Last Week In February

We have been very busy in Grade 3D!  The students have been working hard on projects which started with researching and exploring different plant based foods.  The students were asked to think about how their food gets to their table and the positive and negative effects this can have on our environment (how shipping time affects the quality of our food, pollution, packaging, freshness etc.). During this project, the children have also been focusing on their collaboration skills and working together as a team e.g., realizing that their actions can affect others, using each others' strengths to most effectively complete the task, etc.  This week the students are finishing up their inquiry by creating a Public Service Announcement telling others about the benefits of eating and buying locally grown foods.  The students were able to choose the medium for their production and some of the choices included apps such as, 30 Hands, Green Screen, Puppet Pals 2 and iMovie.  As the students complete their assignments, I will upload them to their individual Google Drive.  The students were very engaged in this project and I know that you will enjoy viewing them.  Way to go Grade 3!

In Math, we continue to work on 2D Geometry and will be moving into 3D Geometry next week. The students are also learning about Angles (recognizing Right Angles and angles that are larger than (obtuse) and smaller than (acute) right angles).  Many students are still having difficulty seeing right angles and when the shapes are rotated so this would be an excellent area to focus on at home - students can try and find different kinds of angles at home and all around them:).  Some other concepts that we have been learning about in math are finding lines of symmetry and matching congruent shapes.  This week we opened up new Math Stations and some of the highlights were the Tangram Station and the Geoboard Station!

Here are the Grade 3 curriculum expectations that we are working on as we move from 2D to 3D Geometry.

The overall expectations include:
-comparing three-dimensional figures and sorting them by their geometric properties
-describing the relationship between two-dimensional shapes and three-dimensional figures.

Students will:
-compare and sort prisms and pyramids by number and shapes of faces, number of edges and number of vertices
-construct and describe geometric properties of prisms
-describe and name prisms and pyramids by the shape of their base

In Language we have been working very hard on Reading Responses by learning that we must first restate the question.  Next, we need to include our opinion along with a specific example (proof) from the text.  Lastly, we need to add our own experiences (connections) and a concluding sentence.  We have read some wonderful texts to practice our Reading Responses (Sam and the Lucky Money, Ms. Mitra, At the Sugar Bush and Canada's Dollar Coins).  In Writing, the students have written their Baseline Narrative Story.  We have also been reading model Narrative Texts and using the Shape Go Map to help determine the Main Characters, Setting, Problem, Key Events and Solution in the story.  We will continue to read and examine some more texts and begin our Narritive Anchor Chart at the beginning of next week.  We are also going to practice further the importance of making a plan before we write in order to keep on track and include all of the elements of a Narrative Story.  I can't wait to read more of the stories that our creative class will produce.  Have fun and imagine big!

I will end with the Lego Movie song "Everything Is Awesome." I saw and heard it for the first time last night while watching a brief segment of the Oscars. I felt it had a catchy connection to our work on collaboration. This particular Youtube video was created by a six year old boy. Pretty cool! Enjoy!