Wednesday, March 31, 2021

 Gilakas'la!  

Reminder:  A special hot lunch of soup and bun will be served tomorrow! 

This post will be quick.  The students attend Culture Class on Wednesday afternoons so I just have a few things to share from the morning.  

First, we re-visited the Growth vs Fixed Mindset statements from yesterday, pasting them onto one large poster.  I forgot to take a photo before leaving school; will add that tomorrow.  We watched a 30-second commercial by Michael Jordan - related to Growth Mindset. https://youtu.be/45mMioJ5szc

Next, we watched a video about Goal Setting.  Then we made folded booklets and started our Goal Setting booklet.  We got as far as Long-term Goals, with students listing some things that they would like to be good at or become as adults.  So far, we are just making lists; later we will expand on one of goal. 

Setting Goals (McMaster UTV)  https://youtu.be/FFT6uP1fIFI  This video explains SMART Goals.

After recess, it is our math time so we did a timed 5X (B) drill and graphed the results.  Most students felt a great deal of success with these multiplication facts.  

Following that, we marked / reviewed our quadrilaterals worksheet from yesterday, working together to find missing angles within triangles (180 degrees) and quadrilaterals (360 degrees).  

Then I surprised the kids with a Kahoot! game about Polygons that I had made up.  We will play again tomorrow:) 

Finally, before and after language class, I read from an old book by Monroe Leaf (c) 1946 entitled How to Behave and Why.   Ask your child what the four most important things to live by are.  I'll tell you 
tomorrow:) 

That's it.  One more day before Easter break! 

Tuesday, March 30, 2021

 Greetings!  First off: a reminder that a hot lunch will be served on Thursday: chicken noodle soup & bun! 

We started our day checking out a short video about the Mars Rover being sent to and landing on Mars. This video is truly amazing! https://youtu.be/XRCIzZHpFtY

Next, we continued reading about and discussed Famous Failures: Oprah Winfrey, Henry Ford, Walt Disney, and Albert Einstein.  

Later on I showed a short 4 minute video about 15 Famous Failures Before Success. 

https://youtu.be/hNihl8oGA7A

Related to this, students worked in pairs to distinguish between Fixed versus Growth Mindset statements. Tomorrow we will look to see what they came up with and, as a review, put them onto a larger poster for the classroom. 

After recess, students continued their 4X drills, noting an improvement from yesterday's results.

Then we marked /reviewed the Polygons worksheets from yesterday before watching another MathAntics video about classifying Quadrilaterals.  We did some pages together while we sorted them out.  Some challenges came up when we named some Triangles and had to find missing angles.  The key is to remember that the inside angles of triangles always add up to 180 degrees. Grade 3s are not expected to know this but those who like to challenge themselves appreciate it:)

After lunch, we followed step by step instructions about how to draw a bunny head.  We did this with pencil, then went outside for some fresh air on the play ground.  Upon our return, we experimented with chalk pastels.  We were supposed to do bunnies but they turned out looking like dogs and other animals - mine included:)  

Some people gave up altogether (So much for growth mindset!) while others created more than one.  

We learned a lot about working with chalk pastels and blending with our fingers.  

Here's what we came up with:

Thursday, March 11, 2021

 We had a rather productive day, despite the craziness and Spring Break being only one day away!

*Purdy's orders are in!  Some students took them home, others will need to be picked up.  You can call the office if unsure.  

We started our day watching an amazing video about people in China who live up in the mountains.  Check this out:

Next, we marked the possessive nouns worksheet that we did yesterday, followed by a second short review quiz about nouns.   That left a few minutes for students to work on their Landforms book in Book Creator.  

After recess break, students did their second X3 drill and recorded their results on their bar graph.  Then we marked / reviewed the perimeters package they worked on yesterday, not only reviewing what perimeter is, but developing strategies to make addition easier.   Students are also encouraged to write down partial sums and not to keep everything in their head; this is how mistakes are often made.  Students are also reminded to include the ever-important unit of measure in their answer!

After lunch, Pat's class presented their research projects about grease trails and the eulachon.  My class played Kahoot! after the presentations to see how well they listened to the presentations.  I think they enjoy the competition more than anything:)  

This took us to PE where we went outside to enjoy the fresh air.

Upon our return, students learned about warm and cool colours. 
They began landscape pictures using warm or cool colours (either one or the other for the sky, and the opposite for the land).  I also introduced them to Ted Harrison's art work and whose style we are using to create our art pieces.  The following are works in progress. 

REMINDERS: WEAR GREEN TOMORROW FOR ST. PATRICK'S DAY, and TACO LUNCH PROVIDED for those who said they wanted some.  :)

Reminder: No school tomorrow!

 Students will not attend tomorrow.  

I will go online for a Zoom meeting at 10:45 to check in with students who did not attend this week or last.  Hope to see you there!

Monday, November 30, 2020

 Greetings, everyone. This is the last day of November!  

We had a very busy and productive day today.  Check out the idiom of the week:

In preparation of Christmas, we ran through a read-aloud 'poem' called COVID Christmas.  We will be recording this for you eventually:) 

We re-read the Henry Hudson article from last week -  highlighting important parts - and answered some of  the questions together.  Students are learning how to incorporate part of the question in the answer.  Ask your child what they know about Henry Hudson!  (See the ReadWorks post to access this from home.)

In math, we started new drills today: Fifty mixed addition and subtraction facts in 2 minutes.  Some students may be decreasing their time to 90 seconds tomorrow, as they almost did all of the questions! Students also set up a new line graph on which to record their daily scores.  

Following that, we completed the notes about Place Value and Value in our Interactive Notebooks.  Lastly, the kids were given some practice mixed 2-digit and 3-digit addition and subtraction problems to work on.  They continue to feel more confident, especially when borrowing (a.k.a. regrouping) is involved. 

We had a beautiful rainbow - yet again - so the kids ran out to be under it!

In Social Studies, we continued our study of Canada.  We completed a Knowing Canada worksheet; most students are still requiring a lot of support with this.  It would be helpful if you could ask them questions at home. Students also completed a Me on the Map flip booklet. They may need to check on their address.

A reminder that the Scholastic Book Fair is happening!  Make an appointment to come in and buy some books. 

Finally, after recycling and compost collection, we read a  booklet entitled: Silent E Gets Fired.  It's a fun way to remember this spelling rule.  

Thursday, November 26, 2020

 Hello, soggy friends!  It's raining cats and dogs (an idiom) as I write this.

We had another great day with so much learning happening!

First, we have two new signs up in our school: reminders to wash our hands and to keep our social distance. 

We started off the morning looking at the Class blog and showing students how to access ReadWorks and their Henry Hudson assignment.  Then we got into Readwell reading and activities.  This took us right until snack. 

After recess break, we did the much-loved Drills That Thrill (subtraction) and students graphed their results on their line graph.  The students love seeing how much they improve.  

Next, we marked / reviewed subtraction involving borrowing / regrouping.  Students took turns walking us through the steps to get to the answer.  I must say, they are doing very well with this.  Then they were given a worksheet and had to pick ten questions that they would solve.  Everyone finished this up before lunch time.

After lunch, we finished reading Owls in the Family - with a few tears shed - so I will have to choose another wonderful novel to read.  I had time to also read The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses by Paul Goble.

After P.E., we returned to the class and students had to work together to put Canada's provinces and territories in the correct order.  There was much running back and forth to the map on the wall in the classroom!  Then we continued labeling the provinces and territories on the page for their circle books. 

That brought us to the end of the day when it's time for students to collect the recycling and compost buckets from the other classrooms.  I appreciate their enthusiasm for this!

REMINDER: Tomorrow is Jersey and Pizza Day!  Send a lunch, however, if your child did not order pizza. 

Have a great evening.

Ms. Sue

Tuesday, February 18, 2020

Good day!  I see that I missed Friday in my eagerness to get away for the long weekend.  Yesterday was Family Day, so today was the first day of a short week. 

Reminders: Summer in February tomorrow! 
                    Friday is Professional Development Day so no school for students.

Today was pyjama day and a pancake breakfast!  It was popular and a fun start to our day.  Upon our return to the class, we finished up the Hearts activity which involved identifying four basic parts of speech.  We went through this together, adding words to each one to make clearer sense of it.

Next, the kids went to P.E.!!

After recess, we finished the grammar activity sheet, reviewed factoring and making arrays, played a few math games with partners, and completed "Plangendas" before lunch.

 

Directly after lunch, students worked to finish their biome projects on Book Creator.  These are almost done for most. 

Finally, we did some art "Creating Texture Using Oil Pastels" with our 'stuffies' as models.  These turned out wonderfully!  See for yourself below.