February 25th Update

LITERACY

As previously mentioned, this week read alouds focused on picture books. There are so many things to learn from a good picture book. In line with our current writing focus on word choice, we were able to tune into interesting words when we were reading The Troll by Julia Donaldson. We also tuned into some interesting play on words in the books Chimpansneeze and Hiccupotamus by Aaron Zenz. On Friday, we giggled through Boo Hoo Moo by Margie Palatini.

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 are starting to read the book Wonder by R.J. Palacio tomorrow.

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 will soon hear 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!

Due to a push for extra math and science time, our literacy time was a little short this week. We will continue to work on our writing theme of word choice this week.

NUMERACY

Math this week was tricky. Mastering triple digit subtraction where the borrowing options are ever changing (borrowing from the tens, borrowing from the hundreds, borrowing twice, not borrowing at all) really pushes many grade three students to their max. In order to build up their confidence, they need practice, practice and more practice. This week I am going to teach them how to handle the final borrowing option, borrowing from a zero. I have a great trick to help students with this process and have confidence that they will be proficient with it quite quickly. 

SCIENCE

Two big focus areas, other than curricular content objectives, in our Survivor Unit are the scientific method to create a fair test and team work. Before actively participating in an experiment we discuss the scientific method to ensure that we are completing a fair test. We make sure that only one element of our experiment is changing (manipulated variable) and that everything else is staying exactly the same (controlled variables). Students then divide the tasks up between their tribe mates and complete the task as a team. Sometimes, issues with team work end up affecting the scientific reliability of the experiment. It's a perfect natural consequence to deviating from the plan. This week we had two different experiences with our two experiments. On Wednesday and Thursday, we tested the different types of beams to see if one was stronger than the other. Students tested a rectangular beam, a box girder beam and an accordion beam. Our results were very conclusive...the accordion beam was the strongest by far! On Friday, things didn't go so smoothly. Some groups had a tough go and the result was inconsistent results. It was such a great lesson! I couldn't have planned it better! Tomorrow, we are going to redo our experiment as a class to see if we can come to a conclusion about which arch is stronger...the one that spans a longer or shorter gap?

To see more Survivor Science pictures, click on this link

STAR STUDENT

This week's Star Student was Mr. T! We all love sharing our days with him because he is awesome!

STUDENT OF THE WEEK

Congratulations to Miss D on her Student of the Week certificate! I'm super proud of her efforts in math lately! She has been rocking it!!!

February 19th Update

I hope that everyone enjoyed their long weekend and was able to stay warm and have some memorable family time!

LITERACY

The students were super sweet last week and asked Mrs. Cross not to finish our Key Hunters read aloud book because they didn't want me to miss out! They are the best students! The students enjoyed the ending of the book and some eagerly dove into another book from the series! For the next week, we are going to change the pace a bit and read a few of my favourite picture books.

Last week, the focus in writing was on adjectives in our Word Choice unit. The students enjoyed coming up with adjectives to describe people, places, animals and things. The students also learned that if they are using more than one adjective that they have to separate them with a comma. They also practiced writing longer sentences using colourful adjectives. This week coming up, we are going to focus on using specific/exact nouns to make writing more clear.

NUMERACY

The students have been working on two digit subtraction and will be venturing into triple digit subtraction this week. Students are working on becoming consistently accurate with their calculations. The trickiest part of this process is always learning "when to borrow" when using the traditional algorithm. Starting by drawing the base ten blocks for the questions so that the students can see that they can't take 6 away from 4. Students learned to cross out one of the tens and redraw them as ones with the other 4 ones. Then, students would cross out the 6 ones that they need to take away and then count up the remaining ones.

After practicing with this method, we starting practicing with just the algorithm (without the base ten drawing). I've taught the students the poem below to help them remember when to borrow and when you don't need to borrow. The first thing that I want the students to ask themselves when they look at a new question is, "Where is there more in the ones column?" Students will need to continue to practice this skill to become consistently accurate with their calculations. 

SCIENCE

The students enjoyed their first Survivor building challenge this past week. The students were using a fair test to see whether an arch or a rectangle is a stronger structure. Students also designed their title page for their Survivor booklets this past week. 

More Survivor Science Photos - Click Here!

INTRODUCING MISS STRAWSON

Miss Strawson came for her second observation day this past Friday. The students were super excited to see her again! She was very helpful to have in the classroom on a day where, even though I was no longer contagious with my strep infection, I was still in a substantial amount of pain and had to limit my talking at times. We decided to have her lead her first lesson, a Making Words lesson, and she did a fantastic job! Miss Strawson will be joining us for her final observation day on Wednesday and then will be joining us for her five week practicum on March 19th.

WINTER WALK PICTURES

It was a chilly day, so we didn't stop to take a proper group picture...just this quick, on-the-go selfie and a spontaneous snow angel picture!

STUDENT OF THE WEEK

Way to go Miss W! Super proud of you for having an awesome week!

February 4th Update

Students were excited to start the week with a new seating arrangement! I have put the students in groups in preparation for our upcoming Survivor Building Challenge unit in Science! The students will be placed in "tribes" to complete certain building challenges to test a variety of building materials and structures. Stay tuned for their first tribe pictures!

The boys taking a break after a Go Noodle Indoor Recess Marathon!

LITERACY

During read aloud time, we continued with our book Key Hunters. The kids are enjoying this mystery story and are making connections, predictions and asking questions independently now while we are reading! This is a huge step in their development as readers!

Our writing lessons have shifted to focus on Word Choice. We have started by looking at how we can use specific verbs to help us paint a clear picture for the reader. We discussed how with a sentence like, "The race car went around the track," we can't agree how fast the race car is driving. Is it cruising around slowly in a warm up lap? Is it zipping by at top speed in a race? The verb went doesn't tell us anymore than the fact that the race car is moving. The reader needs a more specific verb to help them see the action! Verbs like: zipped, zoomed, rocketed, raced, chugged, crept, tell the reader so much more!

NUMERACY

Due to the PD day in the middle of the week, I decided to stick with practicing our multi-digit addition instead of charging ahead into subtraction amidst the interruptions to the week. This week coming up we will venture into the world of multi-digit subtraction with and without borrowing!

COMPUTER LITERACY

As we started working on a long term chromebook project creating a digital scrapbook of the students' grade three year, it quickly became apparent that the students need to gain some basic computer skills. Up until this point, most of our computer time (which hasn't been very much due to technical issues that have recently been resolved by the addition of ten new chromebooks in our cart) has been spent on Mathletics or visiting various BGRS Engaging Students sites. I decided to use this short week to do a mini unit on computer skills. 

The students and I focused on:

• organizing our Drives
• opening a document
• adding a shared file to their Drive
• making a text box
• adding colour to the text box
• adding a border to the text box
• changing the font
• changing the size of the font
• exploring centered/right/left text alignment
• exploring bold/italics/underline text
• moving a text box
• changing the size of a text box
• adding fonts to our Drive
• inserting photos from our drive 

Hopefully now when we take on a project on the chromebooks more energy can go into the project compared to the focus being on figuring out the computer functions.

STAR STUDENT

This Friday we celebrated Mr. A for being such an amazing classmate and friend! We all love sharing our days with him! He is a super sweet, hard working little guy!

STUDENT TEACHER

This year, I have signed up to be a mentor teacher for a Practicum student from the U of A. On Friday, Miss Strawson spent the day with us. The students were super excited to meet her! Friday was the first of three observation days, in preparation for her five weeks with us that start the week before Spring Break. I am looking forward to working with Miss Strawson and think that she is going to be a fantastic addition to the 3C team!

UPCOMING EVENTS

Please read over Mrs. K's blog and the information regarding Winter Walk Day on Wednesday and a bonus Spirit Wear order that ends on the 9th!

Valentine's Day is coming up! Trey, Tavis and Sammy are in charge of our mini party food celebration. I will email those parents specifically about the food options. I will also send out an email with our class list in it for filling out Valentines. 

Jump Rope for Heart - Students can collect donations if they are interested, an envelope came home on Friday. Students will be participating in Jump Rope for Heart activities on Valentine's Day.

Early Dismissal on Wednesday

Teacher's Convention - Thursday and Friday 

That's all for now! Have a great week!