Hour of Code

Today the children participated in the coding initiative called #hourofcode.  This project has been designed to introduce and promote Computer Science, "Our vision is that every student in every school should have the opportunity to learn computer science."  The students had so much fun exploring the world of coding.  If you would like to check out this initiative, visit code.org and ask your child all about it!

When you get to the website, scroll down and click on the box that says "Elementary Courses".

Have fun!

Mrs. Caluori

It is the 2nd Week of Advent

It is the second week of Advent and we will be celebrating as a school at our Advent Mass tomorrow afternoon.  

This week we will be focusing on the meaning of 'peace' and how we can spread peace and light to one another.

The students have enjoyed delivering Advent Blessings to other classrooms.  We are in week two of our deliveries and have had classrooms tweeting messages of thanks, sending back messages to our classroom and we even had Mrs. Green call down with a great big thank you.  It is so wonderful to see how little messages of hope and prayer can really make someone's day.  Ask your child about our classroom Advent project.

We have been busy!

Foodimals have been created and illustrated in Grade 3 this week!  The students have gone through the full writing process and their Descriptive Writing is really coming together.  We have been focusing on using adjectives to describe the created Foodimals and have also been working on editing and revising rough copy work.  This week the students will be representing their Foodimals through plasticine art.  On Friday we watched some art videos and looked at books by the very talented and creative Barbara Reid.  The students were so impressed with her techniques and have been very excited to get started:).  Today the children planned their plasticine art by deciding on background, colours, size of Foodimal, mixing colours to create new colours, and deciding what details they would like to add.   Here are the videos that we watched!

Advent in 2 Minutes

Here is an Advent video that you can enjoy and discuss as a family:).  

Advent Week 1 - HOPE & Other Classroom News

It is hard to believe that December is upon us and that we have begun our Advent Journey.  Today we gathered as a class to bless our classroom Advent Wreath and learn about Isaiah and the message he delivered.  We talked about lighting the first purple candle that represents HOPE and the students began their own wreath in their Religion notebooks.  We also gathered as a Primary Division in the Learning Commons to light our school's Advent Wreath and talk about some of the ways that we can be a light to each other and to the St. Cecilia school community. The children were told about an Advent Project in which they will "light up" St. Cecilia by spreading kindness, helping others and spreading good will.  When a student witnesses a good deed in action they can colour in a light bulb and write about the good deed that was witnessed.  We will be hanging the light bulbs on a string and hope to see lights that go around our whole school:).  We decided as a class that it would be wonderful to do something similar in our own classroom so we will be starting that project tomorrow.

St. Cecilia will also be undergoing a Christmas Hamper Project to help support our two sister schools St. Bernard and St. Elizabeth.  You will find a note in your child's agenda that explains the project in detail.  In addition, please note that there is a label sticker in your child's agenda that lists an item that has been assigned to them to bring in for the family that 3D has been assigned to.  Items for the hampers are due to the school no later than Dec. 10th to ensure all baskets can be organized and delivered to the families before the Christmas Break.  If you would like to donate something in addition to the food/toiletry item assigned you, this can also be brought into the school no later than the 10th of December.  Thank you in advance for your generosity and kindness.  The family that our class has been assigned has a mom and 9 year old boy in the family.  

In Language, the students have been working hard creating their Foodamil inspired by the movie 'Cloudy Chance of Meatballs' Part 2.  The Foodamils that the children have created are so original! We are working hard on using the Descriptive Writing Success Criteria we created to help add a lot of detail to the Descriptive Writing pieces.  We are going through the full writing process with this assignment (planning, rough copy, editing, good copy).  The students have also been illustrating their Foodamil and they are looking fantastic!   

In Science, the students have been presenting their soil inquiry findings to the class.  All of the students chose to complete this learning task by using Google Presentations.  This was a new program to all of the students and they did an amazing job!  The program definitely has a learning curve, but the students showed GRIT and persevered and WOW did it ever pay off!  Students shared their inquiry findings to the rest of the class and helped build their peers' knowledge.  The students took some 'jot' notes about interesting facts and knowledge presented by their peers. We were able to cover all of the topics and information they needed to learn and more and had a lot of fun do it too! 

In Math, we will continue to work on writing pattern rules, extending number patterns and creating patterns.  We will also be learning about Temperature in Measurement.  

In Physical Education, the student have been practising their Volleyball Skills and in Health the children are finishing up their Personal Safety Brochures.  As part of Health and Religion, students will reflect on what they learned through the Digital Citizenship lessons "Samaritans on a Digital Road".

Men of La Moustache!

Reminder!  Tomorrow is Mustache day.  Bring in a loonie or toonie to purchase a stick on mustache. All proceeds will be going to men's cancer.

Here is another video from the creative Mrs. Addison...Enjoy!

Click the link below

Men of La Moustache Video

Patterns on the Hundreds Chart

In Math, we have been working on Subtracting 2 digit and 3 digit numbers.  As the students feel more confident in subtraction, throughout the year, we will be working more with subtracting 3 digit numbers.  The students have been using many strategies to solve a variety of subtraction questions. We have also been looking at the vocabulary in subtraction word problems to see what words tell us that we need to subtract e.g., difference, take away, how many more, fewer, etc. Subtraction continues to be a challenging concept for many children especially as we move towards larger numbers.  This would be an area to reinforce at home should you be looking for extension activities for homework time.  At school we will be continuing to look at these foundational math skills throughout the year.

We have started a new unit in Patterning.  The students are looking for number patterns on the Hundreds Chart and learning how to write Pattern Rules e.g. Start at 2 and add 2 each time (Pattern: 2,4,6,8,10).  We are also using words to describe number patterns such as, increasing (growing), decreasing (shrinking) and repeating.  Students have been extending patterns using a pattern core and then writing the pattern rule to describe the pattern.

We have been discovering all sorts of interesting number patterns on our classroom Hundreds Charts and having fun trying to solve each others' number patterns using just the pattern rule.

Support Movember

This Friday is Mustache Day!  Please bring in a small donation to support Movember.  Children who bring in a donation will be given a mustache sticker!  Fun!!

*Click* on the video link below to watch "The Movember Tales" of St. Cecilia.  Enjoy:).

The Movember Tales Video

Bully Awareness Week

This week is Bully Awareness Week.  So far this week we have read two wonderful stories that have helped create a dialogue surrounding this important topic.  What is a bully?  What does being bullied mean?  Why do people bully other people?  What is a bystander?  How can we make a difference?

On Monday we read "One" by Kathryn Otoshi.  We talked about the author's message in the story as well as possible reasons for why ''Red" was so angry.  In addition, we talked about the ending of the story and how "Blue" and the other colours welcomed "Red" to join and play once "Red" changed his/her behaviour.

Today we read the story "Mr. Peabody's Apples" by Madonna.  This is a terrific story that highlights the power of our words.  We discussed the damage that rumors can cause and how sometimes things may seem a certain way but in the case of Mr. Peabody, conclusions were made that were not the truth.  These books created a lot of important conversations.  I look forward to reading more stories throughout the week!  

Tomorrow there is a Bully Awareness Assembly (WITS)  Please ask your child to share some of the topics discussed with you tomorrow evening.  

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Upcoming Dates

Bully Awareness Week
November 17th - 21st

Tuesday, November 18th - Pizza Day

Friday, November 21st - PD DayNo School


Sunday, November 23rd 5:30
Barrhaven Santa Claus Parade (St. Cecilia will have a float in the parade!).  Come out and enjoy the Parade in your St. Cecilia Spirit Wear:).  

St. Cecilia Scholastic Book Fair - December 1st - 5th 

Grade 3D will be going Monday Dec. 1st during 3rd block to preview the books and on Wednesday Dec. 3rd during 3rd block to purchase books.

Google Presentations

The students learned how to create their own Google Presentation today to share their Soil Inquiry knowledge.  They also learned how to share their presentation with their partner.  Some of the students expressed an interest in working on their project from home.  I will provide all of the class time they need for this assignment, but should they wish to work on it from home they may.

Instructions:

Using the Chrome Browser (if you don't have the Chrome Browser you can google it and download it on any computer for free) click on the three lines (I call it the hamburger) and there is an option to 'sign in'.

Sign in using firstname.lastname@ocsbstudent.ca, password is the number '1'

Next, click on the top of the right hand page where there are 9 small boxes (when you hover your mouse over the squares it will say 'Apps').

Now click on the triangle that says 'Drive'

When you are in the Drive you will be able to see your Presentation.  If the presentation was shared by a partner, you will have to look under Incoming or Shared with Me.

Have fun!!!

Mrs. Caluori

#GRA14 - Above and Beyond

Here is an adapted short video inspired by the wonderful story 'Going Places'.  Be inspired, embrace creativity and think outside of the box.  Enjoy!

This is the final week of our Global Read Aloud Author Study Project.  This week's book is 'The Dot'.

#GRA14 Week 4 - Going Places

Going Places...

Another fantastic read aloud this week from our Author Study for the Global Read Aloud project.  This time our author Peter H. Reynolds teams up with his identical twin brother Paul Reynolds!  

As we read this story we made predictions and had many text-to-text connections between the other stories we have read during this author study.  

After reading, the students discussed what they felt the Author's Message was in the story as well as the Author's Purpose. Some of our ideas included the power of teamwork, the importance of creativity and finding inspiration in the world around us.  

Here is the Book Trailer for Going Places!  Enjoy:)

Rounding to the nearest 10

In Math, we have been reviewing some tips and strategies to round numbers to the nearest 10 in both 2 and 3 digit numbers.  Here is an anchor chart that we worked on together so that we remember all of our math thinking.  We also watched this short video!  Lastly, the students practiced their rounding using whiteboards.  The children found that using their schema (background knowledge) of number lines and place value really helped them round number effectively.  Awesome stuff!

Supporting your Child's Math Learning

Supporting your Child's Math Learning 
November 11th 7-8:30 pm
St. Gregory School
148 Meadowlands Drive

Click here to view the flyer

#GRA14, Science Soil Inquiry, Math Tubs & GRIT!

 We have had a busy week!  The students have been busy learning all about the Power of Mindset.  We are learning that it takes a lot of work to learn new things and that sometimes when things get tough, it is actually a good thing!  It means we are learning.

We watched a short video clip about what it means to have GRIT.  Perseverance + Resilience = GRIT.  We came up with a fantastic anchor chart to remind us to never give up.  If we really want something we need to keep working at it.  We need to keep reaching for our dreams.  Very powerful!

Here is the video that we watched which explains all about GRIT.

We also watched a short video clip called "Austin's Butterfly".  The students really loved seeing how Austin was able to work at his learning task and improve his work so substantially by using specific feedback from his peers.  The students have been providing feedback to their classmates using 'Tickled Pink" and "Green for Growth" so they were really able to connect to this video.  Another important message in this video is that it is ok not to have a perfect finished product the first time around.  If we work at something and improve a little each time, that means we are learning!

Austin's Butterfly: Critique and Feedback

Today was the final day for our St. Cecilia, 'We Scare Hunger' campaign and it was a HUGE success! Thank you so much to everyone who participated.  The final count was over 3000 non-perishable food items that will be donated to the Barrhaven Food Bank.  Wow, wow!!!

This week's GRA was the story 'ish'.  The students really loved this story about creativity and had a great time creating their own 'ish' drawings.  They illustrated some things such as House'ish', Afternoon'ish', and really seemed to enjoy letting go and knowing that no matter what they created, it was art!  On Friday afternoon, we connected via Google Hangout with Mrs. Ciampa's Grade 3 class from Assumption School.  It was great getting to know her students and sharing our 'ish' connections and 'ish' drawings with each other!  We look forward to more Hangouts in the future:).

Our Science Inquiry is well underway.  We grouped our soil wonderings into three Big Ideas from the Grade 3 Curriculum.  Each of the students chose a Big Idea they were interested in to explore further.  Once they chose the inquiry of choice, they found a partner who was also interested in the same wonderings.  The students are using QR Codes, Library Books, Classroom Books and Chromebooks to research their questions and record their findings.

In Math, we have been working on math problems that include 2 digit by 2 digit addition and subtraction.  We are practicing getting our math thinking on paper so it is clear to the reader.  The students also created their own math games (listed materials needed, steps to follow, rules, etc.).  I laminated all of the games and we set up our Math Tubs.  In each Tub, there are a couple of student created games, math manipulatives and other resources to help students practice their addition and subtraction skills.  The Math Tubs have completed our Math Stations and the children have been fully engaged while learning.  It has been a lot of fun learning this past week in 3D!  Looking forward to another terrific week.


Your Partner in Education,

Mrs. Caluori
                             

Important Dates

Some Important Dates and UpComing Events!

Tues. Oct. 28th - Picture Retake Day
Wed. Oct. 29th - Dance-A-Thon Pledge Forms and Money Due
Thurs. Oct. 30th - Progress Reports Go Home
Fri. Oct. 31st - Halloween Dance-A-Thon!  Wear your costume to school.


Here are the Halloween Costume Wearing Guidelines.  Can't wait to see all of the original costumes!

Miss Rumphius

Today we listened to the beautiful story 'Miss Rumphius'.  The students wrote and illustrated their visualizations using a 5 Senses Graphic Organizer (what they could see, smell, taste, hear and touch).

We also discussed as a class the final question the author asks...What can you do to make the world more beautiful?

GRA - I'm Here

Last week we read another beautifully written story by Peter H. Reynolds for our Global Read Aloud Author Study.  The story 'I'm Here' has a powerful author's message and the students did a wonderful job sorting through the ideas in the story to come up with why Peter Reynolds wrote this story for children.  The students are also starting to notice some similarities and themes between the books we have been reading.  This story speaks to the fact that not every child likes sports, not every child likes to run and shout at recess. Peter H. Reynolds' book "I'm Here" is a gentle story that celebrates children who march to the beat of their own drum, encouraging empathy, understanding and inclusion.  We also watched a short film produced by the author that was inspired by the story.
This week's GRA book will be the story "ish".  I am sure that many of the students are familiar with this book as it is a wonderful story that inspires creativity and therefore teachers love it!  I really hope that this read aloud will inspire some 'ish' drawings throughout this week:)

Click on the video below to view the short film by Peter H. Reynolds:

Addition Strategies & Centers

The children have been working on 2 digit by 2 digit addition strategies.  We are using what we know about place value to help with regrouping.  Here are some of the strategies we have come up with so far.

There are many fun games that involve addition and subtraction.  The students also love creating their own games to play during math centers.  Most of the activities involve whiteboards, dice and a deck of cards which are all easily accessible for at home play.  Ask your child to show you some of the math games we have been playing in class.

Math games are a great way to have fun and practice math facts all at the same time!

Also, Dreambox and Prodigy math games are additional tools to help support your child's math skills.  I have given all of the students their personal login and password information and we have been going on both sites at school during center time.  Please let me know if you are having any difficulty getting on either site at home as I would be very happy to help.

                 
Addition Bingo Center!

Addition Battle:
Each player turns two cards to create a 2 digit number.  The first person to add both numbers correctly takes all 4 cards.  The person who has the most cards at the end wins.










Dice Number Ordering:
Each player takes turns rolling three dice to create a 3 digit number.  After the players have created a bunch of numbers, the learning task is to work together to put the numbers in order from either greatest to least or least to greatest (their choice:)).

Chromebook Center:

• Dreambox
• Prodigy 

Waste Reduction Week

Next week is Waste Reduction Week.  We are asking that the children come to school with waste-free lunches. Each day next week and other decided dates throughout this school year will be designated as waste-free lunch days.  I will tally up the amount of waste-free lunches each day and submit the results to our school's Green Squad.  Think, reusable containers, reusable containers, reusable containers!  Thank you in advance for your support!  Go St. Cecilia!

Waste Free Information Newsletter

This Friday there will be an assembly explaining our Waste-Free initiative to all of the students.

Homework this week

I hope everyone had a wonderful weekend!  Just a reminder that due to the long weekend, homework went home today and will be due back on Friday.  

Happy Thanksgiving Everyone!

 I would first like to wish everyone a joyful and reflective Thanksgiving weekend with all of your loved ones.  Thanksgiving is a time to reflect on what we are so fortunate to have as well as reach out to others who are in need.  The amount of food that is coming in for the Barrhaven Food Bank is astounding.  Please keep it coming in if you are able to do so.  The campaign will be running until the 27th of October.  The children are so excited to see our food donations accumulate and have been counting the items each morning.  Yesterday we were at 53 items!  Wow!

This week in Religion, we created an anchor chart (Graphiti Style) of our thinking of what the new board theme means. We described the symbolic meaning of the circles and how that links to this month's gospel theme: community.
The children also came up with a comprehensive list of all the things they are grateful for and why.  Today they will be bringing home their Thanksgiving Pumpkins with 10 thankful reflections written on them.  The students worked really hard on their pumpkins and are excited to show them off this weekend!

Dance-A-Thon:  A letter as well as a donation envelope went home yesterday.  The Dance-A-Thon will take place during the day on October 31st!  The Dance-A-Thon is a Parent Council initiative for technology in the school.  Technology is an amazing way to capture student thinking in the classroom, engage learners in the classroom and prepare students for 21st century learning.  Very exciting!

In math, we continue to work with numbers to 1000.  We are showing our thinking when responding to multistep problems and are practicing our mental math skills.  Towards the latter part of next week we will be doing a baseline assessment for 2 digit by 2 digit addition and subtraction.  Over the long weekend, students can be practicing their math skills by counting items around the house and adding the numbers together and they can practice their math using Dreambox, ABCya and/or Prodigy (please see links on the right-hand side of the blog).

 

In Language, we will be writing a final assessment of Recount writing next week about the children's Thanksgiving Weekend.  I encourage the children to add more detail to their writing using the 5 w's (who, what, where, when, why) as well as adding their feelings linked to the topic, juicy adjectives and a catchy opening sentence and summarizing closing sentence.  We have also had a wonderful start to the Global Read Aloud 'The North Star'.  The story was a fantastic way to start!  This week we made connections to the story, visualized while hearing the story and talked about the Author's Message in the story.  We tweeted a question to another grade 3 class in our school board and heard back yesterday.  We will also be adding some of our thinking to a Padet that involves a grade 3 class in our board as well as a class from the United States:).  Fun!

Lastly, enjoy your weekend together as a family and I look forward to hearing all about the happenings over the weekend on Tuesday:).

Your Partner in Education,

Mrs. Caluori

Some Event Update

 Global Read Aloud 2014 (#gra14) will begin on Monday Oct. 6th.  I am really excited to have our class participate this year in the Peter H. Reynolds, Author Study.  Our reading goals this month will continue to be on making Meaningful Connections and Visualizing so I look forward to linking these strategies to the Global Read Aloud books.  On Monday, we will begin reading 'The North Star'.  Check our class blog throughout the month of October to see how we will be connecting with other grade 3 classrooms who are also participating.  We have even had Peter Reynolds himself, favourite our tweets!!!  

We Scare Hunger Campaign has begun!  Bring in non-perishable food for the Barrhaven Food Bank up until October 27th.  The top two classes will be duck taping Mrs. Green and Mr. Rodgers to the wall!  How fun will that be?!?!?  We have already had some food come in from the Grade 3D students.  Way to go!

On Friday, our class participated in the Tim Horton's Cleaning the Capital Event.  We picked up yard waste throughout our own school yard and when we were finished the yard looked great!  All the children actively participated and were very proud of their accomplishments.  Excellent!  

What we have been up to this past week!

Happy October!  The weather has been beautiful and the students were able to enjoy Monday's gym class outdoors.  We also played Sharks and Pirates in the gym on Wednesday.  The students really seemed to enjoy themselves and exhibited great listening skills as well as cooperation with their peers.  The focus in Physical Education is safe play, locomotive skills, sportsmanship and participation.

In Religion, we have been learning about the Parable of the Workers in the Vineyard, the Parable of the Two Sons as well, learning more about our Board's new theme and discussing this month's Gospel Value: Community.  

The children will be working hard this month on exhibiting the qualities of working as a community (e.g., welcoming, inclusiveness, being helpful, being kind to one another, etc.) and two children in the class, will be chosen who have demonstrated these qualities throughout the month.  I hope I have a tough time choosing:).

In Language, the children have been writing partner recounts of their most favourite gym class this year.  The students have used a guiding checklist to review their work and ensure that it has a catchy title, juicy descriptive words, lots of detail (5 Ws), T.O.W. (time order words), P.T.W. (past tense words) and a closing sentence.  I have noticed that many students are forgetting to capitalize the first word in a sentence as well as spelling wwws incorrectly, so we have been looking at editing our own work to make sure it is meeting all the criteria.  We are continuing to make meaningful connections when we read and today we also talked about visualizing or making movies in our mind while we read.  Words and sentences that allow us as readers to see, taste, smell, hear, touch helps us connect to the text when we read.  It is also something to think about when we are writing our own stories and recounts.

In Math, we have been busy with Place Value.  I am so impressed with all the ways the students are able to represent numbers.  We have started using our knowledge of place value to help order numbers from least to greatest, greatest to least, circle the greatest number and explain how they know that one number is greater than another number e.g. Which number is greatest, 845 or 853?  Explain how you know.   We have been exploring some of our learning with partners and have been doing 'Gallery Walks' to look at each others' strategies so that we can learn from each other.  Yesterday and today we answered a multiple choice question and discussed some strategies to use when answering these kinds of questions.

In Science, we have been researching our inquiries about soil through the use of QR Codes on the school iPads and have used our classroom Chromebooks to look at soil websites for kids.  It was so amazing to see all the learning that took place when the children were given the opportunity to explore the various sites and videos.  The students took some notes of their new learnings and during community circle time, each shared one of their new learnings or areas of interest from their research.  Here is a link to our science QR Codes that we have so far Soil QR Codes.

In Art, we have started our good copies of our Leaf Line Art.  They are turning out to be amazing works of art!  We have some extremely creative individuals in 3D and their enthusiasm for this activity as being amazing!

Lastly, please take note that on the right side of the blog is my Twitter Feed.  I try to Tweet often and find it a great way to share pics of our adventures in grade 3.  If you scroll down you can find various tweets from this year.

I hope everyone has a restful and fun weekend.  Go REDBLACKS (esp. #49 ;)).



Important Upcoming dates:  Tomorrow is Picture Day!  Monday, October 6th - Pizza Orders and English Scholastic orders are due.