LITERACY
I'm super excited to start focusing on story writing with the students! It's my favourite time of year! Our timing is perfect with having an extra set of hands around with Miss Strawson! In preparation for our big story writing project, we have started by writing a showing not telling, action packed paragraph about an animal photo by my favourite wildlife photographer, Jason Leo Bantle.
Students were asked to choose a photo from his website. They needed to come up with five things that took place in the moments surrounding the image. The action in the photo would be #3 on their list. They would then have to turn back the clock to the two things that happened right before the photo and then turn the clock forward to the two things that happened right after.
Here's the example that we created together as a class:
- owl felt hungry
- spotted the mouse
- swoops down to get the mouse
- missed the mouse
- flew away still hungry
From here, the students are going to write a paragraph using our sentence starters. They are only allowed to use each sentence starter once. Students will also be focusing on using specific verbs for their particular animal. Here is the paragraph that we constructed as a group:
The great grey owl felt outrageously hungry. Luckily, he quickly spotted a mouse. In a flash the owl swooped down to snatch his prey! Clawing at the furry creature, he missed! Up in to the sky, the owl flew off still hungry.
Students will be typing their good copies into a google doc that has their picture at the top. If you want to check out Jason's website, you can find the link here: http://bantlephoto.com/Home
Once we complete our animal paragraphs, we will be going on to plan and start writing our stuck story projects! Due to this focus on writing, we will be minimizing our time spent on Working with Words and Word Wall Words for the next couple of weeks.
During our read aloud of Wonder, the students are enjoying hearing from our second narrator, Via. Via is August's older sister. Like August, Via starts at the beginning when August was born. The students have been amazed by how understanding she is of her little brother's needs and how independent she is because she's had to take care of herself a lot of the time. Via is also starting at a new school and is experiencing a few bumps along the way. In the last chapter we read, Via came home after a disappointing first day of school. She was stressed and cranky. August was pretty worn out from his first day of school and he was a little stressed and cranky too. As we can imagine, their mom had been worried about both of them all day and she was a little stressed and cranky. What we witnessed after school in their kitchen was very relatable. They were snippy with each other, which isn't how they usually are, children went storming off to their rooms wanting to be left alone, parents tiptoed in to see how their day went and if they were ready to talk yet. After reading this chapter we had a great discussion about why they were acting the way they were and what they could have done differently to make the evening go a little bit smoother. The students had so many great suggestions! We all agreed that if you're having a grumpy moment/day, it's best to tell the people that are around you so that they understand and they give you some space. That way there will be less friction and you can settle down a bit quicker.
NUMERACY
The students are very excited because we have started our multiplication unit! The students are learning about equal groups and how we can do repeated addition or multiplication to find out our total.
SOCIAL STUDIES
Miss Strawson is teaching our new Social Studies unit on Tunisia. She is doing an amazing job and the students have been very engaged in her first two lessons. In the first lesson, they learned when Tunisia is and what it's geography is like. They learned about the three main geographical regions: the coastal plains, the desert and the mountains. They learned about the climate, the population and wildlife. The second lesson took a closer look at the geographical regions and the main cities. Through graphs, photos, videos and discussion, Miss Strawson is reaching all of the students in 3C. We are so lucky to have her with us this month!
ART
Miss Strawson is also leading our latest art project...with a focus on Van Gogh. The students are creating their own The Starry Night piece using plasticine! First, Miss Strawson read the students a book about Van Gogh. Then, they got to work warming up their plasticine. The pieces are still a work in progress and will be done and on display on Thursday evening during our Art Gala!
Hope to see you all on Thursday evening between 5-7pm for our Art Gala!
Have a fantastic week!
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