put a little more candy on their houses and less in their mouths...J...

they did an absolutely fabulous job being helpers 

to our buddies!!!

 A great time was had by all the students!

Awesome job today 3FM! 

The Final Countdown!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1!!!

The kids are on the countdown but I am still working them pretty hard!

As I mentioned in my email last week, we are keeping super busy in 3FM!

Most of our "desk time" this week has been spent working through our place value unit. Students are dong extemely well and can now:

- identify whether a number is in the hundreds, tens or ones place

- identify the value of a digit in a three digit number (eg, the 4 in 245 is worth 40)

- increase or decrease a number by 10 or 100

- write a number in words

- write a number in base ten form

 (3 hundreds 2 tens 6 ones)

- write a number in expanded form

( 300+ 20+ 6)

- represent a number using base ten blocks

- determine which number is greater or less than another number

- place numbers in order from greatest to least or least to greatest

Phew! No wonder we have been feeling a little tired over the past ten days! We have been working so hard! 

We have focused our writing around Christmas, writing letters to Santa and a paragraph about life in a snowglobe! The students are really finding their voice when writing! I love when their personalities shine through their work!

Our last three days are action packed!

Wednesday- Work, work, skate for the morning! We will finish up our Christmas art in the afternoon!

Thursday- Assembly performance first thing followed by a little bit of work time! No skating!

Friday- PJ day, skating first thing in the morning, party food for a special Christmas brunch, fun Christmas activities, lunch and then movie in the gym!

Thank you to the parents who have been coming out to tie skates and spend time on the ice with the students! We REALLY appreciate your help!!! 

I want to take this opportunity to wish you and your family the merriest Christmas wishes! I hope your holiday time is filled with love and laughter!

One Week Left Until Christmas Holidays!

It's almost the most wonderful time of the year... 

I think everyone is looking forward to Christmas holidays - it is such a busy 

time of the year... so much to do and so little time! That goes for in the classroom, too.

We have been working hard, although at times we are battling the build up of 

excitement that the season often brings.  Something else that comes during this 

time of year is cold/flu season. It's a great time to remind your child about proper hygiene - things like keeping their hands out of their mouths, noses, etc., proper hand-washing, covering their mouths when coughing - anything we can do to try and prevent the spread of those nasty germs!

Science Update

We continued to work on our Hearing and Sound unit this week. I introduced our unit by reading the book, "The Listening Walk" by Paul Showers. Check out the picture below to see our
class brainstorm efforts on the many different sounds that we hear.



We then took time to listen to the sounds in our classroom, and with the beautiful weather - we were able to take a listening walk around the schoolyard to investigate the sounds we hear outside.

Below are a couple pictures that I managed to take while trying to lead the walk!

We also explored the following concepts:

R how humans talk

R sound is energy  

R sound is created by vibrations

R pitch means how high or low the sound is

R volume means how loud or soft a sound is

Ask your child what we learned using balloons and tuning forks in science class? 

(They should tell you about the vibrations that they felt!)

It gives me such pleasure to watch the students when they are exploring a new concept - 

the excitement that they have is contagious! 

I feel so lucky to share in the learning of your child.

Social Studies Update

This week we continued to look at quality of life - however, this week we focused on a character from Tunisia. We started to learn about the day-to-day life of a student in Tunisia, 

making comparisons with what we previously learned about Maria in Peru, 

and what we know about our lives in Devon, AB.

There will be a letter coming home to explain how we will be celebrating each country that we are studying by having 4 cultural days throughout the school year - our first one, India Day, will be the first week back in January. It will give the students a chance to experience a number of aspects of each culture - from trying food, doing crafts, listening to the languages, etc - we hope to give your child an opportunity to really experience each country and its culture.

Enjoy your weekend - only 1 week left!

A Special Book Reading for the Grade 3's

On Monday all of the grade 3's were treated to not one, but two wonderful surprises. 
We were lucky enough to have a local author, Nicole Brook, come in to do a book reading

of her new series. It is called The Amazing Adventures of Abigail Andrews.

Along with her reading, Nicole spoke with the students about their dreams - 
and the students seemed quite engaged with her message. 
She explained her three 'secrets' to them:

First - you need to DREAM it.

Then - you need to BELIEVE it.
Finally - you need to WORK at it.

 Thanks to Devon's FCSS, and much to the excitement of the students, she personally signed a book for each child. Below you can see a picture of some of our students getting their books signed:

All of us at Robina Baker were very excited to have a local author come in and talk 
with the students. Her message to the students was inspiring - it's such a fabulous 
thing when we can celebrate local successes - it really shows our students that 
anything is possible if you work at it! 

You can find more information on her, and the series at abigailandrewsseries.com. 

It's Christmas Time in 3FM...

It was another short week at school - but wow - was it jam-packed with activity.

Thanks so much to our Christmas Concert team headed by Mrs. Stanski for a fabulous show. Also thank you so much to all the parents for supporting your children and partaking in the entertainment

Although rehearsals and last-minute touches for the Christmas Concerts definitely took center stage, we still were able to get some fabulous work out of our exceptional 3FM students!

Social Studies Update

This week we continued to look at quality of life, however, we narrowed our focus onto one of the main characters we are studying who lives in Peru. 

Students read and discussed the difference between life in the city of Lima and in villages of Peru.

We discussed things such as family, houses, school and work.

Science

This week we started our second unit, Hearing and Sound. Students discussed what they know about sound and hearing, and we came up with some questions that they would like to see answered. 

Here are some of the examples of what they already know:

There are loud and soft sounds.

There are high and low sounds.

Tigers, lions, heavy metal concerts, race cars are all loud sounds.

Mice, whispers, some winds are all soft sounds.

We hear with our ears.

Our eardrums can be damaged by loud noises.

Instruments make different sounds - high or low.

Water on a glass can make a sound.

Here are some of the examples of the questions they would like answered:

How do people make sounds?

What do our eardrums do?

How do our ears work?

How do we talk?

How can we hear our heartbeat?

Students also started a title page for this unit using the netbooks and their gmail accounts. They were given a list of requirements for pictures that they needed to have. Some students brought home their gmail information so that they could try and work on it at home. 

I guess the countdown is on - I hope you all have a fabulous long weekend!

Time Flies When You're Having Fun and the Snow is Blowing!

A few important updates!

LANGUAGE ARTS

* We won't be having a new word sort or word wall words this week. With the chaos of Christmas concerts and last Friday's snow day, we are going to test the words from last week, this week. 

* This week will be adding a few sentences to a school wide story that revolves around a different piece of art from the Alberta Art Gallery. We will also be writing letters to Santa this week (if you haven't seen my special Christmas request email yet, please look for it in your inbox ASAP).

* We are finishing up The Trouble With Chickens this week. The students have LOVED it! They have fallen in love with the characters! There are a few other books by the same author, Doreen Cronin, that would make great Christmas gifts for the kids: The Legend of Diamond Lil, The Chicken Squad: The First Misadventure, and The Case of the Weird Blue Chicken: The Next Misadventure. 

* One on one and small group weekly reading conferences are going very well. I am seeing quite a bit of growth when in comes to reading strategies in the areas of comprehension, accuracy and fluency. Thank you for your support with home reading! This is such an integral part of supporting your child's growth as a reader. 

MATH

* I was hoping that I could announce that we were finished our patterns unit and on to our place value unit...but I can't. I wasn't comfortable leaving such an important unit behind when I had a handful of students who were struggling with identifying and extending patterns when it involved numbers instead of objects. I have spent the last few days taking a step back with these students and built a more solid foundation of skills to work with. We have completed our work with increasing number patterns and will focus this week on decreasing number patterns. In the meantime, the other students have enjoyed: (a) applying the patterning concepts to some challenging problem solving questions

(b) completing review work out of the textbook 

(c) playing math games that reinforce their basic facts. 

* The place value unit is up next. It is a quick, straight forward unit. With all of the number sense work that we have done over the past three months, I believe that this unit will be completed quite quickly. 

Christmas Festivities

Christmas concerts are this week! The students have been working hard to perfect their performance. Our concert is on Tuesday, December 2nd at 7pm. Doors open at 6:45pm. We are meeting in Mrs. Murtha-Toles' room. 

Christmas party/special snack day details will be coming out on Thursday! 

Golden Garbage Can Award

For the month of November, 3FM won the Golden Garbage Can Award! We won this by keeping the cleanest classroom! Way to go team! It's a great way to show our appreciation for our custodians!

SNOW DAY!

On Friday, only 8 students made it to school due to the cold weather and lack of buses. The nine of us had a great day! After our assembly we played a variety of games, both educational and just for fun! We spent the afternoon in Mrs. Rothfos' class with seven 3R students and worked on a special art project. It was so much fun getting together with other grade three students!

Looking forward to seeing you all on Tuesday night!

Take care and stay warm!

Walking In a Winter Wonderland!

It looks like the end of November is here already, and that winter has decided to 

rear its head with a nice warm snow storm welcome.

We have been pretty busy with preparations for the Christmas Concert on Tuesday December 2 - 

we hope to see all your faces there, however if your child cannot make it - we ask 

that you please let us know as soon as possible.

Science Update

We finished up our Rocks and Minerals Unit this week with the students writing their tests on Tuesday. Wow! I was so impressed with how hard they worked and how well they did! 

The tests should be coming home for you to have a look at - if you would please sign them 

and return them to school, it would be greatly appreciated.

Today, we wrapped things up with a Pet Rock activity. The students painted their very own Pet Rock and were able to work on some Pet Adoption papers and activities relating to their new pet. 

Here are a couple pictures of the students working hard on their Pet Rocks.

And here are the final products - some pretty fabulous Pet Rocks!!!

The class really enjoyed this unit - their enthusiasm  and excitement was contagious. 

I'm not sure who is more sad that it's over - myself or the students!

Next week, we will begin our second unit - Hearing and Sound - 

which ties in nicely with the Christmas Concert.

Social Studies

In Social Studies, we began looking into quality of life. Students were introduced to the idea 

of quality of life through the story, Fly Away Home by Eve Bunting. It tells the story of a 

little boy and his father who are homeless but live in an airport rather 

than on the streets. It really opened up a good class discussion.

We talked about the meaning of quality of life and that having money does not necessarily

 mean that you have a better quality of life. We sorted out a number of feeling 

statements - safe, happy feelings VS sad, not safe feelings: 

I feel full VS I feel hungry.

I feel rested VS I feel so tired.

I feel like part of the group VS I feel like I'm alone

I feel hopeful that things will get better VS I feel hopeless that things won't get better

We determined that if you have more happy than sad feelings, it means that you have a better 

quality of life. We also looked at the difference between needs and wants.

Next week we will begin looking at the quality of life in each of the four countries: 

India, Peru, Tunisia and Ukraine. 

A Couple Notes

In regards to Social Studies - if you have any items, books or pictures or experiences 

relating to any of the four countries that you would be willing to share with the class - 

it would be greatly appreciated. 

The Annual school-wide toy drive for Devon Christmas Elves will run from 

tomorrow until Thursday December 4. 

We sent out letters about the Christmas Concert and Christmas Movie night. The information can also be found at the following link: http://www.rbes.ca/calendar.html  

  

Hope you all have a super weekend. Stay warm and stay safe!

3FM update!

After two short weeks, we are settling into a full week of school! 

Language Arts

A new word sort came home this week. Students are working hard to master the spelling rules for the week during their daily sorting activities. Five new word wall words came home on Monday too. When agendas come home on Mondays, please check for the weeks word wall words. To focus your child's word wall work for the week, follow the list below:

- if your child can read and spell all 5 words---> relax! No further practice is required!

- if your child can read but can't spell one or more word---> focus on those words and make sure your child can spell them by the end of the week

- if your child can not read one or more word---> help your child master these sight words by the end of the week. Do not worry about getting them to learn how to spell them, just focus on reading them. This way, students can find them on their word wall and practice writing them from there. 

We have continued with our paragraph writing focus this week. Today students wrote paragraphs describing a piece of art from the travelling art gallery that is visiting our school right now. Students were able to identify the parts of a paragraph: the topic sentence, supporting sentences and concluding sentence. Our ability to write a focused paragraph is definitely improving in 3FM!

Today we started reading a new novel, The Trouble With Chickens. Students are enjoying the story as told by the main character JJ, who is a retired search and rescue dog. His voice is sarcastic, witty and comical! We are discussing voice and how it impacts the reader while we are reading the book and will soon meet another voice that is eager to tell his side of the story. 

Math

This week we are finishing up our Patterning unit. We are expanding our skills into more complex questions involving some problem solving. Students are able to use a hundreds chart to help them navigate the number patterns but are also encouraged to use some mental math to extend the patterns. 

Next up for us in math is Place Value!

Christmas Concert

Our concert is on December 2nd. Please let me know ASAP if your child is unable to attend. 

A couple of shout outs:

The students are enjoying their week of Mission Impossible in gym!

I'm very happy with the progress that I am witnessing during reading conferences!

We all enjoyed Miss V's presentation about her trip to Mexico!

As always, if you ever have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at your earliest convenience.

Take care, 

Jolene Milson

Quick Update - Science and Social Studies

Two short weeks makes it seem like we have barely been in the classroom. 

However, on the days that we were in the class - your students worked hard 

and we were able to get a lot done!

Science

In Science, students continued to work on soil. We also investigated 

weathering of rocks and erosion.

Ask your students how you can make soil using a rock, a hammer, a cutting board

 and a pair of safety glasses. 

They sure enjoyed seeing me in my safety "goggles!"

Students completed a weathering simulation using our mouths (saliva) to act as water, and rocket candies and our teeth to act like rocks. They learned that the faster a river is, and the more rocks that there are to bump into - the faster a rock will be weathered. 

I sent home a Practice Test to help them prepare for their Rocks and Minerals Unit Test. 

Practice Test is due Tuesday November 18 so I can mark it and have it back to them.

Rocks and Minerals Unit Test is Tuesday November 25. 

Social Studies

In Social Studies. students continue to be introduced to the four countries that we will be studying for the rest of the year. India, Peru, Tunisia and Ukraine. We have started 

looking at the locations of each country and what may be found bordering 

each country - neighbors or bodies of water.

Hope you have a fabulous rest of your week!

3FM Will Never Forget...

Today we focused our literacy time on Remembrance Day. We read one of my favourite books today. A Bear In War by Stephanie Innes & Harry Endrulat is a story told from a teddy bear's point of view about a family living through war times. 

After reading the book, watching a video and discussing the loss of Canadian soldiers, the students partnered up and wrote what they would be thinking about during our moment of silence tomorrow. I really appreciated how respectful the students were during these discussions. Their responses are very thoughtful. 

Science and Social Studies Update

Wow - I can't believe how fast the time is flying by...November already!

I am really looking forward to meeting everyone this week at parent-teacher interviews. We are available Tuesday and Wednesday. If you haven't already booked your appointment - please do! 

You can do so at the following link:

http://rbes.schoolappointments.com/admin/

Science

In Science we are almost ready to wrap up our Rocks and 

Minerals Unit. This past week the students:

*examined 5 different types of soil 

*described the differences  between different types of soil

*observed the different layers that we find in soil

*discussed that soil is NOT just dirt

Below is a picture of soil layer experiment and our comparison drawing:

We talked about the importance of recording our observations 

during experiments and labeling our diagrams so that when we 

look back it will help us remember.

Social Studies

After completing the quiz on Continents and Oceans, we started our new unit - Many Places, Many Lives in Social Studies. This unit will focus on getting to know the four countries that we will be studying. This past week were just introduced to the four countries, as well as to the textbook that we will be using.

Today, the students were introduced to four children, one from each of the countries, that we will follow as we learn about India, Peru, Tunisia and Ukraine.

Together we found the countries on a world map, and talked about how far each country is from us, here in Alberta. The students also completed a partnered activity - in which they read about the different countries and had to share at least one piece of information that they learned. 

Below is what the students shared:

The students were genuinely excited to discuss the countries and 

to share what they learned with their partners. They were especially 

fascinated by the varying populations in each country!

Buddy Activity from Last Week

The class had a great time helping our grade 1 buddies make their worms. Prior to the activity, we read the story "Diary of A Worm." Then we talked about how worms are really important to soil. We also spent our lunch hour watching a couple youtube videos on earthworms to get us in the mode for worm-building.

Here are a couple of pictures that I was able to capture during the activity. There was so much excitement - it made it difficult to get 

photos of all the students. However, if you have time and can swing by Mrs. Luciw's room - you can see what your children helped the grade one's do!

I hope everyone has a fabulous week - and an equally fabulous long weekend!

Reminder: There is no school on Friday November 7, Monday November 10 or Tuesday November 11.

Looking Back and Looking Ahead

Last week was a very productive week!

Language Arts

We have continued to work on sentence writing to ensure that everyone is aware of the proper conventions (capitalization, punctuation and spelling) and elements required to create a sentence. Students discussed how they come up with a sentence in their mind and then get that sentence accurately on paper. One student shared their strategy of focusing on two to three words at a time and then repeating the sentence over and over until all of the words are written down properly. This may seem like common sense to us but you would be surprised how many students struggle to get what is in their head, down on paper. We even took about 15 minutes to review proper formation and placement of letters. Several students were not forming or placing their letters properly when writing and it was difficult to tell the difference between upper and lower case letters. I'm hopeful that we are all on the same page now. 

We also discussed paragraph writing this week. Students understand that a paragraph focuses on one topic and contains: a topic sentence, supporting detail sentences and a concluding sentence. We started working on a paragraph on thankfulness. The topic of October's assemblies has been focusing on being thankful so the students have a lot of experience with this topic. This week we will continue to fine tune these paragraphs and publish them in a shared book. This book will make it's way home with each student next week!

In reading we focused on spooky Halloween books which was so much fun! The reading strategies that we focused on were: 

Tuning into interesting words

Reading with expression

Checking for understanding 

Backing up and rereading

During read to self time, I was able to conference with the remaining students that I hadn't read with yet (with the exception of one student who was absent). During reading conferences, the students and I decide on a reading strategy that they need to focus on for the next few weeks. Students need to focus on this strategy every time they read at school and at home. Ask your child what their strategy is. If they have forgotten, they can check our CAFE board...each student has a post-it note under their strategy heading (Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency, Expanding Vocabulary) with the number of the strategy beside their name. I was also able to do further reading testing with some struggling readers. These assessments help me target their reading instruction. 

Our Words Their Way program is going well! I am eager to hear how it is going for you at home during our Parent Teacher meetings. Students are quickly grasping the reasons for their sorts each week which is great to see! We are heading into our second 4 week stretch. With Remembrance Day week being only 3 days, we will not have a word sort that week. This week, being 4 days, will have a word sort. If you ever have any questions or concerns about the sorts when you are working on them at home with your child, please feel free to email me. I check my email often and should usually be able to respond quite quickly. 

Just a reminder that the WTW- Home duotangs should be returned to school each Friday so that I can mark them over the weekend. 

Math

We have continued our work on patterning, focusing on number patterns instead of figure patterns. Students were working with increasing number patterns using a hundreds chart for assistance. This week we will investigate decreasing number patterns using a hundreds chart for support. I'm hoping to finish up this unit by November 14th. 

We continue to spend time working on our basic facts and developing our number sense with How Many Ways? throughout the week. 

I look forward to meeting with each of you on either Tuesday or Wednesday evening during our Parent Teacher conferences. If you have any pressing concerns or questions that you want to address at that time, feel free to email me so that I have time to gather all of the information we need to properly address your concerns. 

Take care, 

Jolene Milson 

Happy Halloween!

We had a great day celebrating Halloween in 3FM! The day flew by!

After our assembly, the students completed their spelling tests on Spelling City, worked on a Halloween word search and participated in a Halloween themed gym class. After lunch, we participated in the annual RBES Costume Parade! It was great to see all of the students dressed up in their creative costumes! Earlier in the week, students brainstormed options for activities and voted on their favourite. Watching a movie was the most popular choice so when we got back to class, we watched Hotel Transylvania and enjoyed our party food. After tidying up we played Halloween pictionary! It was a blast!

A huge thank you goes out to:

Max's family for the veggie tray

Damion's family for the cheese and crackers

Vanessa's family for the sausage tray

Hunter's family for the fruit tray

Olivia's family for the chocolate cake and chocolate treats

Kennedy's family for the cupcakes and candy kabobs

Tristan's family for the chips

Mrs. Rector for helping hand out the party food

Mrs. Toogood for being on our girls team in Pictionary

Science and Social Studies Update

I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend and is all geared up for Halloween!!!

I wanted to give a quick update on what has been happening in Science and Social Studies.

In Science we continue to work on our rocks and minerals unit. Students have:

ü  reviewed the rock cycle - and how rocks come from deep within earth and 

then go through changes throughout time. 

ü  learned about igneous rocks, sedimentary rocks and metamorphic rocks. 

The students also continue to enjoy bringing in rocks during Rock Talk to show to 

their classmates. It is such a fun way for students to demonstrate how they 

can describe the properties of rocks and minerals. 

This week we will begin looking at soil and how it is NOT just dirt! Students will learn that 

soil is really a combination of fine rock particles and humus. We were also invited to work 

with 1L on a buddy project on worms which ties in nicely with our introduction to soil. 

In Social Studies we will be finishing off our mapping unit with a quiz on 
the continents and oceans on Monday. 

Students will then be introduced to a child from each of the following countries:
Ukraine, India, Peru, Tunisia. These characters will be followed over the course of the
year to help the students as they learn about life in each of the countries.

Looking forward to a super week in 3FM!

Halloween

It's time to talk Halloween!

On the blog, we have a section called VIP (Very Important Papers). It is on the bottom right hand side of the blog. Under that heading you will find a document called Planning Party Days. If you click on that link, it will open up the document for you. This document breaks down our year and our students, assigning everyone one party food for one party day. Mrs. Ferguson and I will supply the drinks, plates and napkins each time. If you have any questions or concerns about your child's responsibilities, please contact me as soon as possible so that changes can be made.
Please note: Damion and Cheyenne have already arranged to switch items and holidays but the master sheet has not been changed yet.

Halloween will look a little different this year at RBES. When Mr. Henderson was going through the gym storage rooms he came across the supplies for the Toonie Carnival. Everything was in pretty rough shape so Mr. Henderson discarded them. During our October staff meeting we had a very long discussion about our options for Halloween. We decided to let go of the Toonie Carnival portion. This year:

- students will help decorate the halls (we are in charge of the foyer along with 4S) on October 24th in the afternoon.

- students will dress up for the entire day, not just the afternoon.

- students will participate in the traditional costume parade in the gym after lunch and then proceed back to our class for a party. Students will decide on what activity they want to do in the afternoon (special craft, games, movie, etc.) and we will enjoy our party food.

- students will have a regular assembly in the morning from 8:30 - 10:00. Parents are welcome to attend the beginning portion of the assembly.

Quick check in!

Our short week is FLYING by!!!

Yesterday, students completed the first digital SLA focusing on English Literacy. Tech issues and an overwhelmed website tried our patience throughout the morning. It took five periods to complete and all students made me proud with their patience and efforts. Period six was a fantastic break! I was able to play basketball with the students and watch them relax and have some fun! I must admit, I enjoy teaching gym once a week - it gives me a chance to see them and interact with them in a different environment.

The afternoon was filled with math, which was great! The students explored increasing patterns, wrote pattern rules and extended the patterns. We also took some time to review subtraction using Touch Math. Students definitely find subtraction more difficult because they are not used to counting back from numbers higher than 10. Instead of a ten second count down, have your child practice counting back from a higher number when getting ready to go into the vehicle, tie their shoes or clean up a small mess. Most students struggle to count down 13, 12, 11, 10, so any practice would be beneficial.

This morning we tackled our last digital SLA focusing on Numeracy. The tech issues have been fewer, which is appreciated by all. While the students were in music, I was able to sit down and write some specific feedback about our experience with the pilot SLA assessments. Mrs. Kloschinsky asked all grade three teachers to provide feedback so that she could pass it on to the powers that be. I have repeatedly told our students that this was the first time grade three students have written SLAs and that they are definitely not perfect. I have repeatedly thanked them for their efforts and patience. I am relieved that they are complete and that we can get back to a regular schedule.

A few important things to take note of:

- There is a family movie night happening on October 24th.
Doors open at 6pm
Movie starts at 6:30pm
Tickets are $5 per family
The movie playing is The Lego Movie
There will be a concession and a LEGO door prize.

Tickets are being sold in the morning between 8:15-8:45am and at lunch from noon - 1pm.
Funds raised will be put towards purchasing new Smartboards and other tech equipment for the school.

- Hot lunch orders for November are due by October 24th.

- Milk tickets are always available to purchase.


As always, if you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact us at your earliest convenience.

Take care,
Jolene Milson

Fab Fridays in 3FM

I don't usually get to spend Fridays in the classroom - but I did today! It was a busy day - that started with our Character Education Assembly. Congratulations goes out to Connor for receiving our first Student of the Week. He earned this by always being organized and ready to learn! Way to go Connor!

Next, we participated in Bus Safety - which was an awesome reminder about how we need to act in and outside of busses! Good job 3FM - you were an awesome audience for the presentation.

The students completed their spelling tests on spelling city - I have never seen so many students excited about a spelling test! The ease of our students in incorporating technology in the classroom is a blessing in today's world.

It was also our first day for hot lunch and milk - which was thoroughly enjoyed by all the students who ordered.  

This afternoon the students continued to work on their spider web art projects. A big thank you goes out to Mrs. Huber for her help in containing the chaos of oil pastels and her help with the students on their project. Help in the class is always so greatly appreciated by both myself, and Mrs. Milson.

I hope you all have a fabulous long-weekend. From my family to yours - Happy Thanksgiving!!!

Science and Social Update

I can't believe how fast the time is going! It's almost Thanksgiving already - 

before we know it, Halloween will be upon us and we will be digging out our winter gear! 

Science

In science we have been working hard on being geologists. We have been examining the rocks we collected, as well as performing a variety of tests on the rocks to investigate properties such as colour, shape, hardness, texture.  We will continue our investigations by exploring the rock cycle, 

how rocks are made and the 3 main different types of rocks. 

The students are genuinely excited to learn about rocks, as is evident by the number of students 

who choose to participate in our Rock Talks on Tuesday and Thursday. Rock Talk gives the
students a chance to present a rock to the class - giving descriptions of the properties, 

where it's from and if it has any special meaning to them. 

Check out some of our Rock Talkers below:

Social Studies

We have been working on a Mapping Unit. The students have been reviewing 

the cardinal directions, as well as working with maps.  

We have:

✔️learned what the key components of a map are: title, key, symbols, compass rose, scales

✔️created our own maps

✔️practiced reading different types of maps to get information

✔️ learned about latitude and longitude

Currently, we are studying the 7 continents and 4 oceans in preparation for our exploration of the following peoples/countries: India, Ukraine, Tunisia and Peru. 

In the spirit of the holiday; this year, I am thankful for...

...my amazing husband and my three beautiful daughters

...my parents and the time I get to spend with them 
...my time spent learning with your children

...being a part of the incredible RBES team

I hope you all have a great rest of the week and a fabulous Thanksgiving Weekend!!!

October already!!!

Language Arts News

Our first week of Words Their Way is behind us and I'm happy with how things went. Ten out of seventeen WTW Home books were returned on Friday. Students should have two complete sorts written in their books each week. The first one is done on Tuesday when they look at and read each word and then write it the appropriate column. The second one is completed on Wednesday and it is a blind sort and write. A parent reads the word to the child but doesn't show them the word. The student is expected to write the word with proper spelling in the appropriate category. 

Students completed their spelling tests online using the Spelling City website on Friday. This made it quick and easy for students to complete their personalized spelling test instead of me having to give five different spelling tests throughout the day. The words are read to the students individually and a sentence is read using the word. The students type the word into the space provided. I was very happy to see the level of mastery that students achieved with their words and that most students were able to extend their knowledge to spell three new words that follow the same spelling patterns. Way to go 3FM!

Starting this week, in addition to their Words Their Way words, students will write five Word Wall Words in their agenda. These words will be basic sight words. Please ensure that your child can read and spell these common words by the end of the week. Thank you for your support!

Our home reading program is up and running with many enthusiastic readers earning beads for their necklaces! I am super proud of their dedication to their reading skills!

I have been meeting with students for reading conferences during our read to self time each day. During this time, I listen to a student read and we discuss their strengths and areas that need some attention. I teach them a strategy or two that I want them to focus on during reading practice. The strategies focus on one or two of our CAFE reading areas: Comprehension, Accuracy, Fluency and Expanding Vocabulary. It is during this time that we also adjust reading levels throughout the year. 

In writing, we have been focusing on building our stamina while writing in our journals. Students have also thoroughly enjoyed writing home on Fridays in their Back and Forth books. Daily, students are reminded of the proper writing conventions expected in all written work. Sentences need to start with a capital letter and end with proper punctuation. Proper names of people and places must be capitalized within a sentence. 

Math News

Our first month together was spent exploring and building on our general number sense. Through weekly graphs, How Many Ways and basic addition fact practice, I have been able to get a sense of where the students are at when it comes to their math skills. This insight helps me plan future activities and unit studies. This week we will start our patterning unit. Students will explore and extend increasing and decreasing patterns in a variety of ways. They will learn how to define the pattern rule in a given pattern and how to create their own patterns.

I would like to take a minute to explain one of the strategies that I have taught the students to help them with their basic math facts. When students are unable to quickly recall their basic addition and subtraction facts (up to 9+9 or 18-9), they often become quite frustrated. Touch Math is a fantastic strategy that works with all math operations. 

There are two things that you need to know to use this strategy:

1) where the spots are on each number

2) how to count on or back

Students quickly memorize the spots on the numbers one through nine (see chart above). 

From one to five, all spots are single touches, meaning that students touch them and count them once. Numbers six and eight contain double touch spots, meaning that you touch and count them each twice. Numbers seven and nine contain double touch spots and a single touch spot. 

Once students have memorized the spots, applying it to addition is simple.  

For example,

6 + 4 =

Students start by touching the bigger number and say it's name, "Six..."  While touching the spots on the four, the student counts on from 6, "7, 8, 9, 10."

After a little practice, students become very proficient, consistent and confident using this strategy. 

* If you have any questions about Touch Math, please do not hesitate to contact me at school at your earliest convenience. 

This week, we will look at using Touch Math to help us with subtraction. 

Art News

October's art projects will focus on the theme of Halloween using a variety of materials. We started the month off by creating a spider web using white glue. Students first followed a guided drawing lesson to create their web in pencil and then carefully traced their pencil lines with white glue. This Friday, we will use soft pastels to add some colour to our webs. 

A big thank you goes out to Mrs. Toogood and Mrs. Bennett for helping out during art!

Looking forward to another great week with the amazing students in 3FM!