November 22nd - 25th

 Hello to all of you from Room 5! It was another busy week and as the weather has started to cool off, please ensure that your child comes to school with a warm jacket, boots, mitts and also a toque.  We will probably be going on a nature walk in the community in the coming week and we want to ensure the students will be comfortable during our walk. 

A big thank you to all the parents who were able to connect with me either on Thursday night or Friday during the day to talk about your child's progress so far this year in Grade 3. The students are working hard in the classroom and it was fantastic to share this news with all the parents who were able to attend.

In Mathematics, we continue to explore 3D objects and being able to identify the various faces, bases, vertices and edges that make up the various objects. Students also had a chance to practice drawing out a cube, cylinder, cone, pyramid and rectangular prism to see what they look like in their 3 dimensional shapes. We continue to practice using numbers in increasing and decreasing patterns and explain the pattern rules, whether they are counting on (increasing) or counting back (decreasing).

In Writing, students have created their own monster drawings and now are working on creating a walking story to describe their monsters and their various features or personality. Students took time to brainstorm ideas about their monster's face, body and other interesting features. We will be working on typing out our good copies next week.

In Science, we have started to introduce our next unit on Rocks and Minerals and their various properties. We have talked about minerals and what they are. We have also learned that there are three types of rocks - igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks and how they are formed and shaped over the years. 

In Social Studies, we are now focused on culture of the various countries and have so far explored the celebrations, foods, language and music and dance of Peru, Tunisia and also India. As part of this upcoming week of homework, the students will be exploring their own family's culture and then comparing it with some of the other countries we have been looking at.

Hope you have a wonderful Sunday and see all of you on Monday in formal uniforms. Please also remember that your child requires a pair of indoor gym shoes as our Physical Education program has moved indoors.

November 15th - 19th

 Hello there! Hope you are having a great weekend room 5 students and parents! 

Last week was full of excitement as students had the opportunity to participate in some Hip Hop dance classes during Physical Education times. This culminated with the students getting a chance to perform their dance as a whole class on Friday. It was great to see the students come out of their comfort zones and show off their many dance moves!

In Social Studies, we have begun to look at the cultural aspects of each country we study and we started by looking at Peru and its languages, music, art, food and folktales. The students are quickly learning how each country is unique and tries to celebrate it culture in many different ways.

In Science, we are wrapping up our unit on Animal Life Cycles and had another virtual "visit" from the Bow River Fish Hatchery to talk about adaptations that rainbow trout have made to be able to survive in the waters found in and around Alberta. Students even had some fun trying to think of creative adaptations they would add to the trout in order to keep them from being eaten by predators or dealing with things like muddy waters!

In Mathematics, we continue to look at expressing numbers various ways and students were tasked with using Base Ten blocks to create a picture and then show that number in expanded form, written form, addition sentences and also in other Base Ten block pictures. There were some very creative pictures that emerged from the students' imaginations.

In Writing, we have focused on using similes in our walking stories and students worked on creating and describing an alien that had recently landed on Planet Earth. Some creative creatures emerged with many different characteristics and body parts to be described!

Next week, a reminder that there will be Parent Teacher Conferences on Thursday night and there is no school on Friday as Parent Teacher Conferences continue. Please remember to wear formal uniforms on Monday and we will see everyone bright and early on Monday morning!  Enjoy the rest of the weekend.

November 8th - 10th

 Hello Room 5 students and parents! Last week was a very short week for us with only three days of school! I want to thank the students for their hard work during this time and also a big thank you to the grade 2 classes for creating a very moving Remembrance Day virtual assembly that was shared with all the school on Wednesday. It makes us realized how lucky we are to live in a country that respects diversity and has created many rights and freedoms that we get each and every day here in Canada.

In Mathematics, we have started to look at 3D objects and we had a scavenger hunt in the classroom as students had to identify a variety of 3D objects such as spheres, cubes, rectangular prisms, cones and cylinders. The students found many rectangular prisms, but we struggled to find many spheres (though we did find some tennis balls on the bottom of our chair legs!).

In Science, we were finishing off our animal riddles where the students had to provide clues as to what type of animal it was and then draw a thumb print picture on the page below so the other students could guess their animals. Next week we are taking part in another virtual field trip to the Bow River Fish Hatchery to learn about the adaptations that rainbow trout have made to survive in and around Alberta.

In Writing, we focused on sharing our ideas of What Peace Means to Me to coincide with Remembrance Day this Thursday. We brainstormed the many ways that our quality of life has been effected by those brave soldiers who fought for the rights and freedoms we currently enjoy in Canada and what that means for peace in our present time. 

In Social Studies, we looked at the landforms of Ukraine, it position in the world and what resources they are able to use to produce various types of products that are either used by people in the country or exported to other countries to use. We also spent some time focused on hearing the activities that went on in a number of our students' households in order to celebrate the Indian celebration of Diwali.

Next week, we will be having a Hip Hop dance residency in place for our Physical Education classes and it is important that students have proper gym shoes that they can use as we have moved inside for our PE classes. Also a reminder to wear formal uniforms on Monday and that homework is due this Friday for the homework #9. Thank you and have a wonderful Sunday!

November 1st - 5th

Hello Room 5! I hope you are having a wonderful weekend. Last week was our first full week in a long time so it was great to accomplish so much during these days.

In Science, we had a virtual field trip opportunity to the Bow Habitat Fish Hatchery where we learned about the life cycle of the rainbow trout. The students learned about the four stages in their life cycle, how long each one lasts and then how the fish hatchery works.  We have also been looking at creating our own What Animal Am I riddles about various types of animals.

In Social Studies, the students looked into the landscape of Ukraine and its two main regions - the mountains and the steppe plains region. We also had a chance to create our own ragolis in honour of the Indian Celebration of Diwali. It was great to have some first hand experts in our class who could share about the festival of lights and the meaning behind it.

In Mathematics, students still keep working on number sense and being able to add and subtract larger numbers. We are also exploring both increasing and decreasing number patterns by 3's, 4's, 5's, 10's, 25's and 100's.  Students start to see the patterns that emerge and build up their confidence in working on number patterns either way.

In Writing, we have been completing our descriptive pieces on our Mysterious / Spooky houses that we created the week before. Students worked hard to create a written story that both captures the attention of the reader and creates a clear picture too!

A reminder that we need to wear formal uniforms on Monday, but also on Wednesday when we recognize Remembrance Day which is on the 11th of November. Also please ensure the students remember to bring their library books back on Wednesday so that they can exchange them for new books.  Thanks and see you all tomorrow!

Last week of October

 Hello room 5 students and parents! Thank you for another busy and productive week in the classroom. We had a chance to go on a nature walk on Thursday afternoon and took the opportunity to sketch the many types of 2D and 3D shapes we saw in nature and also those that make up structures we saw along the way. Also we celebrated on Friday with our Halloween activities and showed off our costumes to the rest of the school via Google Meet.

In Mathematics, students were working on creating a bar graph based on their houses that they constructed out of various types of 2D shapes drawn on the paper. Students are also working on decreasing number patterns and being able to explain the pattern rule that goes with the pattern. Students are still working to represent numbers and using a variety of strategies to add numbers together. 

In writing, we are using our 6 Senses (including feelings) to write about our experiences as we enter into our Spooky or Mysterious houses that we had drawn earlier in the week. We used a variety of sentence starters and tried to vary how we began each of our sentences to draw the reader into our writing. 

In Science, we looked at how various animals care for their young. With mammals and some birds, the caregiving time is a lot longer than with some animals that just lay eggs and leave. We also look at how animals have to adapt to their environments in order to survive.

In Social Studies, we are exploring the landscape of Peru and what they use the land and water for in their daily lives. Each country we study has unique features to it and they can effect the quality of life for the people who live in that country.

I hope you have a safe and enjoyable Halloween if you are choosing to go out tonight. Remember to wear your formal uniform for Monday and if parents didn't know, our class has won free ice cream for the whole class for always having our formal uniforms on for each Monday since the start of the school year!

October 19th - 22nd

 Where has October gone? It seems like this month has just flown by and we are close to the end of the month next week!

Students had the opportunity to participate in Adventure Running this week at school. Students learned the basics the first day in the school playground and then had a chance to travel to a close by park in the community and put their mapping reading skills into practice. It was a lot of fun to watch them carefully read their maps with their partners and then race off to figure out the various words they could spell out using the letters on the flags they found throughout the park.

In Mathematics, students continue to try out various strategies in order to find the sums of 2 and 3 digit addition sentences. They were also asked to create an increasing movement pattern with a partner while the rest of the class tried to guess how their pattern had changed. Students are also being asked to represent numbers using a variety of methods and then explain what their thinking was in expressing their answer.

In Writing, we brainstormed various ways to use our 6 Senses while taking a Fall walk. Students were asked to use vivid language in order for the reader to get a clear picture of what they say, hear, tasted, felt and smelled during their fall walks. 

In Science, we have explored the three different classifications of animals based on what they eat. We talked about carnivores, herbivores and omnivores and how they get their energy to live. Students also started to explore how various animals care for their young with different animals either leaving their young right away whereas some care for them for quite a while before letting them go out on their own. 

In Social Studies, we have created a brochure to highlight the landforms found in the country of India. Students had to create a map that showed the 4 regions that make up India, talk about how long it takes to get there by plane and describe some of the features that make up the landscape of India.  

A reminder that Monday is Photo Retake for students and parents need to email me that they would like their child to get a retake done on this day. Next week, we hope to go as a class on a Community Walk to use our senses to observe how the season of fall is all around us. Students will also be excited to know that on Friday, we will be having our Halloween celebrations and Virtual Halloween parade of the costumes that students have chosen to wear. Students need to wear their costumes to school on Friday and there are no weapons that are part of costumes allowed at school. Students are invited to bring a special treat for themselves, but please do not send any treats for other students in the class.

Have a wonderful weekend and see everyone on Monday morning in their formal uniforms!

October 12th - 15th

 

Welcome to this week's blog. I hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend with their families. 

This has been a busy week in the classroom. In mathematics we have focused on representing three digit numbers using the standard form, written form, expanded form, Base Ten blocks, addition and subtraction sentences to show our understanding. Students haven also been exploring increasing or growing patterns and the importance of being specific if you are writing out the pattern rules. We have looked at patterns with shapes, numbers and recently, movement patterns that increase. Next week, the students will be sharing their movement patterns that they created with their partners with the rest of the class.

In Writing, we are looking at using our 6 Senses (including feelings) to write about what we might experience on a fall walk. The students were brainstorming the various sights, sounds, activities and feelings we have during this season of autumn.

In Science, the students continued to explore the classifications of animals while looking at the characteristics of reptiles and amphibians. Students also tried their hand at creating What Animal Am I riddles to share with their classmates by giving them clues as to what specific type of animal were they talking about. There were so very interesting creatures shared over the past couple of days!

In Social Studies, students have been taking their understandings of land, the climate and resources founds in the country of India. Students have been creating their own brochures to share their information with others, including the regions found in the country, how long it takes to get there from Calgary and the resources that can be found or grown in the country. 

In Art, we are looking at creating art pieces using various 2D shapes and then connected it to math and recording the number of shapes we used and creating a graph based on it.

Have a wonderful long weekend and see everyone back at school on Tuesday morning.