Spell-a-thon, Tunisia Day and Student Led...oh my!

We really know how to pack in the learning and activities at RBES!

Although we had many exciting moments this week, power outage included, the highlight of the week was definitely Tunisia Day on Friday afternoon! The students and I, along with two parent volunteers, enjoyed plunging ourselves into Tunisian culture! We sampled a variety of food from Tunisia: couscous, bread with olive oil, dates and baklava. I was proud of everyone's willingness to try all of the food! Many of the students really enjoyed the couscous and were asking me to share the recipe! Here it is:

Parmesan Couscous

1 1/2 cups of whole wheat couscous
2 cups of chicken or vegetable broth
4-5 green onion, thinly sliced
1/2 cup Parmesan cheese

1. Using a pot with a tight fitting lid, bring 2 cups of broth to a boil. Stir in couscous, turn off the heat, put the lid on the pan and let it sit for 5 minutes without lifting the lid. 
2. While couscous cooks, thinly slice the green onions and measure 1/2 cup finely grated Parmesan cheese.
3. After 5 minutes, remove lid and fluff the couscous with a fork. 
4. Stir in green onions and finely grated Parmesan. Season to taste with freshly ground black pepper and serve hot.
5. Enjoy!

Students also had the opportunity to create a mosaic picture using a variety of beans and lentils. Mosaic art is very popular in Tunisia. The students definitely appreciated the time and patience that goes into creating a mosaic masterpiece!

The favourite activity of the afternoon was, without a doubt, the straw weaving projects! Who knew that three straws, some tape and some yarn could amuse a classroom filled with grade three students for so long! We are going to finish them up this week so that the students can bring them home!

Another favourite activity from Tunisia Day was the game Mancala! We were too busy to figure the game out on Friday so we played it on Monday! It was a blast! You can make the game at home for pennies!

You just need: an egg carton, 2 small bowls and 48 "counters" (small rocks, dried beans, etc)

Watch this video to learn how to play How To Play Mancala

Other happenings this week:

Language Arts

• We continue our study of the book Wonder. The students are enjoying getting to know the different characters in the book!
• We finished up our story plan and completed a St. Patrick's Day journal entry
• We wrote the first paragraph in our stuck story

Numeracy

• We practiced making organized lists to help us solve problems in math
• We played around with different values and combinations of coins to arrive at a total amount needed
• We are starting our measurement unit beginning with a focus on linear measurement

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Busy, busy, busy!

Phew! This month is just flying by! We sure are busy in 3C, working hard every day!

Literacy

With the Spell-a-Thon in the works right now, we have decided to take a break from WTW and WWW so that students have a chance to practice their Spell-a-Thon lists (which are typical WWW). The students did a practice test this week to help them identify the words that they need to focus on. They should have brought home a second list that has some words highlighted. The highlighted words are the ones that they got wrong on the pretest.

The students have also completed a WTW assessment to see how their spelling skills are progressing. Most students have made significant gains! When I was marking the tests, I was looking for common issues in specific spelling rules. I identified a few areas that were troubling the majority of the students: adding ing and ed to verbs and writing plural nouns. Over the past two weeks we have really focused on these spelling rules. The students and I have discussed the rules and practiced using them.

During our writing time, we have finished up our animal paragraphs and started planning our first stuck story plan. I think the students are a little amazed by the amount of time we are spending planning a story! We have been studying other stories with the Stuck Story format, so the students are familiar with the story parts:

• setting
• characters
• motive (what the character wants/doesn't want)
• stuck
• first attempt to get unstuck
• second attempt to get unstuck
• success
• motive carried out (character gets what they wanted)

The students and I have also talked about what level of story we should be aiming to write. Students often feel like they should be able to write a story at a similar level to the books that they read. Nothing could be further from the truth! In grade three, we should be aiming to write a story suitable for a grade one student to read. This goal hopefully takes the pressure off of the students in what they are expecting of themselves. 

Since the beginning of the year, I have been focusing our read alouds around teaching the students simple comprehension, accuracy, fluency and expanding vocabulary strategies. We have also used our read alouds to examine and explore different genres of books, comparing nonfiction to fiction texts and studying authors word choice. As we approach the final four months of grade three, I am excited to share a different reading experience with them. We have started to read the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio.

Wonder is a pretty serious read and it brings up THE BEST conversations! I love sharing this book with my students because it truly opens their eyes to the power of a book...how it can change the way you think, how it can make you question your beliefs, your actions and your character and how it can make you care deeply for a character that you've never met! Reading this book with the students enables them to use all of the comprehension strategies we have been working on and demands them to think a little deeper. Each year, I watch students transform as readers as they loose themselves in this story. I'm sure many of you have already heard about the main character August and the journey that he his embarking on. I encourage you to check in with your child each day and ask them what is happening in the book! They will love to share the story with you!

Numeracy

We have wrapped up our focus on multiplication for now and have moved on to the final topic in our Number Sense section, working with different denominations of coins. The students have been handling switching from counting by 25s, 10s, 5s, and 1s. We have a few more activities to do in this area and then we will be moving on to our study of measurement.

Science

The students thoroughly enjoyed our science unit on Hearing and Sound! Finishing up the unit with their musical instruments was truly a highlight! All of the students did very well on their projects and enjoyed demonstrating their creations for the class!

As a grand finale, students got into groups of four to make a rock band! They had five minutes to practice a simple song and then it was SHOW TIME! They had a blast!

SOCIAL

We have started our study of Tunisia in preparation for Tunisia Day on Friday. If any parents would like to volunteer for the afternoon, please let me know asap. Stay tuned for more information about Tunisia!

This week's highlights:

• Gourmet Chocolate Pretzel sale this week! Bring in your $2 before Friday! Pretzels will be delivered on Friday! 
• Student Led Conferences are on Wednesday from 4:00 to 7:00. Drop in at a time that works for you! Plan on staying for approximately 30 minutes.
• Book Fair in the Library from Monday to Wednesday.