Feb 17-20

2 Days of Science and Social Studies 

Although it was another short week at school - we sure made the most of the two days that we had together! It was great to hear that the students all seemed to have enjoyed their Family Day weekend.

Science

Our new unit is in full force and 3FM Engineering has really taken off!!! Students have been becoming more accustomed to using the scientific method in the process of their testing. This week students were introduced to beams and were given the task of testing different styles of beams to see which was the strongest. After building the beams from paper, they tested an accordion beam, rectangular beam and the box girder beam. Ask your students which beam was the strongest... and they should tell you that the box girder held the most weight!

Here are some fun pictures of the engineers of 3FM:

Such a wonderful group of engineers - always ready for any task that they are given!

Social Studies

In social studies - we continued to look at access to services. This week we investigated Ukraine`s access to services and students compared what they learned about Ukraine with Peru, Tunisia and our community. Students learned that in Ukraine - access to services can be limited by cost, as well as by the fact that Ukraine is becoming accustomed to provided services on its own. Students learned that some of the services we have are not as readily available in Ukraine - such as newer technology and medicine. This week we will wrap up Ukraine and begin looking at services in India.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend! 

Don`t forget to bring your skates, helmets and snow pants this week!!!

February is fun!

Are we honestly heading into the last week of February? Time flies when you're having fun and surrounded by a fantastic bunch of students!

This week kept me very busy checking in on the students' progress in writing and math every night. This morning was my first chance to sit down and go through the photos from the past week. 

In addition to all of the fun, we have been working hard on mastering our latest addition strategy, the break apart method, and switching up our sentence starters in writing. This Friday, we wrote our first paragraph using our new writing skills! The students' work made my heart swell with pride! They are all doing so well! Stay tuned for a class book coming home soon!

Looking ahead to the next week:

Math- introduce the traditional algorithm (stack and add) for tackling multi-digit addition questions

Writing- more paragraph writing using varied sentence starters and specific verbs 

Reading- continue reading the chapter book Frindle during read alouds and continue individual student reading conferences

Gym- skating 

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday at the arena at 11:00-11:05, on ice at 11:15-11:45

Thursday no skating

Friday at the arena immediately after taking attendance, on ice as soon as skates are tied. 

Help needed- We require one parent on the ice each day to participate. Help tying skates is always greatly appreciated. Send us a quick email if you are able to help us out. Thank you for your support!

February 9-13

Curriculum Update

Science

This week we started our Testing Materials and Designs Unit. Throughout this unit, students will evaluate the suitability of different materials and designs for some building tasks. The path that we have chosen to do this unit is through the premise that we are an engineering company who will be given a number of tasks. Each of the tasks that the students are presented with will involve an experiment. Students will be using the scientific method to go through a number of tests in order to determine the best choice of designs or materials.

This week we introduced the unit by holding a classroom vote to determine the 

name of our company - in the end the students voted for 3FM Engineering Company. 

We went over our company rules and we completed an activity to help students 

understand the idea of a FAIR TEST. It is important for students to understand that 

in order for their experiments to be considered fair - they can only change ONE variable 

in the test - otherwise the results are flawed. 

Finally, the students were given their first task - to determine which shape 

would hold the most mass - an arch shape or a square shape? We performed 

our first experiment as a group to help model the scientific method and what 

is expected as they go through their tests.

Ask your child why the arch is stronger than the square shape? 

Hint: the force is distributed equally in an arch making it stronger.

Social Studies

This week in social studies we continued to look at the access to services that are available in the countries of Peru and Tunisia. Students evaluated the concept that quality of life is affected by access to services and many were quite dismayed at the fact that there are communities that do not have running water or electricity. Although students understand that people can survive without these services - they recognize that these services can make our lives easier and more comfortable. Many of the students were openly unimpressed with the idea of being without many of the luxuries that they have in their own lives - such as computers and video games. We also discussed the importance of access to health-care, including doctors, hospitals and medicine; something that is not readily available in some communities. In addition, students evaluated the differences in services available in rural communities versus urban communities.

Hope everyone had a Happy Hearts Day and a fabulous Family Day weekend.

   

Language Arts and Math Updates!

Last week was super short but packed with learning!

Language Arts

Our read alouds this week focused on non-fiction online sources around the topic of Maine mammal behaviour! We learned so much! Our reading strategy focus was expanding our vocabulary with interesting words and checking for understanding. When we came across a tricky word, we would check the context of the sentence to see if we could come up with a more simple word that means the same thing. The students were actively engaged in all of the articles and thoroughly enjoyed watching the related videos afterwards, often during snack time. 

Here are the links below, in case they are eager to share the stories with you!

www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/02/02/bc-orcas-beach-rubbing-video_n_6587324.html

www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/elist/eListRead/saving_valentina/

www.pantagonia-argentina.com/en/orca-hunting-method

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140311-paul-nicklen-leopard-seal-photographer-viral/

During writing, we continued to explore using a variety of sentence starters. Last week we covered what and how (ing) sentences. Here are a few student samples!

How (ing)

Grazing, the black bear searched for berries. 

Relaxing, the orca rubbed it's belly on the smooth pebbles. 

Trudging, the grizzly lumbered to his den. 

What 

Two mice scrambled away from the cat!

Orcas showed off for the whale watchers. 

Wooden toy mice were lined up on the shelf. 

This week we will finish up with our last new sentence starter, who. Then, we will practice switching between the six different types of question word sentence starters. This will prepare the students for transferring this new skill into their story writing in the coming weeks. 

Math

After introducing the open number line method as our first strategy for answering multi-digit addition questions last week, we will be focusing on two other strategies this week. The two methods that we will be working with are the expanded form or break apart method and the traditional algorithm. Feel free to watch the video below to see the break apart strategy in action!

http://youtu.be/8N4N2EE1uYg

After all three strategies have been introduced, students will be able to choose which strategy works best for them. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Jan 26-29; Feb 2-4

Two Short Weeks

Because we had two short weeks back to back - I decided to wait and do each weekly update together. Although they were short weeks, there was still a lot happening in 3FM Science and Social Studies classes.

Science

Over the past few science classes, in between getting all of our musical instruments presented to the class, we also wrapped up our Hearing and Sound unit. 

Here are the last of our musical creations:

And here are all of our fabulous musicians together! Like I told the class - I am so proud of all of them - they did a marvelous job on their instruments!

And of course - we needed to form some bands and have a chance 

to perform a song together!

Over the last couple of classes students spent some time categorizing sounds into categories such as pleasant, and unpleasant - and what makes these sounds so. We discussed that things that are soothing, relaxing or enjoyable are often considered pleasant, while things that are loud, harsh or painful are often considered unpleasant. Students had a fun discussion about the sounds that they find most annoying - which included things like siblings whining, forks across plates, babies crying and many other creative sounds. 

We spent time examining the importance of hearing and sound in how we communicate with others. We explored the difficulties that may be experienced without the use of sound to communicate. We also studied how animals use sound, as well as compared animal hearing to ours. We learned that many animals have a much larger range of hearing than humans - meaning that they can hear sounds that we cannot - whether they are too low or too high for our hearing range. Students discussed the importance of sound to animals in regards to their safety, attracting mates, communication, as well as catching food (bats and sea animals especially).

Next week we will be beginning our Testing Materials and Designs Unit - which I think the students are really going to enjoy!

Social Studies

The past few classes in Social Studies we continued our exploration of Traditions and Celebrations in each of the four countries that we have been studying. We also spent some time reading some myths/legends from each of the countries. As we read and discussed the stories we talked about what we can learn about a country through its stories - whether about it's culture, their beliefs or even the land itself.

At the end of last week, we began looking at the topic of Services. Students explored the meaning of services and how they are important to a community. Students determined that a service is any work that is done for another person. To show this students were all asked what their parents do - and after we created our list - we determined if the job of their parents contributed to providing services to anyone. Students discussed how 

different services can make our lives easier, safer, healthier or more fun. We 

also determined that depending on the different needs of a community - there 

may be different services needed, too. 

From there, we will investigate the services in each of the four countries and compare them with the services that we have here in our community.

I hope everyone had a great long weekend! 

Is it crazy that I am looking forward to a full week of school??? 

Multi-Digit Addition Using A Number Line

This past week I introduced our students to the first of three strategies for adding multi-digit numbers, using the open number line.  For most parents, this strategy is new. When we were in school, we were taught the traditional algorithm (stack and add, carry the ten when needed). For several of us, this strategy worked...we could be consistently accurate using the algorithm. Unfortunately, many of our classmates were not so lucky and math started to not make sense to them. Our hope in teaching math now, is to introduce students to a few strategies and then allow the child to choose the strategy that works best for them...allowing them to experience success and understanding without frustration. 

Over the last two days I have watched several YouTube videos of teachers explaining the open number line method, in an attempt to find one that explains it the way I do. I was about to give up and accept the fact that I would have to make my own video and get my own YouTube account, when I took one last look and found this video! Thank goodness! 

Please watch the short video to hear the explanation of this strategy. You might recognize the steps as how you would mentally calculate a sum of two multi-digit numbers. 

* the only difference between how I teach it! is that my number line (the actual line) is invisible. I find that when the students draw the line things get messy. 

http://youtu.be/G9dHMtGAv5g

The benefits of this strategy are:

- students work at their level (some students will jump to "friendly" numbers, others will jump each ten or one separately)

- it builds on their understanding of place value (some students struggle to grasp the abstract concept of place value and they quickly become lost in the algorithm when they have to "carry a ten forward")

- it is great preparation for developing mental math strategies

All students brought math homework home this weekend (except for Connor, Avaya and Max). Please have them use this strategy to complete the questions. If you have any questions, please email me and I will do my best to call you back. 

****If your child forgot their homework at school (or if you want extra practice for them), grab a deck of cards. Remove the 10, J, Q and K. Have them deal out 2 two digit numbers for themselves and then add them up on a piece of paper using the number line strategy. Repeat this 10-20 times, depending on their accuracy. 

Happy Adding!

Skating!

Another successful week of skating is behind us thanks to the dedication of our parents! Thank you so much to those who could fit skate tying into their already busy schedules! Thank you to those who could join us on the ice! We couldn't have done it without you!

February already!

January flew by for us in 3FM and I think February is going to too!!!

Report Cards

Report cards came home on Thursday with students. I hope you enjoyed the new template! It is my goal each reporting time, that there are no surprises for parents when they read their child's report card. If you have any questions or concerns please contact Heather or myself at the school as soon as possible. 

Language Arts News!

Parent Emails

The students have been emailing home over the past couple of weeks. Last week I noticed that more time was being spent changing the font or colour of the text than on the actually writing. Today, we fine tuned our rules and expectations around this activity. 

These are my expectations:

1) the email has a subject

2) the text starts with a proper greeting 

3) writing is organized into proper paragraphs that stay focused on the topic introduced in the topic sentence

4) paragraphs should contain a topic sentence, 2-4 supporting sentences and a closing sentence

5) a proper closing should end the email

6) the font or colour of the text will NOT be changed

7) a closing little sticker is ok

If you are not receiving emails from your child please let me know ASAP. Damion was unable to send one today due to some technical difficulties. 

The students LOVE reading your replies and are eager to write back! If a student has free time, emailing home will be one of their primary options. 

Sentence Structure

We have continued to explore writing with different sentence starters. After working on where sentence starters, we focused on when sentence starters. The following when sentences were written independently by students:

In the spring, the bear woke from its slumber. 

Suddenly, the grizzly slashed the tire on the car!

In a flash, the bear splashed to get his baby!

At that moment, the grizzly fell asleep.

Once students had a handle on when sentences, we went on to how-ly sentence starters. The following sentences were written by the students:

Hungrily, the mouse dove into the garbage. 

Softly, the mouse tip-toed across the classroom floor.

Silently, the mouse pitter-pattered up the staircase.

Angrily, the bear charged at the bunny. 

Throughout these focused sentence starter activities, the students are also focusing on using specific verbs for the noun in the sentence. Notice the different verbs used to describe the movement of the bear compared to the mouse. 

This week, we will look at how-ing and what sentence starters. 

Reading

Last week our read aloud stories were all stuck stories. While I was reading to the students, they were focusing on identifying the parts of the story: 

Characters

Setting (where and when the story takes place)

Motive (what does the character want)

Stuck (how the character gets stuck that doesn't let them get what they want)

Attempts that failed

Successful attempt

Motive carried out (the character getting what they want)

The stuck story format is the one that we will be using for story writing this year. Reading several stuck stories prior to writing serves as an excellent model for the students to follow. 

Ask your child to retell one of their favourite stuck stories to you and have them pick out each story element. 

Math

We are finally ready to get going on multi-digit addition! I am going to work through three different strategies to assist the students in accurately calculating the sum of two multi-digit numbers. I will introduce the number line method, an expanded form method and then the classic algorithm method (stack and add). Students will be able to choose which strategy works consistently and accurately for them after being introduced to all three strategies. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at the school.