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!
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