3FT Third Grade Thoughts: Best Wishes Mrs. Livingstone...

Mrs. Livingstone wrapped up her nine week practicum! While she was teaching with us, the students worked together to fill a jewel jar by making good choices and doing their best learning. They voted on a class reward and ended up choosing fort building. Mrs. Livingstone brought in every blanket she owned and the students worked together, building and getting comfy to watch the short movie, "An Elf Story." They were treated to chips that Mrs. Livingstone brought and were surprised with rootbeer floats, which they won by collecting the most items for the Devon Christmas Elves!!! WAY TO GO, 3B!!! It was a great afternoon but the students were sad to say good-bye. We surprised her with a new teaching bag, a framed picture with all of the student's names and a book that the class made. It was a wonderful experience for all of us and we wish her the very best in her new career!

In Language Arts, we started a book study on the Polar Express. After listening to the story, the students worked on defining vocabulary words and filling out the story elements (setting, characters, problem and solution). Next week, we will be watching the movie and then creating a comparison chart between the story and movie version.

The students also started a readers theater based on the book, "Polar Express". They all received their parts and will continue practicing next week. We hope to be able to perform to a few classes!

We completed a Making Words activity. They were given the letters... a, e, i, o, o, d, c, r, t, n to make 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5 letter words. They worked independently and then with a partner to create a list that they later shared with the class.

In Math, the students worked on two and three digit subtraction questions with and without regrouping. We will be using next week to continue practicing three digit addition and subtraction questions and playing related math games that they have learned throughout the last few weeks.

We finished our Science Hearing and Sound unit this week. The students completed their KWL chart by filling in what they learned throughout the unit. They also wrote a quiz containing multiple choice, true and false and short answer questions to demonstrate their understanding.

We also had a special guest, Mr. Maltais, the Education Technology Facilitator from Black Gold School Division. Using the chrome books, he took the students to a number of websites teaching them about sound waves. They experimented with different volumes and pitches and watched how the sound waves changed. For their final project, they said their names and recorded the sound wave. Then they used a special program to add backgrounds, colours and used special fonts to write their name.

We started our next Social Studies unit by creating passports in order to fly to each country that we will study throughout the year. Our first stop is India!

In Art, the students completed a guided drawing of a whimsical Christmas tree. Using oil pastels, they added colour to the branches, trunk and decorations.