November 30th Update

Christmas concert prep week....so busy!

CHRISTMAS CONCERT

I know that there is nothing more frustrating than coming to your child's Christmas concert and you can't even see them. Unfortunately for us this year, 3C students are in the front row. This makes them pretty tricky to see. I was able to put 8 students on risers on the side of the stage. Henry is the only student missing from the photo and he is on the floor on the right (between the boy in the red GAP hoodie and the riser). I encourage you to come early so that you can get seats close to the front or possibly stand on the right side of the gym against the wall so you can see over the heads of the audience. Another option would be to come to the afternoon performance too, if possible. It's far less busy and you would be able to get better videos or photos at that time. 

NUMERACY

This week we:

• used the website iknowit.com to practice the skills that have been introduced in this unit
• completed a lessons 7-10 check up quiz

LITERACY

This week we:

• kept up with our read alouds and read to self time. During times of chaos and disruption to our regular routine, these two activities help students stay calm and grounded so I do not give those periods up.
• wrote in our journals
• wrote our letters to Santa and learned how to address an envelope. I asked the students to put their letters in the mailbox after school on Friday to ensure that they get their Santa letters delivered to their home address. If I was to submit them as a class, we would receive a personalized poster instead of a letter for each student.

SOCIAL STUDIES

This week we:

• watched a video documenting life in rural India. Students took notes on the similarities and differences between life in Devon and life in rural India. 

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

• Christmas Concert 6:30pm on Monday (BE THERE FOR 6:15)
• MAKE SURE PERMISSION SLIPS ARE DONE BY WEDNESDAY AT 3PM
• Early Dismissal on Wednesday
• Library on Thursday
• Deliver Christmas Elves donations to the depot on Thursday
• PD Day on Friday (NO SCHOOL)

November 22 Update

What a great week in 3C!

LITERACY

This week we:

• finished Frindle and the kids loved it!
• read a series of three picture books

  

• finished up our final lessons in our IDEAS unit in writing. This week we focused on staying on topic.
• completed a final paragraph project focusing on everything that we learned in our IDEAS unit. I introduced the students to rubrics. We went over the rubric to see what they needed to do to earn full marks. Students then had to self assess their work using the rubric when they were finished their paragraph. Marks will be posted to PowerSchool this weekend.
• worked through a Using Words You Know lesson focusing on long vowel spelling patterns and r controlled vowels

NUMERACY

This week we:

• worked on comparing numbers using the > (greater than), < (less than) and = signs. Students learned that those signs have meaning, just like + or x, and they have NOTHING to do with crocodiles, alligators or pacman (the crocodile eats the biggest number). Example: 4 < 7, four is less than seven.
• worked on putting a list of numbers in order from greatest to smallest or smallest to greatest

SOCIAL STUDIES

This week we:

• discussed the difference between needs and wants and how they impact quality of life                               *See note below about this lesson*

• started learning about India. We focused on life in the city compared to life in the country in India. 
• did a close up study of types of shelter in Mumbai. 
• did a close up study of types of shelter in the country.

CONCEPT BASED LEARNING ( a little teacher talk)

There has been a lot in the news about the new curriculum in Alberta. Teachers have been preparing for the changes for over a year. One of the biggest changes with the new curriculum is the move to Concept Based Learning (CBL). On November 1st, I attended another PD session focused on CBL with the other grade three teachers. The Grade Three teacher team got together on our next PD day and planned a CBL lesson using the new strategies that we had learned. This lesson was our Needs, Wants, Quality of Life lesson....and it was amazing! The students really enjoyed the strategies that we implemented and the conversations that came out of it were outstanding! I really wish I would have videoed them! 

Instead of giving the students a piece of paper with NEEDS and WANTS on the top and asking them to make a list of what they thought were needs and wants, I gave the students a group of photos in a ziploc bag and asked them to sort the photos into two groups and come up with a title for each group. The students worked in groups and tried to figure out how the items were related. Three of the four groups eventually came up with "Things you need" and "Things you don't need". The fourth group came up with "Things that are good for you" and "Things that are bad for you". This process helped the students come to a deep understanding of the attributes of the concepts of "needs" and "wants". A concept is words that we use to organize and categorize our world. 

CHRISTMAS CONCERT

This week we have been practicing our songs like crazy! Next week we will be finding out where we are standing on stage. I will let you know as soon as things are settled so you can pick your seats for the concert with your child's placement in mind. Our Christmas concert is on Monday, December 2nd.

STAR STUDENT

This week we enjoyed getting to know Jeremy better!

STUDENT OF THE WEEK

Congratulations to our first two Student of the Weeks!

November 9th Update

We had such a fantastic week in 3C!

LITERACY

This week we:

• continued reading Frindle and the students are LOVING it! When I finish the chapter for the day, they beg for one more! We are expanding our vocabularies and working on our comprehension strategies during reading each day.
• used a few periods every day from our literacy time to focus on Remembrance Day. We read two books together:

 

• A Bear in War is based on a true story about the Rogers family from East Farnham, Quebec. Lieutenant Rogers, the father in the story, died in the Battle of Passchendaele as a medic trying to save the life of an injured soldier. The story follows the family in the months leading up to Lawrence Rogers joining the other soldiers fighting in WWI through to his death after four years overseas. The narrator of the story is Teddy. The students often become emotional when we read the story. I think for many of the students, it's the first time that they really grasp the sacrifice that the soldiers. 
  
  
• For the past eleven years, when I finish reading the story, I always have said, "One day I am going to go to Ottawa and see Teddy in real life at the Canadian War Museum." This year I was able to stay something different, "I feel so lucky that two summers ago when I was in Ottawa, I got to see Teddy on display with Lieutenant Rogers' jacket."

• Here are a few pictures from that visit:

We also read the follow up to this story called Bear on the Homefront. This story catches up with the little girl in the story as an adult. She is working as a nurse serving on the homefront, welcoming children from British cities who were sent to live with Canadian families during World War II. 

Our library has both books if you are ever interested in reading them.

The students were so passionate about our discussions surround Remembrance Day, I decided to harness this energy and focus them on writing another idea web and paragraph. We did the web as a class and came up with a common topic sentence, Remembrance Day is a very important day to me. Students then wrote their paragraphs and did a fantastic job!

NUMERACY

This week we:

• learned how to write a number using expanded form in two ways: using numerals only and using numeral and words:

246 = 200 + 40 + 6

246 = 2 hundreds + 4 tens + 6 ones

• learned how to write numbers in words. We examined the spelling of number words and focused on a few tricky spelling patterns when writing out numbers with words. Students have a word list to help remind them of the proper spelling. 

two hundred forty-six

SOCIAL STUDIES

This week we:

• continued our study of our last continents: Asia, Africa, Australia and Antarctica. The students really enjoyed this activity and loved learning about the different continents!

PE

This week we:

• focused on our kicking skills. We focused on keeping control of the ball when dribbling and passing. 

ART

Last week on Friday, the students worked on a piece of artwork for Remembrance Day. They turned out beautifully!

STEM PROJECT - MONSTERS

As promised, here are the photos of the Stem Monsters that the students created! I'm missing one group because we had a student missing that day. I will post that picture next week.

STAR STUDENT

This week we got to know Kia a little bit better!

3C FUN IN THE LIBRARY

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

• Monday through Wednesday - NO SCHOOL
• Book Orders due on Friday
• Jersey Day - Tuesday, November 19th
• Growing Smiles Christmas Fundraiser
  

November 1st Update

November already...time flies when you are learning with eighteen fabulous Third Graders!

LITERACY

This week we:

• finished up an IDEAS lesson set focusing on adding details using our senses. We planned a paragraph about our ideal pet using a graphic organizer and wrote the paragraph.
• learned a new Working With Words activity called Using Words You Know. In these lessons, students are given 4 to 5 heading words that follow a particular spelling rules/patterns. We discuss these spelling rules at the beginning of the lesson. Students are then shown words, one at a time, and they have to read the word, decide which heading it belongs under and write it down. Then, I read a word to the students and they need to decide where it belongs, how to spell it and write it down. We repeat these two steps with more challenging words. The students really enjoyed the two lessons that we completed this week!

• started reading Frindle by Andrew Clements and the students are loving it! Ask them to tell you about Nick and Mrs. Granger. We have been tuning into interesting words, building our vocabularies, making predictions, checking for understanding, and making text-to-self connections as we read.

NUMERACY

This week we:

• started our unit on Place Value.
• explored the concepts of hundreds, tens and ones.
• learned how to draw a number using a simple model for base ten blocks
• learned that we don't put the word and in when we are saying a number UNLESS there is a decimal
• learned that when we are saying a three digit number, we say the first number followed by the word HUNDRED and then we read the last two digits normally. For example, 365... "3 hundred, sixty five"

SOCIAL STUDIES

This week we:

• practiced taking notes about the key facts when watching an informational video
• discussed interesting facts about North America, South America and Europe
• wrote three sentences in our Continents Books using our notes

Here are the videos that we watched about each continent! We watched them each three times to ensure that we got to see everything and were able to take enough notes!

ART

This week we:

• finished up our Franken portraits
• created a chalk pastel poppy masterpiece

PE

This week we:

• focused on overhand throwing

HALLOWEEN

We had an awesome time on Halloween! Thank you to the parents who supplied the ingredients for our sundaes and our juice boxes! We really appreciated them!

We completed our first STEM activity today and it was so amazing! After watching a video of the book I Need My Monster by Amanda Noll, the students were given a specific set of materials to plan and create a monster with a partner. The could use: 2 pieces of construction paper, 2 pieces of white paper, 2 labels, 2 pipe cleaners, 6 paperclips, scissors, a sharpie, a paper cup and 2 elastics.

Here are some photos of the construction phase...stay tuned for the final products!

After finishing up our monsters, we got all wrapped up in a mummy competition!

Mummy Wrap Photos - they are pretty funny!

IMPORTANT REMINDERS

• Wednesday - early dismissal
• Thursday - library
• Friday - Remembrance Day Ceremony at school (formal dress)