Hello 3C parents,
Last week was a busy week. We had skating, Random Acts of Kindness Week, Pink Shirt Day, an assembly presentation and our Wellness afternoon on Friday.
3C students represented their class well throughout the week and enjoyed all of the activities.
enjoyed some Christmas themed activities to practice our literacy and numeracy skills
did a check in with double digit addition and we NAILED it!
worked on our Grade Three Memories Slideshows. Students were working on several skills on their chromebooks during this time: inserting photos, changing the size of photos, copying and pasting textboxes, changing font sizes, inputting text, arranging photos and textbooks on a slide
SOCIAL STUDIES
This week we:
learned about the services available to people in India.
learned that many children do not go to school because they have to work with their families to make enough money to survive.
learned that doctors and surgeons fly around to different areas of India to provide care. Care is not always available to everyone.
participated in a review Kahoot activity
completed a "Show What You Know" about the concepts/topics that we covered when learning about India
CHRISTMAS FUN
This week we:
worked on our gifts for parents. I hope you like them! The students worked very hard on them and were so proud of how they turned out!
did two guided drawings in preparing our Christmas cards for parents.
enjoyed a period of carolling with Mr. Coffin and Mrs. Kloschinsky
put together our snowglobe projects. The students were very excited about this project!
MY CHRISTMAS GIFT TO THE STUDENTS
During snack time throughout the week, we often check in on the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust to see how things are going in Africa. We look for updates on Malkia, see the exciting news of wild babies being born to ex-orphans, hear about new orphans and rescues. It was during this time that we first saw Apollo. He was rescued in mid September and he is cutest and toughest little rhino ever!
The students had painted their picture frames on Thursday afternoon. I didn't tell them much about it; I just said that they have spent the week working hard on projects for their parents and now it was time to make something for themselves. I asked them to paint their frame with their favourite colours. On Friday after the assembly, I brought up my email where it announced that I had renewed our adoption of Malkia and that I had also added Apollo to our class family! They were so excited! I gave them the photos of Malkia and Apollo along with the little sign to glue onto their frames. I hope that they were excited to share this news with you when they got home!
Here's a super sweet video about the Sheldrick Wildlife Trust.
The students wanted me to share this video of Apollo with you!
A TOUGH GOODBYE
Friday was a great day but it was a little bittersweet. We had to say goodbye to one of our classmates. Mikey is moving into Edmonton and will be going to a new school in January. We are all going to miss his witty charm, contagious smile, bubbling energy and super helpful hands!
WISHING YOU ALL A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS SURROUNDED BY THE LOVE AND LAUGHTER OF FAMILY AND FRIENDS!
Wow! Friday the 13th twelve days before Santa comes gives a whole new meaning to Friday the 13th! LOL! Add to that Christmas dress up day and India Day...the energy in RBES was palpable!
LITERACY
This week we:
completed the second week of our ORGANIZATION unit in writing. We focused on writing things in a logical order when describing something. Students learned how to use guide words like first, then, next, now, finally, to start their sentences and help the reader follow the steps. We also learned that you need to put a comma after these words.
enjoyed some Christmas read alouds
wrote a special guided paragraph using JoAnne Moore sentence writing tips. We focused on varying our sentence starters and using specific verbs.
NUMERACY
This week we:
learned how to represent double digit addition with regrouping using base ten blocks
learned how to calculate the sum of a double digit addition with and without regrouping using the standard algorithm...AKA "stack and add"...AKA just like you did it when you were a kid! The students LOVED practicing this skill!
used a good ol' MathQuest textbook, circa 1980s, to practice properly writing down equations and answering them. We focused on proper spacing, sizing, lining up our digits and accurate calculations. The students were super proud of their progress with this skill!
Remember this... or am I the only one old enough to have personally used this in school?!?!
challenged ourselves to some activities on iknowit.com related to two digit addition. Some students even worked on adding four 2-digit numbers in one equation!
SOCIAL STUDIES
This week we:
learned about wedding traditions in India! The students were amazed by the differences between Canadian and Indian weddings! We discussed how 90% of marriages in India are arranged. This blew the students away!
brainstormed with a group everything that we had learned about weddings in India!
celebrated India Day! Students travelled to four different classrooms and participated in four different activities. They: had henna applied, received two bangles and a peacock feather, enjoyed butter chicken, mango lassis, naan bread and rice, made a paper lantern, danced and played a game.
need to thank Mrs. Kitchener, Mrs. MacKay, Mr. Boutilier and Mrs. Klaassen for helping me with the henna!
started our first writing week focusing on ORGANIZATION. We looked at exciting beginnings, middles that make sense and interesting endings!
completed a Using Words You Know lesson
NUMERACY
This week we:
practiced writing three digit numerals in words
learned how to regroup ten ones to make a ten and ten tens to make a hundred. This is in preparation for learning how to complete triple digit addition with regrouping.
SOCIAL STUDIES
This week we:
learned about the culture and traditions in India.
focused on annual celebrations in India, language, religion, clothing and jewelry
LIBRARY
This week we:
learned about the different locations for books in our library. Ms. Sacuta encouraged the students to look in a variety of areas of the library and investigate the books available in that genre. Students were given a shelf marker with a specific section noted on it and needed to start their search for a book in that section. They didn't have to choose a book from that section; they were just expected to spend a little bit of time checking it out.
CHRISTMAS ELVES HELPERS
The students really enjoyed their time helping out the Devon Christmas Elves! The ladies the depot were very appreciative of our help!
CHRISTMAS CONCERT
Our class did an awesome job at both performances of the Christmas concert! A HUGE thank you goes out to our very own, super talented Mrs. Stanski! I appreciate her passion every day but a little extra every year during Christmas concert season! She is the best and we are so blessed to have her at RBES!
UPCOMING EVENTS
Paint Days after school - Monday to Wednesday
Read for Beads - Wednesday
Library - Thursday
India Day - Friday (**Stay tuned for a fee to pop up on your PowerSchool accounts to cover the costs of our Culture Days! I will email you when it is up!)
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
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!
