Friday, April 9, 2021

Something strange is happening here. Sorry. Will try to sort it. Happy Friday. We changed up our day last minute, giving the students in attendance their final opportunity to work on their Landforms book using Book Creator. We will begin presentations next week. Students also started their next (short) assignment: Design a theme island and include each of the landforms that you have learned. Example: Bird Island might include Flamingo Mountain, Vulture Volcano, and Birdbath Bay. I hope that they will have fun with this open-style assignment. I decided to introduce the kids to Helen Keller so we watched the 1962 movie: The Miracle Worker with Patty Duke and Anne Bancroft. I am including a link to a brief video about Helen here: Many thanks for the spaghetti lunch that was served today! We truly are spoiled here at Wagalus! Enjoy your weekend. I hear that the sun is coming next week so here's hoping:)

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:

Friday, March 12, 2021

 Wow!  What a day!  The kids were kept busy but they are sure ready for a break:)

We started with a short St. Patrick's Day story on Youtube, with most students remembering to wear green today.  Then, I showed them the following making / recording of the theme song from The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly". It's worth a watch and listen to. 

St. Patrick's Day Book Read Aloud:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pQyvfYho9Ns

 The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly: The Danish National Symphony Orchestra   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=enuOArEfqGo

We also finished adding the 'spelling rules' notes we started yesterday to our Interactive Notebooks.  [change the "y" to an "i" and add "-es";  adding just -s or -es to words ending with an "o".  Example: pianos, tomatoes, heroes.]

Next, we sorted out our Working Binders and cleaned out cubbies before the break.  

Finally, students had some time to work on their Landforms project on Book Creator.  When we come back from break, we will finish them up.

After snack and recess, students returned and did eight questions about perimeter; they did this independently so that I can assess their understanding thus far. 

Following that, they finished their pastel landscapes while I finished reading My Side of the Mountain. 

Pat's class made tacos for those students who wanted one, and then it was time to collect the compost and sort the recycling.  

At 1:30, Isaiah and Latisha walked us down to the stream to release the young fry.  Lyam joined us, and the two sang a prayer, the salmon song, and a song of gratitude.  The following photos and a video hopefully captured this special event. 

Have a wonderful spring break, everyone! 

Thursday, March 4, 2021

 Here is a glimpse of our morning, thus far.  We learned about the "sugaring off" season in Quebec and the production of maple syrup, one of Canada's important natural resources.  First, we watched and discussed these videos, then read an article and answered questions.  Check these out:

Why All Canadians Love Sugar Shacks https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Maple Syrup with the McCullums https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wuIj9CwHCFc

Making Maple Syrup at the Streets Sugar Shack      https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xSUjl9b8Jqs

There are many more on YouTube but I wanted to present those in Canada, especially Quebec and New Brunswick. 

A classmate has returned today after being away for several months, so we decided to have our special lunch today: individual pizzas:)   Many thanks to Anastasia for helping the kids in the kitchen as they prepared their own pizzas! 

  

During Math, we colour-coded a 12 X 12 Times Table / Multiplication Table to correspond to the colours on the Kim Sutton number line.  Earlier in the year, we created arrays in our Interactive Notebooks to show the square numbers (numbers times themselves: 2X2=4, 3x3=9...); these are the bold numbers on the Times Table.  We also practiced the 9 Times facts and did a worksheet about calculating the Perimeters of Polygons - a brief introduction to perimeter.

  

In the afternoon, we did basketball drills during P.E., watched some videos to reinforce our understanding of landforms, and completed another matching activity, similar to yesterday's. 

*Our vocabulary is growing!!  The videos we watched are linked below:

Mr. DeMaio's Animated Presentation of Landforms  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KWTDmg8OI_Y

Landforms, Hey! Crash Course Kids   https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FN6QX43QB4g

Exploring Landforms and Bodies of Water for Kids  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BsqKTJtK_vw

School bus in Upper Mongolia

 School bus in Upper Mongolia

This video is so amazing that I wanted to post it separately!  

Count the children as they get off the "school bus".

Thursday, February 11, 2021

 Welcome to Thursday!  I didn't post yesterday - my apologies.  I hope that today's photos will make up for it:)

Notice: Tomorrow is hot lunch (chow mein) and Valentines Day.  Students can dress up if they wish, or simply wear something red or pink. In our class, we have been making our own Valentines to give out, and will celebrate without candy.  Devina is baking cupcakes and we will have some popcorn and a "love story" themed movie in the afternoon.

We continued practicing onomatopoeia this morning, identifying words and creating some short stories using onomatopoeia.  Students were given time to work on their snow globe for this literary device.  Several students are at the cutting out stage and two students have now glued all of theirs together!  

During math, we finished colour-coding the 9X (yesterday), 10X, 11X, and 12X in our multiplication booklets.  After drills, students attempted to play "I have... Who has...?" to practice elapsed time.  Many students are still struggling with this.  I showed them a short video to help them some more with telling time (see link below).  I strongly recommend that students continue to watch Time videos for kids and to keep practicing on IXL.  Please them at home by "testing" them often.  

How to tell the time (video for kids)   https://youtu.be/HrxZWNu72WI

They are enjoying My Side of the Mountain, which I read while they are still eating their lunch.  

P.E. this afternoon was all about Jump Rope for Heart.  I took lots of photos of the kids skipping, hoola hooping, and Chinese Jump Roping.  (Are those real verbs?)

Remember, you can click on any of the pictures to enlarge them!

We also made pouches for our Valentines tomorrow, and worked on colouring the Valentines they made.