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.
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!
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?
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:
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:)).
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!
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:).
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!
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.
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!
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:).
