The past two weeks have been a blur! We were super busy preparing for the Christmas concert, for the first time, without Mrs. Stanski taking the lead. I think we have all known that Mrs. Stanski is talented when it comes time to turn our children into performers...but having her not be there for the past few weeks has been extremely eye opening for me! Mrs. Stanski is beyond talented...she is magical when it comes to directing student performances! She has a way of keeping the students fresh each time they sing their songs! I tried my very best but struggled to prevent our two songs from going stale! I can tell you one thing, next year I am going to make sure I show my appreciation for Mrs. Stanski ten fold to any previous year! She is such a blessing to have at RBES!
That being said, the students did an awesome job at the Christmas concert! I didn't get any pictures during the show but I did take a couple before and after their performance! We were down six students so we were a small but mighty talented, dazzling and Christmassy bunch!
Between concert practices, we did get some work done in 3C!
Literacy
We tried our best to stick with our normal language arts routines. We did end up taking two weeks to work with our list of Word Wall Words because time was tight. Students continue to enjoy dedicating at least 45 minutes a day to reading, whether that is our group strategy instruction read aloud time or their independent self selected reading time. Who doesn't like cuddling up with a great book?
Numeracy
We have continued our study of numbers over the past couple of weeks. Recently we've been focusing on trading extra ones for tens and extra tens for hundreds. This practice is leading us into addition with trading. We are going to be working on adding and subtracting triple digit numbers with trading and borrowing. The Jump Math program follows the traditional algorithm approach (stack and add, stack and subtract). We will be doing a lot of practice with these skills to ensure that students are able to consistently be accurate with their calculations.
Social Studies
Team 3C is LOVING learning about India! We started the unit by talking about what are needs versus wants and what determines your quality of life. From there, we started exploring the different types of housing available in Mumbai. We had so many great discussions working through a slideshow presentation that I created. We are also focusing on talking about other cultures in respectful ways. Students are learning to be aware and mindful of their reactions to the differences between life in Canada and life in other countries. One of the main goals in Grade Three is to encourage the students to become responsible and respectful global citizens. Over the next two weeks, we will continue to explore different aspects of life in India. On Friday, we will take the afternoon to immerse ourselves in Indian culture by tasting the food, playing some games, doing some crafts and participating in a few traditional practices. If you want to lend a hand during that afternoon, please let me know as soon as possible. I am in charge of the clothing and henna station...it is so much fun!
Art
Over the past two weeks, we were working on our beautiful peacock pieces! They turned out amazing! It was a multi-step process and the students really took their time to do their best work! The peacock is the national bird of India!
Over the next two weeks, we are working on a surprise art project that is going to be wrapped up and put under the tree for you! If you plan on stopping by the classroom at anytime during the next two weeks, maybe knock and make sure that the coast is clear before coming in...I don't want you to ruin your own surprise! Trust me...it's worth it!
