February 1st Update

Phew! We made it through January! That was a crazy month both at home and at school! I'm not sure what tales make it home from our class chats but you may have heard one or more of the following: pet guinea pig passed away, vomit in an electrical socket that shorted the power to our upstairs, mice in the pantry, me being stuck in bed for three days sick as a dog, and the list goes on...I wish I was making this stuff up! LOL! Despite the hectic month, we accomplished so much learning in 3C!

Skating Week - Round One!

The students seemed to really enjoy their on ice time! Thank you so much to the parents who came out to help us tie skates during the week! A huge, special thank you to Lourne's dad, Winston Smith, who was on the ice with our students every day! We couldn't have done it without you!

India Day!

To see all of our India Day photos, click here!

The students enjoyed their afternoon celebrating the amazing culture of India! They started in our room, where we drew henna designs on paper hands, had henna applied to our skin, coloured a peacock picture and chose two bangles to keep! Students then went up to Mrs. Tewitz and Mrs. Forchuk's room, where they made paper lanterns. Their final stop for the afternoon was in Mrs. Rothfos' class! Here the students enjoyed basamati rice, butter chicken, tandoori naan bread, mango Lassis and pakoras. To end the day, each student took home a peacock feather! The peacock is the national bird of India!
A big thank you goes out to Mrs. Klaassen for helping us out for the afternoon and doing some pretty creative and beautiful henna designs on the students! We couldn't have got through everyone without you!

Literacy/Technology

Over the past week and a bit, the students have enjoyed writing their own paragraphs about elephant senses and life in a herd. Once the students were finished, they started working on a google slide presentation about elephants. The first three slides were completed for them (a title page and two slides containing our class written paragraph on African and Asian Elephants), ready for them to customize. We learned how to: change the font, font size, font colour, text box location, delete a photo, insert a photo and change the background on a slide. Once this first step was finished, students started working on the next two slides. On the first slide, they had to type in their paragraph about life in a herd and insert a picture that was appropriate. On the second slide, they had to type in their paragraph about elephant senses and insert a picture that was appropriate. If they finished early, we inserted an additional slide called "More Elephant Photos" and students created a collage with elephant photos that they found online! They have really enjoyed this project! If you would like to see the project, you can log onto your child's drive and see it there! I will try and figure out an easy way for them to email them to you when they are finished too! They would love to email you!

In addition to our writing project, we have been thoroughly enjoying our time reading Elephant Secret. We are all falling in love with this family that includes a large herd of elephants! Ask your child about the sad situation that is unfolding right now and what they predict is going to happen next! They have been very thoughtful in making personal connections to the characters in the book. We have also been talking about the "author's plan" with the characters and they are so amazed at the the author has it all figured out! They really are maturing as readers and it is so incredible to witness!

Numeracy

Last week, the students learned how to borrow from a zero. This process can often be so tricky for students. I have a little trick that I've used over the years that seems to work really well. When the students "go next door to take ten more" and they see a zero, they go one more door over and box those two numbers in. They cross that two digit number out and write the number that comes right before it above the box they drew. Then, they write the ten down that they borrowed and start subtracting. 

After finishing up our focus on multi-digit subtraction, we switched gears a little and started a mini unit on problem solving using word problems. The students brainstormed the "key words" that we look for when we are reading a word problem that give us the hints of whether we need to add or subtract. 

Add: in all, altogether and in total

Subtract: how many more, difference, how much _____

We will continue to work on these skills next week!

Assembly Performance

The students did a fantastic job with Mrs. Kuntz's grade one class during our assembly performance! Here's a video of the performance!

Science

Next week we will be starting our Survivor science unit focusing on testing materials and designs!

Have a great weekend!