Sunshine! It has been SO wonderful to get outside this week and be able to enjoy some warmer weather. Here's hoping it continues! This week we continued to practice the stacked strategy in math. We are also working a lot on problem solving. Students have been working on solving problems as independently as they can and trying their best. We have been trying out different types of word problems, including more open ended problems that have more than one answer. Our building unit continued this week and this time students had a whole class challenge: build the tallest, most stable structure possible using 100 red plastic cups. We worked together and tried different ideas out until we realized it needed a strong base. This seemed to be the winning idea! We discussed that stable structures have strong bases, or solid foundations. I wonder if this will be a helpful part of our future challenges? We spent a lot of time this week on different Social Studies activities. We started our week learning more about history of Machu Picchu and doing a sketch of the Machu Picchu site. To further our learning about Peru we learned about the importance of the llama in Peruvian culture and the art of weaving. We are going to continue this learning next week. This week the grade three's had the unique opportunity to video conference with Naleem, a member of the Dutch government who works with the UN. We learned all about what the UN is and what they do in the world. We also learned about the areas that Naleem works in: climate and water. Students were surprised to learn about how many people in the world do not have access to clean drinking water. It was so awesome to see how engaged everyone was in this and the questions they came up with to ask Naleem were very insightful. We continued all of our literacy routines this week, including literature circles, journal writing and words their way spelling.
Next week will be an exciting one as we head out on our first field trip of the year to the National Music Center! Please keep your eye on emails for more information about what your child needs to bring on Tuesday. Music: Genre of the Week- This week we will be exploring the genre and cultural phenomenon of Hip Hop. We will be taking a look at the five cornerstones of the Hip Hop movement: MCs, DJs, Break Dancing, Graffiti Art, and Knowledge. I hope everyone has an excellent weekend! Ms.Brett It seems like maybe, just maybe, spring has finally arrived. The warmer weather meant we were able to get outside, not just for breaks, but for Science too! It is so nice to see how much everyone enjoys learning outdoors. We went outside for Science twice this week, both times to try some building challenges. On Tuesday we joined Ms.Patton's class for a snow themed building challenge. Students had to build snowballs of different sizes and used rulers to measure and make sure they achieved the exact measurements required. They also had to build snowmen of different heights, finishing with the tallest snowman they could build! We also completed our egg drop challenge outside. After designing and building a structure to keep an egg safe on Monday , we tested out structures on Thursday. There was a good mix of structures that worked well or not at all, and everything in between. We will be continuing to learn about the design process and how that can be used when we are building next week.
We finally finished our Social/Art project this week. Students added their final layer of wax and painted the top layer onto their pysanky art and then we used an iron to lift off the wax layers, leaving behind beautiful designs! This process mimicked the process that is used when creating real Ukrainian pysanky eggs. We also started looking at a famous Peruvian site- Machu Picchu. We will continue learning about the lost city of the Inca people in the next couple of weeks. Literacy this week was mainly focused around starting our literature circles. As a class we are all reading Fantastic Mr.Fox by Roald Dahl for our first round of literature circles. Before reading each chapter students make predictions and during reading they record any words they find that are either new or good descriptive words. After each chapter, each student is responsible for completing comprehension activities. These include summarizing, illustrating, making connections, and asking questions. In addition to literature circles we continue to work on writing through our journal writing, I hope many of you were able to take a look at our writing rubric during student led conferences to see what we are working towards with out writing in grade 3. In Math we continued to look at subtraction with regrouping this week. We practiced a lot, and even tried out some word problems using our stacked strategy to solve them. It has been great to see how much everyone is growing in their ability and confidence with this strategy. This strategy becomes easier with practice and the more students practice, the more easily they will remember the correct steps for solving equations. Next week we will start on addition! It was great to see everyone this week, thank you to everyone who came and visited our classroom and were able to see what we have been working on. Also, thank you so much to everyone for their flexibility and understanding with the saga of the music center forms! I think we are all sorted out finally! I hope everyone enjoys the sunshine this weekend! Ms.Brett It was awesome to see all of the great swimmers we have in room 74! Thank you to parents for helping to make this week of swimming a success. We had great volunteers at the pool everyday, and all of the behind the scenes organization happening at home every night to ensure everyone came with a dry towel and bathing suit everyday was very much appreciated. Swimming was a very major part of our week, but we did manage to squeeze in some academic work! In Math we jumped into subtracting with regrouping. This is trickier, but it has been great to see the determination and perseverance as we continue to practice this skill. We will continue to practice this next week, before moving on to addition. Here are some to try: We combined Social Studies and Art this week to continue our pysanky project. Students have been very patient with the slow process of applying wax and adding layers of paint. If all goes as planned we will have our final product on display next week for conferences.
We were able to do some writing and reading this week as well. We did not get to our spelling tests, so we will get caught up at the beginning of next week. Next week is student led conferences. Please bring your child with you so that they can show you some of the different activities we do in class. There will be stations/ activities for you to do together. One of the stations will be a time to see me, at a pre booked time. Enjoy a sunny weekend! Ms.Brett Dear parents and guardians,
Given the tragedy in Humboldt, Saskatchewan this past weekend, we will be remembering the victims and survivors by participating in Jersey Day on April 12th. Students are encouraged to wear their jersey. They may wear a jersey of any kind. If your child does not have a jersey but would still like to participate, they are encouraged to wear green or yellow. All schools in the CBE will be flying flags at half-mast to remember until Thursday. Our hearts go out to all of the families impacted by this tragedy. I hope everyone had a great Spring Break! It was awesome to hear about all the adventures that so many of you went on over the break. The weather in Calgary seems to be confused about what time of year it is, but we are moving right along inside! We started lots of new things this week and even though it's took us a few days to remember what classroom expectations are, we seem to be back on track! We jumped into a new science unit this week with a building challenge. Students were put into pairs and received 10 marshmallows and 30 pieces of spaghetti. Their challenge was to try to build the tallest structure they could. It was hard, but it was a great way to start thinking about building materials and structures. Over the next month or so we will be testing different materials, determining what different materials are good for, the design process and all about different structures. It should be a fun unit with lots of hands on experiments and many more building challenges to come! Here are some pictures of our first challenge: We have also started learning a new strategy in math. The Stacked Strategy (or the traditional algorithm) is what many of us grew up learning and for many is the only strategy we ever learned! We have started with subtraction and are beginning with the basics. This week we worked on problems that do not require regrouping (or borrowing and carrying as we learned it) and next week we will start to learn how to regroup. Some of the rules we have learned so far for subtraction: - The bigger number has to be on top - ALWAYS start with the ones place (on the right) - Move to the tens next, and then to the hundreds I know many students are somewhat familiar with this strategy, but we are going to work through it slowly to ensure everyone has a solid understanding of how to use the strategy properly and effectively. Here are some you can try at home: We also jumped back into our literacy routine this week, working on our journal writing, getting new spelling words and practicing our reading. In Social Studies we are taking a closer look at Ukrainian traditions. Since Easter is a very important celebration in the Ukraine, we looked at the Easter tradition of Pysankys this week. Pysankys are decorated easter eggs that are made in the Ukraine. We learned about how to make them, the symbols on them and what the different colors represent. We are starting an art project based on this traditional Ukrainian tradition.
Music: Artist of the Week: Elton JohnThis week we will be focusing on the pop rock icon who used his phenomenal piano skills to revolutionize the “rock ballad”. Important Information: Next week is swimming! We are swimming Monday-Thursday. Please send your child with their swim gear (bathing suit & towel) in a separate bag every day. Book orders are coming home today, they are due back on Friday, April 13. Parent Teacher Interviews are April 19(evening) & 20 (morning). These will be student led interviews so students must attend with parents. Students will have things to show you at your leisure and then you will be able to meet with me at a specific time to discuss academic progress. Please note these meetings will be in the classroom at the same time as other families are in the room. If there is something that you would like to discuss privately please let me know and we will arrange an alternative time to meet. I hope everyone has a great weekend! Ms.Brett |
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