Safely on Board and Motivational Magic

We had a short but COLD week. Luckily, we had a few presentations to keep our minds off of the winter weather.

Each class participated in the "Safely on Board" program to remind the students of the bus rules. This is important for all students, not just those students who normally take the bus on a daily basis. We will all be boarding the bus at some point this year for field trips and other special events. The students played a fun, interactive game to test their bus safety knowledge! Then they were off to show what they learned by boarding a bus, demonstrating proper behaviour while being a passenger and exiting safely incase of an emergency.

We were also treated to a very fun presentation by Steve Harmer from Motivational Magic. His assembly was focused on "Friends" and he talked about how important these people are in our lives. He performed magic tricks for the school and the students were absolutely amazed. He even used his magic to make a dove and bunny appear!

Every Monday, the students will begin their morning with Journal writing. Most of the time, it will be free writing about their weekend or on a topic of their choice. A few times throughout the year, they will be given a specific topic based around special events or holidays. They were reminded about how to write a paragraph; making sure it includes a topic sentence, details answering any of the five "W" questions (who, what, when, where and why) and a concluding sentence. If they finish their writing, they may add an illustration to go with their paragraph.

They used their "sloppy copies" from last week and worked on their good copies of their "Favourite Summer Memory" paragraphs and illustrations. These will be put in their binders for a Grade 3 keepsake.

We started reading from our Grade 3 Collections series. As a class, we will be reading short stories, poems or non-fiction selections from this book. The students are encouraged to try reading aloud to the class. If they do not feel comfortable, they are asked to follow along. Reading aloud will help them with their fluency and expression. We are hoping that by the end of the year, everyone will have the confidence to take a turn reading to the class.

The students have been assigned chrome books and introduced to Typing Club. They started by practicing the keys in "home row". When they are at home using the computer, please encourage them to practice their typing skills instead of using one finger to type.

The students were introduced to an activity that we will be completing often throughout the year called "Making Words". They are given a set of letters and asked to make 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 letter words. This set of letters also makes a "Mystery Word" which is a challenge and bonus if they figure it out! After giving them a few minutes on their own to make words, they are allowed to partner up to add to their charts. At the end of the activity, we share the words as a class. This week, they were given A, E, O, T, R, M, W, K... to spell TEAMWORK!

In Math this week the students worked on...

-Finding the differences between numbers by counting backwards and counting up.
-Using number lines to help counting backwards.
-Finding a number that is less than another number by a given difference.
-Extending a number pattern made by subtracting the same difference.
-Solving word problems using subtracting number patterns.

We have started our daily Mad Minutes. Students will be given two minutes to complete thirty questions. Each students has been asked to make individual goals. They are either trying to improve their mark each day or, if they are already getting 30/30, they are working on getting a faster time. We started with +1 and will increase the addition each week until +10. Then we will move on to subtraction, mixed facts (addition and subtraction) and then multiplication. If you notice that your child is struggling with any of the basic facts, please help them at home by making flash cards or having them do extra questions. 

In Science, we started our "Rocks and Minerals" lapbook. This book is an alternative to using a duotang with worksheets and notes. They are really excited to start putting it together. This week, they worked on their title page. We also read books and watched videos to learn about the three different rock types; igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic. Then the students added definitions and descriptions about the three rock types in their lapbooks.

This weeks focus in PE was locomotion. We played a variety of games and worked through different activities to work on locomotion. They practiced running, skipping, galloping, crab walk, bear walk, slithering and hopping!

The students enjoy relaxing during daily Read to Self.

Have a wonderful weekend and stay warm!!!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to a brand new school year and our BLOG! We are so excited to have such an eager bunch of students (and parents). We had a very busy week, going over classroom rules and expectations and practicing daily routines. Their school supplies have been organized and put away, coat hooks and mailboxes have been assigned and we spent a lot of time this week getting to know each other. They may have felt like celebrities this week while we took a ton of pictures for their first day, birthdays, home reading program and while they were working hard on assignments. We take a lot of pictures throughout the year so that you can see them on the blog each week. They also will be using these photos to make an album of themselves for their Grade 3 Memory Book.

The students enjoyed working on a wordsearch, finding names of their new classmates. They were also given a bookmark and a Welcome to Grade 3 booklet to work on during any free time they may have.

We read a few books this week, to remind students of classroom rules and the importance of showing respect. We talked about the importance of raising our hands when we want to share something with the class. They enjoyed listening to a  humorous book by Julia Cook called "My Mouth is a Volcano". It is about a little boy who was constantly "erupting" other people. His mom taught him strategies to use when he felt like "erupting" so that he could save his important thoughts for an appropriate time to share. 

We also read "What if Everybody Did That", which is a story about what would happen if "everybody" made a bad choice such as speaking at the same time, not bathing and feeding animals at the zoo. After reading the story, the students came up with their own "What if everybody..." sentence and illustration. They were given their personal dictionaries to help with any spelling. We encourage the students to sound out new words, but if they feel that it is a word that is too hard, we will help them out.

We started our first writing project this week! We read the story "How I Spent My Summer Vacation" and talked about our favourite summer memories. We reviewed how to write a proper sentence and talked about what a paragraph is. We worked with the students, step by step, starting with a topic sentence or a GO sentence. They wrote their first sentence on green paper to start their paragraph. After writing, they really wanted to share their topic sentences so we headed to the carpet so they could all have an opportunity.

The students were then directed to write three details about their favourite summer memory. We talked about the who, what, when, where, and why questions to guide them. They wrote each detail on a yellow piece of paper. To end their paragraph they wrote a concluding sentence or a STOP sentence on red paper. The students did quite well writing their first paragraph in Grade 3. Next week, they will take their "sloppy" copies and turn them into good copies with an illustration.

We started their first Math unit, Patterns. The students worked on...

-finding the difference (gap) between two numbers

-finding a number that is more than another number by a given difference

-extending simple number patterns made by adding the same number

-solving word problems using number patterns

Number lines, hundred charts and counters were available for the students to use while they completed their work.

After completing desk work, the students will be given some time to play Math games. This week, they were taught two card games to help them with their addition facts.

In Science, the students were introduced to our first unit "Rocks and Minerals". This is usually a favourite unit for most of the students so don't be surprised if you child suddenly wants to go on "rock walks" to find special treasures to bring for sharing. We started by doing a KWL chart so they could share what they already KNOW about rocks and minerals. They also came up with questions about WHAT they want to learn throughout the unit. At the end of the unit we will fill in the last column, writing about what they LEARNED. A few rock samples were also passed around after the lesson. The students were so excited!

Starting September 21, the students will be bringing home their Back and Forth journal every Friday. They will be writing to you about their week at school and your job is to read and reply at the bottom of the page. Throughout the school year, you will learn about what they enjoyed each week and will see improvements in their writing. We will brainstorm ideas with them, but their writing will not be guided or edited. The first few pages of the Back and Forth contain information about our school and classsroom so we will be spending the next two weeks filling that in with the students. 

We tackled our first Art project! We started by reading "Pumpkin Jack" and then the students were given a number of steps to complete their own pumpkin pattern art. They each picked 3 different designs to create their pattern. They drew and cut their pumpkin and stem to put together on a black background for display. Half of the projects have been placed in the frames downstairs to decorate the front entry and the other half you will find outside our classroom. They were all very proud of their finished art. We can tell this is a very creative group who will take their time to always do their best!

Everyday the student will have "Read to Self" time. This will be a 30 minute block that will be decided after we finalize our timetable. During this time, we will be pulling students to read with us. Some days we will also give the students the opportunity to "Read to Someone" by pairing up with a classmate or student in another classroom and "Listen to Reading" on the chromebooks. 

We have some very eager readers who are ready to start our Home Reading program. Their planes are ready to start flying around the world! Every week, we will post the students who were able to fly to a new country!

 Have a wonderful weekend!