February is fun!

Are we honestly heading into the last week of February? Time flies when you're having fun and surrounded by a fantastic bunch of students!

This week kept me very busy checking in on the students' progress in writing and math every night. This morning was my first chance to sit down and go through the photos from the past week. 

In addition to all of the fun, we have been working hard on mastering our latest addition strategy, the break apart method, and switching up our sentence starters in writing. This Friday, we wrote our first paragraph using our new writing skills! The students' work made my heart swell with pride! They are all doing so well! Stay tuned for a class book coming home soon!

Looking ahead to the next week:

Math- introduce the traditional algorithm (stack and add) for tackling multi-digit addition questions

Writing- more paragraph writing using varied sentence starters and specific verbs 

Reading- continue reading the chapter book Frindle during read alouds and continue individual student reading conferences

Gym- skating 

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday at the arena at 11:00-11:05, on ice at 11:15-11:45

Thursday no skating

Friday at the arena immediately after taking attendance, on ice as soon as skates are tied. 

Help needed- We require one parent on the ice each day to participate. Help tying skates is always greatly appreciated. Send us a quick email if you are able to help us out. Thank you for your support!

February 9-13

Curriculum Update

Science

This week we started our Testing Materials and Designs Unit. Throughout this unit, students will evaluate the suitability of different materials and designs for some building tasks. The path that we have chosen to do this unit is through the premise that we are an engineering company who will be given a number of tasks. Each of the tasks that the students are presented with will involve an experiment. Students will be using the scientific method to go through a number of tests in order to determine the best choice of designs or materials.

This week we introduced the unit by holding a classroom vote to determine the 

name of our company - in the end the students voted for 3FM Engineering Company. 

We went over our company rules and we completed an activity to help students 

understand the idea of a FAIR TEST. It is important for students to understand that 

in order for their experiments to be considered fair - they can only change ONE variable 

in the test - otherwise the results are flawed. 

Finally, the students were given their first task - to determine which shape 

would hold the most mass - an arch shape or a square shape? We performed 

our first experiment as a group to help model the scientific method and what 

is expected as they go through their tests.

Ask your child why the arch is stronger than the square shape? 

Hint: the force is distributed equally in an arch making it stronger.

Social Studies

This week in social studies we continued to look at the access to services that are available in the countries of Peru and Tunisia. Students evaluated the concept that quality of life is affected by access to services and many were quite dismayed at the fact that there are communities that do not have running water or electricity. Although students understand that people can survive without these services - they recognize that these services can make our lives easier and more comfortable. Many of the students were openly unimpressed with the idea of being without many of the luxuries that they have in their own lives - such as computers and video games. We also discussed the importance of access to health-care, including doctors, hospitals and medicine; something that is not readily available in some communities. In addition, students evaluated the differences in services available in rural communities versus urban communities.

Hope everyone had a Happy Hearts Day and a fabulous Family Day weekend.

   

Language Arts and Math Updates!

Last week was super short but packed with learning!

Language Arts

Our read alouds this week focused on non-fiction online sources around the topic of Maine mammal behaviour! We learned so much! Our reading strategy focus was expanding our vocabulary with interesting words and checking for understanding. When we came across a tricky word, we would check the context of the sentence to see if we could come up with a more simple word that means the same thing. The students were actively engaged in all of the articles and thoroughly enjoyed watching the related videos afterwards, often during snack time. 

Here are the links below, in case they are eager to share the stories with you!

www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/02/02/bc-orcas-beach-rubbing-video_n_6587324.html

www.earthisland.org/journal/index.php/elist/eListRead/saving_valentina/

www.pantagonia-argentina.com/en/orca-hunting-method

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2014/03/140311-paul-nicklen-leopard-seal-photographer-viral/

During writing, we continued to explore using a variety of sentence starters. Last week we covered what and how (ing) sentences. Here are a few student samples!

How (ing)

Grazing, the black bear searched for berries. 

Relaxing, the orca rubbed it's belly on the smooth pebbles. 

Trudging, the grizzly lumbered to his den. 

What 

Two mice scrambled away from the cat!

Orcas showed off for the whale watchers. 

Wooden toy mice were lined up on the shelf. 

This week we will finish up with our last new sentence starter, who. Then, we will practice switching between the six different types of question word sentence starters. This will prepare the students for transferring this new skill into their story writing in the coming weeks. 

Math

After introducing the open number line method as our first strategy for answering multi-digit addition questions last week, we will be focusing on two other strategies this week. The two methods that we will be working with are the expanded form or break apart method and the traditional algorithm. Feel free to watch the video below to see the break apart strategy in action!

http://youtu.be/8N4N2EE1uYg

After all three strategies have been introduced, students will be able to choose which strategy works best for them. 

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me.

Jan 26-29; Feb 2-4

Two Short Weeks

Because we had two short weeks back to back - I decided to wait and do each weekly update together. Although they were short weeks, there was still a lot happening in 3FM Science and Social Studies classes.

Science

Over the past few science classes, in between getting all of our musical instruments presented to the class, we also wrapped up our Hearing and Sound unit. 

Here are the last of our musical creations:

And here are all of our fabulous musicians together! Like I told the class - I am so proud of all of them - they did a marvelous job on their instruments!

And of course - we needed to form some bands and have a chance 

to perform a song together!

Over the last couple of classes students spent some time categorizing sounds into categories such as pleasant, and unpleasant - and what makes these sounds so. We discussed that things that are soothing, relaxing or enjoyable are often considered pleasant, while things that are loud, harsh or painful are often considered unpleasant. Students had a fun discussion about the sounds that they find most annoying - which included things like siblings whining, forks across plates, babies crying and many other creative sounds. 

We spent time examining the importance of hearing and sound in how we communicate with others. We explored the difficulties that may be experienced without the use of sound to communicate. We also studied how animals use sound, as well as compared animal hearing to ours. We learned that many animals have a much larger range of hearing than humans - meaning that they can hear sounds that we cannot - whether they are too low or too high for our hearing range. Students discussed the importance of sound to animals in regards to their safety, attracting mates, communication, as well as catching food (bats and sea animals especially).

Next week we will be beginning our Testing Materials and Designs Unit - which I think the students are really going to enjoy!

Social Studies

The past few classes in Social Studies we continued our exploration of Traditions and Celebrations in each of the four countries that we have been studying. We also spent some time reading some myths/legends from each of the countries. As we read and discussed the stories we talked about what we can learn about a country through its stories - whether about it's culture, their beliefs or even the land itself.

At the end of last week, we began looking at the topic of Services. Students explored the meaning of services and how they are important to a community. Students determined that a service is any work that is done for another person. To show this students were all asked what their parents do - and after we created our list - we determined if the job of their parents contributed to providing services to anyone. Students discussed how 

different services can make our lives easier, safer, healthier or more fun. We 

also determined that depending on the different needs of a community - there 

may be different services needed, too. 

From there, we will investigate the services in each of the four countries and compare them with the services that we have here in our community.

I hope everyone had a great long weekend! 

Is it crazy that I am looking forward to a full week of school??? 

Multi-Digit Addition Using A Number Line

This past week I introduced our students to the first of three strategies for adding multi-digit numbers, using the open number line.  For most parents, this strategy is new. When we were in school, we were taught the traditional algorithm (stack and add, carry the ten when needed). For several of us, this strategy worked...we could be consistently accurate using the algorithm. Unfortunately, many of our classmates were not so lucky and math started to not make sense to them. Our hope in teaching math now, is to introduce students to a few strategies and then allow the child to choose the strategy that works best for them...allowing them to experience success and understanding without frustration. 

Over the last two days I have watched several YouTube videos of teachers explaining the open number line method, in an attempt to find one that explains it the way I do. I was about to give up and accept the fact that I would have to make my own video and get my own YouTube account, when I took one last look and found this video! Thank goodness! 

Please watch the short video to hear the explanation of this strategy. You might recognize the steps as how you would mentally calculate a sum of two multi-digit numbers. 

* the only difference between how I teach it! is that my number line (the actual line) is invisible. I find that when the students draw the line things get messy. 

http://youtu.be/G9dHMtGAv5g

The benefits of this strategy are:

- students work at their level (some students will jump to "friendly" numbers, others will jump each ten or one separately)

- it builds on their understanding of place value (some students struggle to grasp the abstract concept of place value and they quickly become lost in the algorithm when they have to "carry a ten forward")

- it is great preparation for developing mental math strategies

All students brought math homework home this weekend (except for Connor, Avaya and Max). Please have them use this strategy to complete the questions. If you have any questions, please email me and I will do my best to call you back. 

****If your child forgot their homework at school (or if you want extra practice for them), grab a deck of cards. Remove the 10, J, Q and K. Have them deal out 2 two digit numbers for themselves and then add them up on a piece of paper using the number line strategy. Repeat this 10-20 times, depending on their accuracy. 

Happy Adding!

Skating!

Another successful week of skating is behind us thanks to the dedication of our parents! Thank you so much to those who could fit skate tying into their already busy schedules! Thank you to those who could join us on the ice! We couldn't have done it without you!

February already!

January flew by for us in 3FM and I think February is going to too!!!

Report Cards

Report cards came home on Thursday with students. I hope you enjoyed the new template! It is my goal each reporting time, that there are no surprises for parents when they read their child's report card. If you have any questions or concerns please contact Heather or myself at the school as soon as possible. 

Language Arts News!

Parent Emails

The students have been emailing home over the past couple of weeks. Last week I noticed that more time was being spent changing the font or colour of the text than on the actually writing. Today, we fine tuned our rules and expectations around this activity. 

These are my expectations:

1) the email has a subject

2) the text starts with a proper greeting 

3) writing is organized into proper paragraphs that stay focused on the topic introduced in the topic sentence

4) paragraphs should contain a topic sentence, 2-4 supporting sentences and a closing sentence

5) a proper closing should end the email

6) the font or colour of the text will NOT be changed

7) a closing little sticker is ok

If you are not receiving emails from your child please let me know ASAP. Damion was unable to send one today due to some technical difficulties. 

The students LOVE reading your replies and are eager to write back! If a student has free time, emailing home will be one of their primary options. 

Sentence Structure

We have continued to explore writing with different sentence starters. After working on where sentence starters, we focused on when sentence starters. The following when sentences were written independently by students:

In the spring, the bear woke from its slumber. 

Suddenly, the grizzly slashed the tire on the car!

In a flash, the bear splashed to get his baby!

At that moment, the grizzly fell asleep.

Once students had a handle on when sentences, we went on to how-ly sentence starters. The following sentences were written by the students:

Hungrily, the mouse dove into the garbage. 

Softly, the mouse tip-toed across the classroom floor.

Silently, the mouse pitter-pattered up the staircase.

Angrily, the bear charged at the bunny. 

Throughout these focused sentence starter activities, the students are also focusing on using specific verbs for the noun in the sentence. Notice the different verbs used to describe the movement of the bear compared to the mouse. 

This week, we will look at how-ing and what sentence starters. 

Reading

Last week our read aloud stories were all stuck stories. While I was reading to the students, they were focusing on identifying the parts of the story: 

Characters

Setting (where and when the story takes place)

Motive (what does the character want)

Stuck (how the character gets stuck that doesn't let them get what they want)

Attempts that failed

Successful attempt

Motive carried out (the character getting what they want)

The stuck story format is the one that we will be using for story writing this year. Reading several stuck stories prior to writing serves as an excellent model for the students to follow. 

Ask your child to retell one of their favourite stuck stories to you and have them pick out each story element. 

Math

We are finally ready to get going on multi-digit addition! I am going to work through three different strategies to assist the students in accurately calculating the sum of two multi-digit numbers. I will introduce the number line method, an expanded form method and then the classic algorithm method (stack and add). Students will be able to choose which strategy works consistently and accurately for them after being introduced to all three strategies. 

If you have any questions or concerns, please do not hesitate to contact me at the school. 

Jan 19-23

Weekly Update on the Going-Ons in 
3FM Science & Social Studies

What a great week in 3FM!!! So much going on in Science and Social Studies. 
Students worked hard over the week presenting their instruments and writing a quiz in social studies.

Science

Much to the student's excitement, as well as mine, we continued our 
"Invent an Instrument" presentations. The students were so engaged in each 
presentation - and all of the students did a fabulous job presenting their instruments. 

I was impressed by their creativity and presentations.

Students needed to explain the process of making their instrument as well as give a
demonstration of their instrument in which they showed us how to control the volume and pitch. We even heard a few renditions of "We Will Rock You" played by some of our braver musicians.

Here are some pictures of this week's presenters (I had to draw names as they were all so excited that it was the only way to fairly decide the order of presentation!)

 Stay-tuned for next week's post for the rest of our creative instrument makers!

Social Studies

We started off writing a quiz on the terms that we have been learning about in 

relation to quality of life and culture.  

The rest of our classes, students continued to examine the cultures of each of the four countries as they worked in partners on an assignment to examine/research celebrations and traditions relevant to each culture. Students completed these assignments in Google Classroom. 

Google Classroom is a fantastic program that allows me to give the students assignments that they can complete using their Chromebooks rather than on a worksheet. It gives our students the opportunity to develop their computer skills while they complete their curricular requirements. It is important in today's world to incorporate technology in our learning. And the students love being able to use their computers - so it is win-win!

I hope everyone has a musical week! 

Drum Fit!!!

The students in 3FM have enjoyed a week of Drum Fit during gym class and will have a chance to further their drumming-dance skills for one more week!

Language Arts and Math News!

LANGUAGE ARTS - WRITING

 

This is my favourite time of year for writing! It's time to introduce the students to writing sentences with question word sentence starters and specific verbs! Using these two components transforms students' writing and that transformation inspires them to be more mindful of their word choices.

To clarify:

Question word sentence starters- Students will be taught how to start their sentences in a variety of ways (where, what, how (ly), how (ing), when and who). Instead of starting most sentences with I, the, a or my, students can write sentences like this: Into the rushing river the grizzly splashed! (where starter in italics)

Specific verbs- Students will brainstorm specific verbs to match a chosen noun. These specific verbs help show the reader what is happening in the sentence. Example; bear- lumbered, towered, snatched, slumped, grazed, devoured

Last weeks, I introduced where sentence starters and we brainstormed specific verbs for the noun bear. The students were amazed by how awesome their sentences were!

Deep in the forest, the grizzly bear lumbered to his den. 

In the river, the bear snatched a fish. 

In a cave in the forest, the bear munched his lunch. 

Behind a bush, the hunter hid from two grizzlies. 

Inside the house, the baby bear devoured the porridge. 

Over the next two weeks, I will introduce the rest of question word sentence starters to the students and we will then practice switching between the different types. 

LANGUAGE ARTS - READING

Last weeks read alouds reviewed comprehension strategies in addition to discussing the difference between reading fiction and non fiction texts. One on one reading conferences continued to refine student strategy use and adjusted student reading levels. One student used 6 different decoding strategies in one conference! Way to go!

LANGUAGE ARTS - SPELLING

This week, we are going to focus on our Word Wall Words (www) and our new Back and Forth email routines. In order to make time for this, we are going to take the week off from Words Their Way.  The second WWW dictation test came home on Friday. I just wanted to take a minute to clarify how I marked each sentence. Each sentence is out of 4 marks. One mark is given for a capital letter at the beginning of the sentence. One mark is given for proper punctuation at the end of the sentence (I make sure that I am super dramatic when I read the sentences out loud so that the students are easily able to identify the proper punctuation).  One mark is given for spelling the week's WWW correctly. One mark is given for spelling past WWW correctly. It is important for you to know that students each have their portable WWW in front of them for the duration of the dictation test. All past WWW and the week's new WWW are on their portable word walls. Therefore, the is absolutely no reason for a WWW to be spelled incorrectly. Any WWW spelled incorrectly on the dictation test will need to be written out 5 times correctly at home over the weekend. All dictation tests should be signed by a parent and returned to the school on Monday morning. I really appreciate your support with this process as I try to encourage the students to take more responsibility for their writing mechanics (spelling, capitalization and punctuation). 

MATH

We continue to work through our basic facts and mental math strategies in preparation for the challenging task of multi-digit addition. Many gains are being made by the students in this area! I am very proud of their focused efforts with these strategies!

INDIA DAY

AND finally...

...here are some of the pictures we managed to take during the activities 

we took part in on India Day. From what I have heard from the students - they really enjoyed

 learning about the culture of India - trying food, attempting rangoli (art), making chapatis, experimenting with henna and learning some Bollywood style dancing were among the activities.

Trying some of the clothing that was brought in.

Working on their rangoli and learning about henna, clothing and the importance of the bracelets.




Making chapatis (flat bread), trying henna and the finished rangoli art.

A big thank you to all who participated by donating their time and/or expertise. I would especially like to thank my dear friend, Preet, who not only spent the day with us, but who supplied henna, Samosas, and bracelets for everyone. It was a fabulous day of learning and having a guest in the classroom willing to share her culture and experiences with the students was invaluable.

It was a chaotic but awesome day. I would like to think it was a great success - and
I am already looking forward to the next cultural day!!!

Jan 12-16

Weekly Update

Science This Past Week

Students continued working on the Hearing and Sound unit - and what an awesome week it was. The excitement of the students was so contagious as they prepared to present their instruments. There are so many creative instruments and I love that each student was so engaged in each other's creations.

We will continue to present the rest of the instruments this week during science.

Here is a look at the first of our many creative musicians:

This past week we also had some fun in a sound center learning activity - where students 

became the scientists as they further investigated the following hearing and sound concepts:

P sound is caused by vibrations

P sound travels in sound waves

P faster vibrations create higher sounds (high pitch)

P slower vibrations create lower sounds (low pitch)

P sound can travel through solids, liquids and gases 

P sound travels best (fastest) through a solid

Social Studies This Past Week

This past week in social studies, students learned about the life of the student we are studying from Ukraine. We compared life in the city vs life in the country in Ukraine, and then discussed what we have learned about quality of life from the four different countries.

Students have determined that quality of life means how good your life is - including things that make you happy, comfortable, and give you feelings of safety (food, shelter, family, etc). They have also expressed that even though money is important - it is not necessarily a direct correlation to quality of life because quality of life is about how you feel.

This week we will be looking at the term culture in relation to the four countries.

Hope everyone has a fabulous week and has a chance 

to enjoy some of the warm weather while it lasts!!!

80s Flashback!

Wednesday was RAD in 3FM!

Students enjoyed dressing up 80s style for the day! During snack time, I introduced them to one of my favourite bands from the 80s (and 90s), New Kids On The Block! They enjoyed the music videos and were then able to understand my 80s attire (NKOTB concert hoodie, band member buttons and necklace)!

Welcome Back!

Happy New Year! We have plowed through this chilly first week back and I'm happy to report that although we are all a little tired, everyone still has smiles on their faces in 3FM!

We jumped right in first thing Monday morning and got to work!

LANGUAGE ARTS NEWS

New Words Their Way sorts were worked on this past week in addition to our 5 Word Wall Words. On Friday, students had their first dictation test using the 5 word wall words (WWW). The sentences read aloud are simple and often use past WWW to encourage review and accurate spelling. I will be watching for students to start each sentence with a capital letter, spell all WWW correctly. Students have access to their portable word walls during this activity, if required. I would prefer them to check their word wall and spell the words correctly rather than reinforcing incorrect spelling. After marking the first tests and discussing the results with Mrs Rothfos, I've decided to make each sentence worth 4 marks from now on. 

The marks will be awarded as follows:

1- this week's www spelled correctly

1- review www spelled correctly

1- capital letter at the beginning of the sentence 

1- punctuation at the end of the sentence

Tests will come home with your child on Fridays. Please sign them and return them to school on Monday. If your child has spelled the www incorrectly, I ask that they write it out 5 times on the bottom of the test paper for extra practice. 

This week in writing we are going to start our JoAnne Moore sentence structure unit where we are going to focus our attention on using specific verbs and varied sentence starters. I have always had great success with this program and am looking forward to watching the students continue to develop as writers. 

Last week during read alouds we focused on comprehension strategies. We focused on making several different connections with the text to encourage stronger comprehension (text to text, text to self and text to world). We also discussed strategies that make stories come alive in our minds. 

MATH

In math we have turned our focus to addition. I have broken the students into two groups. One group is working on mastering specific strategies to encourage mastery of the basic facts (doubles, doubles +1, partners of 10, adding 1,2 or 3 to a number, adding 10, adding 9 and touch math) while the other group is working on solving more complex single digit mental math questions (adding 4 single digit numbers, solving equations, etc). Over the next week we will be tackling double and triple digit addition! Watch for another blog describing the strategies that we will be using in the next week!

ART

Warm and cool colours is the theme for January's art projects. We are exploring how these two groups of colours interact with each other within a piece of art and how they make us feel. 

2015

Super Start to 2015!

Thank You!

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone who worked on or contributed to the kitchen renovation over the holidays! Wow - how absolutely beautiful. It is such a wonderful gift - and truly so appreciated. The RBES staff is so lucky to have the parents that we do - it is one of the reasons that I absolutely love working in this school. You can check out some pics of the reno on this link: http://www.rbes.ca/news.html


Happy to be Back! 

What a fabulous week back in 3FM! I didn't fully realize how much I missed everyone until I was back in the class this week... that being said - it was a little bit of an adjustment coming back after a couple weeks off. I'm not sure about you all - but my family is exhausted and looking forward to the weekend.

Science Update

We continued working on our hearing and sound unit this week. We 
discussed volume in a little more depth - brainstorming loud and soft sounds. Along with this we learned that sound can be measured using a sound meter and is measured in decibels. We performed a test - using everyday classroom sounds such a pencil dropping, students talking, clapping, and flipping the pages of a book - where we predicted which sounds we thought were going to be the loudest vs softest. We then used a sound meter to measure the sounds and compare with our predictions. We will continue this lesson next week as we look at our ears and how they work. 


Social Studies Update

Prior to the Christmas Break, we were introduced to the student from India 
who will help teach us about life in India. We compared life in the country with life in the city - and discussed the idea that quality of life is not just based on money - but on shelter, food, feelings of comfort and love. We reviewed this and we also had our very first cultural day today. It was a chaotic but absolutely awesome day. It really illustrated how lucky we are to have the bunch of students that we do - they were so well-behaved, engaged, inquisitive and excited to learn about another culture. 

Here is a sneak peak at the excitement of the students:

As soon as I get all of the pictures organized - I will make a special 
India Day post to share them all with everyone!

Enjoy your weekend!!!

Tuesday Fun Day With our Grade 1 Buddies

Here's just a quick post to let you in on some of the fun that we had today with our grade 1L buddies. As one of the older grades in the school, it is very important for our grade 3s to model appropriate behaviour and to show the grade 1's what it looks like to be a good buddy. We are so lucky because our students in 3FM take their roles as a buddy pretty seriously and in turn, model an important part of being a good citizen - volunteering their time to help others - and doing so in a respectful, thoughtful manner. It is so important to be able to work with other students - and I am so proud of 

this class during our buddy activities.

Here are a couple pictures from this afternoon:

Although at times, I did have to remind them to put a little more candy on their houses and less in their mouths...J...

they did an absolutely fabulous job being helpers 

to our buddies!!!

 A great time was had by all the students!

Awesome job today 3FM! 

The Final Countdown!

5, 4, 3, 2, 1!!!

The kids are on the countdown but I am still working them pretty hard!

As I mentioned in my email last week, we are keeping super busy in 3FM!

Most of our "desk time" this week has been spent working through our place value unit. Students are dong extemely well and can now:

- identify whether a number is in the hundreds, tens or ones place

- identify the value of a digit in a three digit number (eg, the 4 in 245 is worth 40)

- increase or decrease a number by 10 or 100

- write a number in words

- write a number in base ten form

 (3 hundreds 2 tens 6 ones)

- write a number in expanded form

( 300+ 20+ 6)

- represent a number using base ten blocks

- determine which number is greater or less than another number

- place numbers in order from greatest to least or least to greatest

Phew! No wonder we have been feeling a little tired over the past ten days! We have been working so hard! 

We have focused our writing around Christmas, writing letters to Santa and a paragraph about life in a snowglobe! The students are really finding their voice when writing! I love when their personalities shine through their work!

Our last three days are action packed!

Wednesday- Work, work, skate for the morning! We will finish up our Christmas art in the afternoon!

Thursday- Assembly performance first thing followed by a little bit of work time! No skating!

Friday- PJ day, skating first thing in the morning, party food for a special Christmas brunch, fun Christmas activities, lunch and then movie in the gym!

Thank you to the parents who have been coming out to tie skates and spend time on the ice with the students! We REALLY appreciate your help!!! 

I want to take this opportunity to wish you and your family the merriest Christmas wishes! I hope your holiday time is filled with love and laughter!

One Week Left Until Christmas Holidays!

It's almost the most wonderful time of the year... 

I think everyone is looking forward to Christmas holidays - it is such a busy 

time of the year... so much to do and so little time! That goes for in the classroom, too.

We have been working hard, although at times we are battling the build up of 

excitement that the season often brings.  Something else that comes during this 

time of year is cold/flu season. It's a great time to remind your child about proper hygiene - things like keeping their hands out of their mouths, noses, etc., proper hand-washing, covering their mouths when coughing - anything we can do to try and prevent the spread of those nasty germs!

Science Update

We continued to work on our Hearing and Sound unit this week. I introduced our unit by reading the book, "The Listening Walk" by Paul Showers. Check out the picture below to see our
class brainstorm efforts on the many different sounds that we hear.



We then took time to listen to the sounds in our classroom, and with the beautiful weather - we were able to take a listening walk around the schoolyard to investigate the sounds we hear outside.

Below are a couple pictures that I managed to take while trying to lead the walk!

We also explored the following concepts:

R how humans talk

R sound is energy  

R sound is created by vibrations

R pitch means how high or low the sound is

R volume means how loud or soft a sound is

Ask your child what we learned using balloons and tuning forks in science class? 

(They should tell you about the vibrations that they felt!)

It gives me such pleasure to watch the students when they are exploring a new concept - 

the excitement that they have is contagious! 

I feel so lucky to share in the learning of your child.

Social Studies Update

This week we continued to look at quality of life - however, this week we focused on a character from Tunisia. We started to learn about the day-to-day life of a student in Tunisia, 

making comparisons with what we previously learned about Maria in Peru, 

and what we know about our lives in Devon, AB.

There will be a letter coming home to explain how we will be celebrating each country that we are studying by having 4 cultural days throughout the school year - our first one, India Day, will be the first week back in January. It will give the students a chance to experience a number of aspects of each culture - from trying food, doing crafts, listening to the languages, etc - we hope to give your child an opportunity to really experience each country and its culture.

Enjoy your weekend - only 1 week left!

A Special Book Reading for the Grade 3's

On Monday all of the grade 3's were treated to not one, but two wonderful surprises. 
We were lucky enough to have a local author, Nicole Brook, come in to do a book reading

of her new series. It is called The Amazing Adventures of Abigail Andrews.

Along with her reading, Nicole spoke with the students about their dreams - 
and the students seemed quite engaged with her message. 
She explained her three 'secrets' to them:

First - you need to DREAM it.

Then - you need to BELIEVE it.
Finally - you need to WORK at it.

 Thanks to Devon's FCSS, and much to the excitement of the students, she personally signed a book for each child. Below you can see a picture of some of our students getting their books signed:

All of us at Robina Baker were very excited to have a local author come in and talk 
with the students. Her message to the students was inspiring - it's such a fabulous 
thing when we can celebrate local successes - it really shows our students that 
anything is possible if you work at it! 

You can find more information on her, and the series at abigailandrewsseries.com. 

It's Christmas Time in 3FM...

It was another short week at school - but wow - was it jam-packed with activity.

Thanks so much to our Christmas Concert team headed by Mrs. Stanski for a fabulous show. Also thank you so much to all the parents for supporting your children and partaking in the entertainment

Although rehearsals and last-minute touches for the Christmas Concerts definitely took center stage, we still were able to get some fabulous work out of our exceptional 3FM students!

Social Studies Update

This week we continued to look at quality of life, however, we narrowed our focus onto one of the main characters we are studying who lives in Peru. 

Students read and discussed the difference between life in the city of Lima and in villages of Peru.

We discussed things such as family, houses, school and work.

Science

This week we started our second unit, Hearing and Sound. Students discussed what they know about sound and hearing, and we came up with some questions that they would like to see answered. 

Here are some of the examples of what they already know:

There are loud and soft sounds.

There are high and low sounds.

Tigers, lions, heavy metal concerts, race cars are all loud sounds.

Mice, whispers, some winds are all soft sounds.

We hear with our ears.

Our eardrums can be damaged by loud noises.

Instruments make different sounds - high or low.

Water on a glass can make a sound.

Here are some of the examples of the questions they would like answered:

How do people make sounds?

What do our eardrums do?

How do our ears work?

How do we talk?

How can we hear our heartbeat?

Students also started a title page for this unit using the netbooks and their gmail accounts. They were given a list of requirements for pictures that they needed to have. Some students brought home their gmail information so that they could try and work on it at home. 

I guess the countdown is on - I hope you all have a fabulous long weekend!