Weekly News - Feb 11th

Week of Feb. 11-15

We finally have a full week of school. The students all enjoyed The Global Day of Play on Friday. They played board games, built forts, and acted like kids all afternoon. It was a joy to watch. Hopefully they told you all about it.

This week begins on a day 1

After School Activities begin today!

This Thursday is Free Dress Day. Please bring RM5 and dress in Red and Pink…Valentine’s Day Colors.

Reading Students will continue to analyze different fiction books with our class book clubs. We will be focusing on characters and how they change throughout stories. We will continue reading “Because of Winn Dixie,” a wonderful tale of a girl and her dog.

Writing The focus this week will be on the students finishing their persuasive essays and celebrating their writing. We will also be writing an on-demand post assessment seeing all their improvement in persuasive writing. We are beginning our unit on Fairy Tale Writing. So if you have a favorite Fairy Tale from your culture please send it in.

Math We will continue our multiplication and area unit. This week’s focus will be on multiplication and area. We will begin using square units to measure area, solve real-world problems dealing with area, and continue to reinforce our addition/subtraction/multiplication/division facts. Please continue to help your child practice these at home!

Social Studies The grade three classes will be looking at how location, social structure, and technology impacted ancient civilizations. This week the students will be choosing a civilization to study independently.

February 11-15. Choose 2 activities to complete before Friday to share in class.

Math: Roll 2 dice to find the factors (3, 7) Multiply and make an array or area model to find the product. Repeat until your products add to 100.	Language arts: Would you rather be an archeologist or a veterinarian? Give reasons and say more to explain.	Language arts: Write a story where the villain is actually a hero.
Math: Give an example of a home (do it yourself)  project where you would need to know area. Explain the project to someone at home and write some note in your home learning journal	Social Studies Write down three factors that are important to a successful civilization.	Other: Make a grocery list of things needed for a meal your family is eating this week. Then, go and get those items with an adult. After, make that meal!

Remember: Reading is just what we do. It is expected each night.

Weekly News - 7th Feb

Week of Feb. 7-8

We only have two days of school this week, but we will be working hard throughout those two days. The students all enjoyed watching the rugby on Thursday. Hopefully they inspired the third graders to compete in IASAS events when they are in high-school.

Today we have Matt Holm visiting. He is the author/illustrator or Baby Mouse and Squish.

Have a great short week!

This week begins on a day 7

Reminder: Play Day on Friday afternoon.

***This Friday afternoon, grade 3 will participate in Global School Play Day. Students can bring a toy or game (no electronic items) to school that they would be willing to share with others: a board game, blankets for building a fort, toys to share that don't have batteries, anything they want, etc. The purpose of the day is raising awareness about the necessity of unstructured play. Please click on the Global School Play Day website to learn more about it!***

“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.”

-Plato

Reading Students will continue to focus on characters in fiction stories and how we get to know different characters. We will start reading “Because of Winn Dixie,” a wonderful tale of a girl and her dog.

Writing The focus this week will be on the students finishing their persuasive essays and celebrating their writing. Then the students will be convincing the school and their families to: get them a pet, bring shade to the playground, buy them a new phone, a class pet, etc…

Math We will continue our multiplication and area unit. This week’s focus will be on multiplication and area. We will begin using square units to measure area, solve real-world problems dealing with area, and continue to reinforce our addition/subtraction/multiplication/division facts. Please continue to help your child practice these at home!

Social Studies This week we will be investigating timelines and how they help us to understand the events that have happened in the past. Students will be plotting important events from their chosen Ancient Civilisation on a timeline.

Weekly News - Jan 28th

Week of January 28th-Feb. 1

We had a fantastic week of learning in grade 3! As we launched our Ancient Civilization unit, students took on the role of an archaeologist and looked at many different ancient artifacts trying to uncover information about the item. What were they used for? How does it help us understand more about the people from that time period? Students were asking great questions, making connections, and creating stories to explain their reasoning. We had a welcome assembly for the 40 new students in elementary school. The teachers danced while the students cheered. We also heard from a very interesting author named Matt Dickinson. He hiked to the top of Mt. Everest and told us all about it. He is a great story-teller. Here are some photos from the week.

Our mathematics unit on Multiplication and Division ended and we are beginning our unit on area.

This week begins on a day 3

Reminder: No school this Friday.

Reading Students will continue to analyze different fiction books with our class book clubs. We will be determining what makes a quality children’s book. In addition to that all of grade three will soon begin reading “Because of Winn Dixie,” a wonderful tale of a girl and her dog. We will be learning all about characters by studying the main character, Opal.

Writing Students will continue writing persuasive speeches. The focus this week will be on gathering and organizing information about their opinion. We will also be working on elaborating our writing by proving through showing rather than telling their reader.

Math This week’s focus will be on multiplication and area. We will begin using square units to measure area, solve real-world problems dealing with area, and continue to reinforce our addition/subtraction/multiplication/division facts. Please continue to help your child practice these at home!

Social Studies As we dive deeper into our ancient civilizations unit we will take a closer look at the different features of successful civilizations. The classes will be looking  at how location impacted ancient civilizations. Then students will be choosing a civilization to study independently.

January 28th- Feb. 1st- Choose 2 activities to complete before Thursday to share in class.

Math: Create a math game to practice multiplication and division facts AND teach someone at your house how to play!	Language arts: Write a short persuasive essay on why it is important to study ancient people and civilizations.	Language arts: Create a comic or write a short story that takes place long, long ago.
Math: Take a walk with a family member this week. Make up some multiplication problems with what you see on your walk. Write them in your home learning journals when you get home	Social Studies Make a timeline of the important things that have happened in your life.	Other: Try building  an object (using household materials) that does not float, but does not sink all the way to the bottom of the container. Write observations in your home-learning journal and/or take pictures and email them  to your teacher.

Remember: Reading is just what we do. It is expected each night.

Weekly News - Jan 21st

Week of January 21st-25th

Happy New Year! It was so much fun seeing all of the kids this past week and reconnecting as a class. I hope that you all had a relaxing and rejuvenating holiday. All of the kids were excited about seeing their friends, sharing stories, and getting back into a class routine.

With a new year, we talked a lot about setting goals and resolutions.

We started our persuasive writing unit and the kids are all excited to convince others in the class, in the school, and perhaps at home. So please be prepared for all of the persuading that might be happening this month. We are all very excited for a fabulous second semester and we welcome many new families to our third grade community…especially the 5 new students in 3JH. Please reach out and help them all feel welcome!

Here are some photos from our archeology cookie challenge.

This week begins on a day 6.

Reading We are starting a whole class book club this week and will be learning all about what a book club is. We will be discussing all the different jobs there are such as Summarizer, Questioner, Predictor, Connector, Artist, etc…

Writing Students will continue writing persuasive pieces. We will be looking at different strategies to collect ideas. We will consider our audience to include our most persuasive reasons. As we get back into our writing routines, we will focus on editing and revising as we go to ensure our readers understand.

Math We will continue our multiplication and division unit. We will continue to work with multiplication and division using real world stories and events.  Please continue to reinforce your child’s addition/subtraction/multiplication/division facts. Continue to help your child practice these at home!

Social Studies We are launching our People of the Past Unit, which is a study of ancient civilizations. We will be taking a deeper look into how we learn about the past and how the past continues to influence us today. If any of you have any expertise in this area, we would love to have you share this with the kids!

January 21st-25th - Choose 2 activities to complete before Friday to share in class.

Math: Make up one division story and one multiplication story using the numbers 36, 48, 8, 6, 9, or 3.	Language arts: Write an opinion piece about your favorite book. Be sure to include examples, facts, and reasons to support your opinion as to why this book is THE BEST BOOK EVER!	Language arts: Write a creative story or poem and include the word artefact in it.
Math: Practice your math facts (Addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division).	Social Studies Look around your house, find something from long ago. Take a picture and be ready to share with the class…or take a picture of anything and pretend it’s from long ago and be ready to tell the class a fun story about it.	Other: What can you create using a recyclable water bottle? Make something or draw some of your ideas in your home learning journal.

Remember: Reading is just what we do. It is expected each night.

Week of December 17th - December 21st

It was a fantastic week this week! We would like to say a huge thank you to all of our parent volunteers for another AMAZING Christmas Around the World! We all loved it. Take a look at all the pictures from the event here.

This week will also be a busy one for G3! We will be testing water using the water filters that we designed, and we will discuss how this relates to human impact on an ecosystem.

On Thursday, December 20th we have the grade 3 learning celebration. This is a time for the kids to share the work they are proud of with you. It will begin at 8:45 and last about 30 minutes. We hope that you can attend. If you would like to bring a nut free, trash free and healthy treat to share with the class, please do, however do not feel that it is required.

Save the date for these upcoming events:

Thursday, December 14th- Learning Share 8:45-9:15

Friday, December 21st - Last day of Semester 1

Monday, January 14th - First day of Semester 2 (Day 1)

Worm Holiday Care If you are going to be around over the holiday break and would be willing to take care of our compost worms, please let me know. We promise they take very little care and don’t smell (that bad)!

This week begins on a day 1

Reading Students will continue to read a variety of biographies and teach other what they learn.

Writing Students will be adding the final touches to their information books. They will also be reflecting on their first semester and create blog posts to share.

Math Students will continue to work on multiplication and division problems and thinking of all the different ways they can solve a problem.

Science Students will be testing their water filters in the lab. We will discuss how this connects to human impact on an ecosystem.

This week instead of home learning, here are some ideas of things the kids can do over the December break.

I would like to thank you for a wonderful 1st semester, it has been such a pleasure working with all of your children. Enjoy the holiday, I look forward to hearing all about it in January!

Weekly News: Dec 10th - 14th

This week in grade 3 students explored the different adaptations that plants have which help them to survive. We discovered these through a plant dissection. We loved taking a look at all of the flower parts, especially the pollen, under our digital microscopes!

It was fantastic to see a sneak peak of the elementary show. Performers did a great job and looked very confident in their roles.

Here are some photos from the week.

Christmas Around the World is on Thursday, December 13th. Students are encouraged to wear red or green on this day.

Save the date:

Thursday, December 20th will be our learning celebration from 8:45 - 9:15. All parents are invited. Students will be super excited to share their information books with you.

This week begins on a day 6.

Reading Students build on their knowledge of nonfiction by taking a look at biographies. Students will compare how biographies are different from other forms of nonfiction writing, and discuss the author’s purpose.

Writing Students are continuing to revise and publish their information books. They will receive feedback from their peers to improve their writing.

Math Students will continue to work on multiplication problems and applying their prior knowledge and understanding of place value to help with multiplying groups of tens. Students are also developing an understanding of sharing and grouping as they represent division.

Science This week students will be looking into water filtration and how they can create their own filtration system to clean water.

Dec. 10-14th 2018- Choose 2 activities to complete before Friday to share in class.

Math: Show all the different ways you could solve these problems: Kate has 6 bags of apples. There are 12 apples in each bag. How many apples does she have. Shaun share 48 marbles with his 6 friends. How many marbles did they  get?	Language arts: Write a biography. This can be about your own life or about the life of a friend or relative.	Language arts: Write about a celebration that is important in your country. What do you do? What do you eat? What is special about it?
Math: Find some objects into your house to equally share in as many ways as possible. Take a photo of the groups you made to share with the class.	Science Take a scientific walk. Write down any observations you make and any wonderings you have.	Other: Invent a game you can play outside. Write down the rules and play it with a friend or family member.

Remember: Reading is just what we do. It is expected each night.

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Weekly News - 3rd December

Week of December 3rd - December 7th

Greetings,

We have had a great week in Grade 3 with lots of science experiments happening. Students started to explore how animal adaptations help them to survive by experimenting with blubber in icy water. Each class also received their own worm bin to observe worms in action over the coming weeks. Check out the photos from the week here.

Next week we will have the opportunity to see the Elementary Holiday Concert. We will be going to watch our talented classmates perform on Wednesday morning, and will be having an adjusted morning recess and snack time.

This week begins on a day 1.

Reading Students will be applying their informational reading skills and will become an expert on a topic that interests them. They will need to find the main idea and supporting details and use these to teach others.

Writing Students are entering the final stages of the writing process by revising their information books and beginning to publish. They will be excited to share these with you.

Math Students will continue to work on multiplication problems and applying  their prior knowledge and understanding of place value to help with multiplying groups of tens. Students are also developing an understanding of sharing and grouping as they represent division.

Science Students will continue to investigate how animals adapt to survive. They will also explore how human impact can affect an ecosystem in both a positive and negative way.

Dec. 3-7th 2017- Choose 2 activities to complete before Friday to share in class.

Math: Teach someone at home how to play one of the multiplication math games you have been learning.	Language arts: Ask your parents to read a story or a chapter to you. This can be done in your home language. What did you read? What did you like about having read aloud time?	Language arts: Write a creative story in your home learning journal. Have an animal be the main character.
Math: Practice your basic multiplication facts (1-10).	Science If you could chose, what animal adaptation(s)  would you like to have? Draw a diagram of what you would look like and how your adaptations would help you in life.	Other: Build a fort and play a game or read a book in your fort.

Remember: Reading is just what we do. It is expected each night.