Enjoy!

Enjoy your family time together - travel safe whether you are going across the city to visit grandma or traveling to destinations far and wide.

Report cards went home today.  Please read it with your child.  They are the expert and know all about their personal learning.

See you January 8, 2018

Raz Kids

Thanks for the boots, mitts, hats and snow pants for recess today - makes being outside a ton of fun!!

We continued with our reading and writing about reindeer today - we have become reindeer experts.

Your student will bring home their log in information for Raz Kids tomorrow - if you are looking for a little quiet time over the break it is a great way to get in some reading and work on comprehension. Look for their card to be in their backpack.

Report cards will come home tomorrow.

PD day Friday December 22

I can research questions and draw conclusions

"I can research questions and draw conclusions" was our mission this afternoon as all your students worked to determine the meaning of tinnitus, what causes it and determine what I can do to get some relief.  There are some excellent researchers in this class and they found out a lot of interesting things.  But, I am still not very hopeful that there is an end in sight.  This was the beginning of our new science unit, Sound and Hearing.  Sort of a fun way to introduce the unit to be detectives and solve a real problem right from the start.

Our work continues with paragraph writing.  We have been working on the basics of paragraphs - that they are 4 -5 sentences long, all on the same topic, they begin with a topic sentence and include supporting sentences.  We wrote paragraphs about addition today - to explain what it is.  Ask your child how their writing went in math.

Estimation was the subtraction strategy we used today.  We found it to be an easy way to subtract double digits.  We used the rule we learned several weeks ago for rounding and applied it.  Rounding each number to the nearest 10 makes for simple subtraction because we also know about zero the hero and how he holds his place.

As you can see there is still a lot of work going on in the classroom although we all have our eye on that calendar!!

Looks like the weather is changing please ensure your child is dressed to be outside.  I have collected a lot of mitts and hats in the last couple of days none of which have names in them and mostly they are all black.  Help your child to recognize their own clothing by putting their name on items.

No school for students Friday December 22

I can subtract 2 digit numbers and explain my strategy

I can subtract 2 digit numbers and explain my strategy."
It's the explain part that trip most of us up.   Just giving me the answer is not good enough in grade 3.  The steps must be explained so we talk about the different ways to subtract.  Use a number line, hundreds chart, decompose, round and estimate, algorithm.  This morning we practiced with a partner writing the strategies we were using to subtract.  A variety is always nice.

Reindeer are interesting animals and we continue to learn all about them and work at centres to show our work.  We used video today and added to our tree map.  Ask your child how to tell the difference between a male and female reindeer.

SNAKE

Thanks to everyone who came out and supported us last night!

'Wild Christmas Reindeer' by Jan Brett is the mentor text we are using this week.  We enjoyed the story and then discovered it was full of simple and compound sentences.  Everyone used their own book and dug through it for examples of simple and compound sentences.  This morning we watched a couple of videos about reindeer and added facts to our tree map.  Then the fun began.  We started a round of centre all about reindeer.  We are reading for facts, pulling out vocabulary, writing responses and determining facts and opinions.  Ask your child what centre they were at today.

We continue to add two digit numbers and talk about our strategies.  The answer is not the key part of the equation.  How you got there is key.  Students must be able to tell me the strategies they used to find the sum.  We have discovered a new game called SNAKE.  Very engaging and I have discovered this classroom is full of chickens!

Pillars of Care assembly tomorrow at 8:15.  Congratulations to Sadie, Nelson and Haseeb and all the students being recognized for being at school on time every day in December (there are 11 students in this class receiving book marks)

Test return

Your student is bringing home their math test and Rocks and Minerals test from last week.  Please sign and return those papers.  This is an excellent opportunity for revisions to be made - looking at what the thinking was and where the error was made.  Particularly with the math test I found that mistakes were most often a result of not reading the whole question.

Scholastic book orders are due tomorrow.

Grade 3 concert night is Wednesday December 13 - doors will open at 6 and the concert will begin at 6:30 pm.

Winter Celebration

PD day tomorrow December 8

Winter Celebration Wednesday December 13 @ 6:30 pm
No tickets required - Food Bank donation taken at the door.

Commutative Property

Observation of things in a picture continued today in the small group.  Observe and wonder has been modeled to the whole group, we've worked in the small group and tomorrow students will work independently with their own picture. Using the skills of observe and wonder will help them to ask thoughtful questions about what is happening and also to organize information in different ways.

Read 20/10 should be a snap tonight since we all went to the library this morning and everyone has something new to read.

We practiced adding numbers on the number line - also with making of 10 to make a friendly number to work with.  Commutative property was introduced - changing the order of the addends does not change the result  i.e.: 2+3=5 and 3+2=5

Book orders due Tuesday December 12

Observing

We've been looking carefully at pictures from India to help us learn about observing what is in a picture.  We then wonder about the picture, thinking about what we do not know but would like to know.  Students are encouraged to ask questions that will deepen their understanding about what is going on.  Today we added making an inference and trying to figure out what information is not presented to us that would be important.  In the next couple of days students will work with their own pictures in the same manner.

We started addition with double digits this morning.  Students will need to know how to use several different strategies and explain what they are doing.  Today we started with a number line skip counting to add.  Over the course of the next couple of days several strategies will be presented and students will work with the one they feel most comfortable.

Scholastic book orders due Tuesday December 12
PD day Friday December 8

Shooting Hoops

Did you know there was a super moon this morning??🌕🌕
I do!!
What do shooting hoops and math have to do with each other?  Well, a lot actually.  We are learning how to play basketball in gym right now so we decided to collect data on how many baskets we can make and graph the information.  Then we wrote in our math journals how the information might be helpful for a basketball scout looking to put people onto their team.  Great fun.  We accomplished a lot.
Last week we read 'The Raft' where a lot of animals visit a boy on his raft during the summer.  Today everyone got a non-fiction piece of writing about one of those animals and we completed a four quadrants of thought organizer.  After reading the information students made notes of important facts, looked up the bold word from their reading in the dictionary, drew a picture and asked questions.  It is a lot of work and we will continue tomorrow.  Making jot notes is the hard part as there is always that need to copy the authors words exactly.

School calendar sent home today.

Science Test tomorrow

We worked really hard today to wrap up our Rocks and Minerals unit and prepare for THE TEST tomorrow.  Students have their science notebooks to go through tonight and I suggested if they were keen they could watch Bill Nye and The Magic School Bus on Youtube again tonight.  They should be able to tell you:

- uses for rocks and minerals

- how rocks break into soil

- describe a rock by its color, lustre, texture, and hardness

- describe the parts of soil

- how rocks change

- the rock cycle

Rocks and Rolls

Visiting with Mrs. Paolini is the best part of our Wednesday.  Every week.  Your student should be bringing new books home every week to read with you.  Read 20/10 everyday and then returning them to school on Tuesdays to get new books.  We have lots of great titles in our library and I am more than happy to help find new things to read.

Magic School Bus is always a student favorite!  We looked at Rocks and Rolls today and then tested our rocks for hardness.  Some rocks were very soft and could be scratched by a mere fingernail, other rocks were soft and could be scratched by a penny.  If a metal nail scratched our rock it was considered medium and a glass scratch makes our rock hard.  Tomorrow we will do a vinegar test for the presence of sea creatures that died long ago!  Science test - Rocks and Minerals will happen Friday morning.

Counting Frames

Nelson shared his counting frames with us today after we read, "The Warlord's Beads."  We were all fascinated by his knowledge of a simple way to quickly and accurately count larger numbers.  We talked about the efficiency of the base 10 system but also questioned if we could use a base 2 system.  The story itself gave us a look at the history of the abacus while telling us how they could be helpful.

We tried a new method for gathering information from a nonfiction text today.  We used the acronym PEEK - P is for reading the picture, E is for each heading, E is for ending - good information is given at the end, K for what I know.  Each one is to prepare the brain for important information to come.  We then practiced using a graphic organizer and our social studies text books looking at a page about the traditions and celebrations of Tunisia, Ukraine, Peru or India.  Ask your child what they learned about the traditions of their country and what they will be teaching the rest of us.

We are trying to wrap up our science unit on Rocks and Minerals and finishing centre work up.  We will be having a science test.  Check with your child and see how they are feeling about their science work.

Mavericks are selling Kernels Popcorn at lunch time - $2.00 a bag goes toward their fundraiser.

Mathman Rounding

The website Mathman Rounding was being played during math this morning on the Smartboard - it appealed to a lot of the children and they wanted to play at home.  It can be set to round numbers to the nearest 10, 100 and 1000.  Sit with your child as they play and see what they know about rounding numbers.
We used a number line to round numbers today - keeping in mind the strategy of the poem we learned yesterday.  Children were then rolling dice and rounding the numbers to the nearest 10 or 100.

We've noticed that nonfiction books, such as our social studies text book and the rocks and minerals books we've read, have a lot of information in them and sometimes it is difficult to determine the important information.  Good readers are able to sort the information and figure out what is most important.  We were given six items to take camping - a sleeping bag, a deck of cards, a flashlight, lipstick, T.V. remote and an umbrella.  Students were to determine which was very important, kind of important and not important at all and provide a reason.  Part of the challenge is to convince me that they have made the right choices.  We will play games like this in several different ways several different times to help students determine importance.

Pillars of Care Assembly Friday @ 8:15 - congratulations to Sadie, Yoyo and Tahseen

I'm off to Ottawa tonight for the Grey Cup so a substitute will be here tomorrow and Monday.  I will be back Tuesday to send you all the news of the classroom.

Go Stamps GO!

Introduction to Rounding

'I can round numbers to the nearest 10 or 100.' is the math strategy we worked on today.  It is the beginning step for creating personal strategies for addition and subtraction - if you can round a number to a more 'friendly' number to work with it will make things easier.  Ask your child if they found the chant we learned helpful for rounding.

Four or less,

let it rest. 

Round down.

Five or more, 

Raise the score 

Round up!

We talked and wrote about our personal family traditions and customs and then tomorrow we will look at traditions and customs in other countries.

We read a great new story today called 'The Raft' - we looked at it for how the character changes, all the animals that appear on the raft and the relationship between the boy and his grandmother.  Everyone had some word work to do afterward.

Sticker math homework tonight.  Due back tomorrow
Fun lunch tomorrow

Zones of Regulation

The four zones of regulation were introduced this afternoon to help students describe how their brain and body feel.  We created an anchor chart together of each zone, blue, green, yellow and red with a short description of each zone.  We then played a game of charades and acted out an emotion - guessing which zone they were from.  Teachers at Beddington are using the zones to help students with their peer relationships and understand their own personal feelings.  This will be work we carry on all year.

Everyone started with a series of numbers this morning in math.  If they were in order from greatest to least correctly they were put under the TRUE label if not we put them under the FALSE label.  We looked at our data and found WAY more were under the false label so we looked for other ways we could sort the numbers.  Some of us then played Deal It with a partner to compare numbers while others used computers or wrote riddles on ordering numbers.

A good first impression is important for an author to hook their readers and get them interested in their work.  We spent time working on getting our stories finished and editing them.

Pillars of Care assembly Friday @ 8:15

I can construct, label and interpret bar graphs.

Everyone was randomly dealt a playing card to begin our math lesson.  We then created a bar graph in the pocket chart by the suits - hearts, spades, club, and diamonds to answer the question:
"Which suit did you draw?"
Everyone then colored their own graph to match the data on the class graph and answered a few questions.  A journal entry was written with 3 things Mr. Hebert could learn by reading our bar graph and 1 question he might still have.  We were then all exhausted and went for lunch!

First Impression - a writer needs to make a good first impression on their readers so the reader will want to read on!  Students shared the opening sentence of the books they have been reading and we noticed that authors make a good first impression with:

• a problem
• conversation
• fact
• a question
• action
• a sound

and then we went off to practice by writing our own first impressions in a story written by us!

"Which earth material will absorb water the best?"

We started science this morning with the question; "Which earth material will absorb water the best?"  Using the scientific model for experiments (because we are scientists😉) first we made a prediction about the earth material (clay, gravel, sand or soil) we thought would absorb water the best.  Everyone wrote in their notebooks a prediction and voted on the class chart.  Soil was the winner during predictions.  Ask your child which earth element they predicted.  We used inverted water bottles and put each earth material into the neck of the water bottle and added 1/2 cup of water.  We watched all the water pour right through the gravel, the sand immediately went through before the water was even added, the soil didn't have room to hold the 1/2 cup and the clay held all the water added to it.  It was great fun and we learned a lot.  We will finish up our scientific writing of our results tomorrow.

If there are any geologists out there who would consider answering a few of our questions about rocks and soil we would love to have you as a guest in our classroom.

We shopped at the book fair for some new reading material.  Book fair will be open Thursday night and Friday morning during interview time so be prepared - some of us have wish lists!

Book orders due tomorrow
Fun Lunch order due Monday

I can recognize the various components of soil.

We read 'Dirt' by Steve Tomecek and pulled out facts about the components of soil.  We added our notes to the mind maps we started last week about sand, soil, gravel and clay.  We realized that Mr. Tomecek's book was not like the other nonfiction books we've read so far.  We are good readers and we noticed that he used cartoon drawings instead of photographs, there was no Table of Contents and there was not a glossary.  But, we liked how he gave us information that was easy to understand.  Tomorrow we will conduct and experiment using these four components of soil.

We used Mathletics during math today to practice our number sense.

Ask your child what station they went to in physical education today.

Fun Lunch orders went home today - due back THURSDAY
Book orders are due Thursday

3 Stars And A Wish

"I can help other people get their work done."
"I can run 12 laps of the gym."
"I can read musical notes."

So went our discussion about things we are good at.  We brainstormed all sorts of things we might be good at at school.  We then told our partner 3 things that we are good at in school.  Then we switched things around and talked about things we want to get better at.  My wish would be to ...
These are things we will share with you Thursday night or Friday morning.  Please be sure to book an interview time be going to the school website.

Sticker math this morning:

Sadie saw 22 chicken and sheep legs on

her way to the farm.  How many chicken 

and sheep did she see?

We started with 10 minutes of independent work.  Children could have circled the numbers.  Underlined the question.  Boxed the important words.  To help themselves get started.  They could have used pictures, numbers or words or a combination of all three.  They could have talked with a partner after the 10 minutes was up to see what they were doing.  They could have joined me at the carpet to go over a plan to get going.  Ask your child how they solved the problem.

Book orders due Thursday Nov. 16

Book a conference time on-line.

Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then

We used non-fiction text to add to our notes about sand today as we work towards being able to identify the properties of soil.  We found out that sand can be many colors including black!  Ask your child why sand might be black.

We continued to compare numbers today - everyone was rolling there own numbers with the math dice.  Choice was made by each child if they were going to roll tens, hundreds or thousands.  We are getting very good at using the greater than and less than signs.  Now we need further work on reading them!

We began a summary of Princess Hyacinth using a graphic organizer of: Somebody, Wanted, But, So, Then to help us include the important details of the story.  We also re-read the story looking specifically for those elements.

Rememberance Day Assembly @ 10:30 tomorrow
Donations accepted for poppies
Wear service uniform

Comparing Numbers

We started comparing numbers today using greater than and less than symbols.  We worked all together to compare numbers and read the symbols and also created an anchor chart together to remember how to read the symbols.  Tomorrow we will practice on our own.

We looked at four different earth elements - sand, clay, soil and gravel and created mind maps to describe each one.  Tomorrow we will add to what we know when we read for information from non-fiction text.

Domino contractions was our game today.  We learned about two words coming together to make a new word and an apostrope taking the place of the letters that were dropped.  We are very good at recognizing contractions.

Remembrance Day service Friday @ 10:30 donations can be brought for the Poppy Fund.
Service uniforms can be worn by our Brownies and Cubs.

What makes a story a fairy tale?

Lockdown practice happened in our building around 9 this morning.  We did well as a large group sitting in a small space for about 20 minutes.  Ask your child how they felt during the drill.

Sticker math was a bit difficult this morning.  It involved three steps and three digit numbers.  Students will be working for 10 minutes before they can ask a question from now on.  They all know  to help themselves get going they must first read the question, then read the question again, circle the numbers, underline the question and box the important words and make a plan to get started.  Teaching them persistence when the going gets tough they must also have a question, not 'I don't get it' when they come to me.  I've told them it is not my job to tell them the answer but rather encourage them in their plan to answer the question.  I will ask them questions "Why do you think that will work?"  "How do you know that is the answer?"  To get them thinking like the math experts they are.

We had a friendly little competition in table groups to come up with all the elements a reader would find in a fairy tale.  Interesting answers to "What makes a story a fairy tale?" then we brainstormed all the fairy tales we knew.  Moving into reading the story, "Princess Hyacinth" we looked at it's fairy tale elements and completed a graphic organizer.

"Why do we wear a poppy?"

"Why do we wear a poppy?" was the question we explored this afternoon.  We had a look at a couple short videos to try and find the answer.  We found out that we wear a poppy to remember.  We wear a poppy because it was the flower that grew in the battlefields of WWI.  We wear a poppy for the people who gave their lives so we may have our freedoms.  In preparation for Friday's assembly we each made a poppy that will go onto our class wreath.  The students who belong to a service group (Brownies, Cubs, Cadet, Forest Rangers) are invited to wear their dress uniforms to take part in the service which will begin at 10:30 am.

Bill Nye the Science Guy is a favorite of all children in science.  Today we had a look at 'Rocks and Soil' and then answered 4 questions from the video.  We are working on answering in complete sentences and using capitals and periods properly.

We are getting really good at using place value to describe numbers.  Today some of us worked on representing numbers in different ways while others used Mathletics.  Just a reminder that Mathletics and Xtramath are available for students to use at home and are excellent practice.

Read 20/10

Boots✔
Snowpants✔
Toque✔
Mittens✔
Winter coat✔
All with names put in them please!!  My coat room is already bursting with winter clothing that appears to belong to no one.  PLEASE.  PLEASE.  PLEASE.  Put your child's name on their things.

Learning Plans

The learning plans that we will share with you at interview time on November 16 and 17 are well under way.  We started with a short video called "Soar" so we could talk about setting goals and the strategies that will help us accomplish that goal.  Ask your child about their literacy goal.

Beddington is currently collecting donations for the veterans food bank and toothbrushes for The Drop in Centre.

There is also a great competition going on for the worst mustache  - votes are each a loonie

Have a great weekend - stay warm

Our day was super productive!!  We accomplished a lot - especially considering it is November 1.

We have been using 'Finding Winnie' as our mentor text this week and we have enjoyed learning how Winnie-The-Pooh came to be.  We watched a short video today on how the books by A.A. Milne were taken by Mr. Walt Disney and turned into a famous cartoon.  Then, we re-read part of the book and pulled out the verbs, past, present and future.  We are pretty good at recognizing a verb.  Everyone then used their own books and did the same activity on their own.

Sticker math was a bit tricky this morning because a lot of us are finding it difficult to put our thinking into words on the paper.  The word explain causes many of us to panic.  I want my students to take a risk, deepen their curiosity and be up for a challenge not look to me to give them the answers in math.   Time is given for problem solving and we do struggle but it will be worth it in the end.  Support your child at home by making sure there are opportunities for play with blocks, and puzzles and games to help the math thinking along.

We visited Mrs. Paolini in the Learning Commons today so everyone has new reading material tonight.  Read 20/10.

Pause, Point and Proceed

Pause at the corner, point where you want to go, look all ways, look the driver in the eye and proceed when safe across the road.  Have a safe fun filled evening!!

The discussion got rather heated today as we ranked needs and wants.  You will be pleased that we all agreed things like candy, Netfliks, and Xbox are wants while we argued weather shelter or water was the most important need.  It really was a proud moment in the classroom!

Just a reminder that candy is a treat and not brain food.  Please keep the candy at home and the fruit and vegetables coming to school.  We also had a discussion about the sharing of food at school - please remember that we cannot be sharing food/candy.

Movember at Beddington

We held it together pretty well today, for October 30, but you will probably find your child has homework tonight.  It's very difficult to keep our attention focused when tomorrow brings better things.  Some of us are writing what Captain Coleburne meant when he said his heart and his head don't agree while others are trying to finish up number of the day.  Some of us have both pieces of work to finish and bring back tomorrow.

Last week we were comparing fiction and nonfiction texts.  We compared and contrasted their features in a venn diagram.  Today we paired up with a partner and created a dictionary page, focusing on one nonfiction text feature.  We will collect all the pages into a class dictionary that you can see when you come in November for Student Led Conferences.

Black and Orange day tomorrow 

Beddington Heights is showing we care by running a Movember competition to bring awareness to and raise funds for prostate cancer research. Most of our male staff members will be growing a moustache for the month of November. Students may vote all month as often as they like for who they feel has the worst moustache. The cost is $1.00 per vote. $5.00 = 5 votes etc. Mavericks will be set up in the gym at lunch on Tuesdays and Thursdays to collect votes. You may also give your vote to Mr. Sadowsky at any other time. All proceeds will be donated to the Movember foundation on behalf of Beddington Heights school. At the end of the month, the teacher with the most votes, therefore the worst moustache will come to work on December 1st with his hair dyed in a bright funky colour. If we raise $1,000.00 or more as a school, all the participants will dye their hair on December 1st. 

Let's show everyone how much Beddington cares.

Thank you for your support!

Participants: Mr. Hebert, Mr. Weins, Mr. Sadowsky, Mr. Lancee, Mr. Mueller, Mr. Shackelton, Mr. Softley, Mr. Berry, 

Mr. Mahon, Mr. Beechey, Mr. Jackson

Fiction vs. Non-Fiction

We put on our binoculars and zoomed in on the features of fiction and non-fiction books.  We compared Rocks and Minerals to You Got a Rock Charlie Brown and we found out many different features: non-fiction has photographs and a Table of Contents while fiction has drawn pictures and no page numbers.  We noticed that the fiction story had a beginning, middle and end so it must be read in order while non-fiction can be read in any order.  Tomorrow we will continue zooming in and look closer at the features of non-fiction such as captions, fact books, diagrams etc. because approaching non-fiction reading is different from being a reader of fiction.

Finding Winnie is a non-fiction story about how Winnie the Pooh came to be.  We had a look at the most famous bear today (including a couple of cute cartoons) and the non-fiction text features.  We found out that Winnie was a Canadian bear who went off to World War I with the Canadian army!  We had many questions when we were done reading and we wrote them all down for future reference.

Fun lunch tomorrow
Pillars of Care assembly Friday morning 8:15 am
Tuesday is orange and black day

Geology in room 11

"I can just tell this rock has a great story to tell!"

 Direct quote from a lovely child in room 11 this morning!!  Rock centers are well under way as we work like geologists and complete activities such as a rock interview, weight, using microscopes and reading for information.  Yesterday we read a poem about the layers of the earth.  First we talked about the parts of speech: nouns, verbs, pronouns and adjectives and what they are.  Then, we went through the poem looking for those parts of speech.  Next, we went outside with our own shovels (spoons) to gather earth materials.  Today we sorted those earth materials and compared them to the poem.  We actually were able to find a lot of the layers of earth.😀

I was out of the classroom this afternoon but children continued working on describing numbers in various ways.  They were rolling dice to create their own numbers writing, drawing and expanding that number.  Some worked with tens, some with hundreds and still others in the thousands.  We had a short math quiz yesterday and I will send home those papers tomorrow after we go over the questions for you to see what your child is able to do.

XtraMath/Mathletics and You

Xtramath is a computer program to help your child increase their basic facts confidence and knowledge.  It only takes a few minutes everyday to help your child build their math foundation.  A letter is coming home with your child today to explain the program and give you their pin.  We will use the website in our classroom everyday.  Basic facts are easily done in the car, waiting at a restaurant, while doing the dishes.  In grade 3 we are responsible for knowing up to 18 in addition and subtraction.  Ask your child 4+5? and have them mentally prepare the answer.  Ask them how they figured it out.  Ask them how they know their answer is right.

Mathletics is a website we used at school last year and your child is familiar.  They all have log in cards today that they can use at home to practice math content.  We will also use this website at school to supplement what we are doing in the classroom.

Both of these websites are great for practicing and when you want a little homework done in the evenings.  Don't forget reading 20/10 as well!!

Some of us have sticker math homework tonight - check with your child some of us did not even start.  Due back tomorrow please.

A Million Fish and place value

A Million Fish... more or less is the book we read this morning that used exaggeration to make the story more interesting.  The author also had the character leaving half behind all the time.  Half of a million, half of 500,000 and half of 10.  It led to a great discussion about the patterns of place value and how we can read a number even if we don't know its name.  Students then wrote their own exaggeration - ask your child what they wrote.

Narrative story writing this afternoon was the grade 3 SLA for today.  Everyone wrote a story about a place they would like to take a trip.  It was a chance to show off our skills as an author and artist if pictures were included to move the story along.  Tomorrow we will write our last SLA - the digital math.

Homework tonight - finish the labels and color the world map - no more class time will be given for this activity.

Early dismissal tomorrow @12:00

Check backpacks the blue important folder has several notices from parent council.

Fly Away Home and the Mustard Seed

'Fly Away Home' is a story by Eve Bunting about a boy and his father who live in an airport.  We read it this morning as a forum to begin our discussion about what quality of life means.  It is important for students to realize that when we compare Canada to India, Peru, Tunisia and Ukraine the idea of quality of life does not mean how many video games and TVs we have.  We then had a presentation from the Mustard Seed about what they do to help improve the quality of life for Calgarians.  Ask your child what they thought -

The written math SLA was our task this afternoon.  A lot of us found it to be difficult but we did the best we could.  Tomorrow we will complete the written portion of the Language Arts.

Everyone has new library materials for reading 20 minutes to themselves and 10 minutes to someone else tonight.  Yah!  a new book💙💜

Adding ten to any number

Investigation took place today to determine what happens to the digits on a hundreds chart when adding 10 to any number.  After careful work we decided that when any number is added to 10 the number in the ones place remains the same and the tens place increases by 1 or 10.  Children were then writing in their math journal to explain to one of our friends when was away today what we discovered and why it is important.

SLA testing began today - ask your child how they feel about their work.  We started with the digital reading comprehension and after a few technical problems we all got right to work.  Tomorrow we will have a look at the written math component.

Grade 3 SLA

My apologizes for not putting out a blog this week we have been super busy and we have accomplished a lot!

We have been practicing for the grade 3 TESTS next week.  We will complete a digital math test and a written math test as well as an online reading comphrension and a written story.  We are all feeling confident that we know what we are doing.

No school Monday October 16
Tuesday October 17 is picture day
Book orders due Tuesday

Have a fun filled weekend!

Knew and New

I hope you all had a great family weekend!  Your children came back full of turkey and ready to learn.  We had a great day.😍

Students were using base ten blocks to cement their understanding of how ones, tens, and hundreds relate to the number system.  We were very busy with blocks and whiteboards to show our understanding of number.
We looked at a very old but still relevant video to introduce Rocks and Minerals in science.  The humor of the video was corny and most of it went over the heads of our students but the information was great.  They are creating a T chart in their science notebooks with what they 'knew' before the video and what was 'new' in the video.  By using this format they will be showing me that they were thinking while watching the video not just being in the audience.
We had a look at the grade 3 SLA for Reading Comprehension as a whole group and then practiced by ourselves.  Important elements were pointed out such as: read everything, look at the picture, use the sound track where it will read to you and read all the choices there might be two right answers but one is better than the other.  If your child does not have headphones at school now is the time.

Fun Lunch orders by Friday
Headphones and rock now.
Monday Oct. 16 is a system wide PD day

Directed Drawing

This afternoon we did a little art activity using directed drawing and our work is stinking cute!!
Directed drawing is a great exercise for listening and following directions.  The students know they have to stay focused and follow the directions, or their drawing won't turn out.  Everyone was listening this afternoon and all our pictures turned out.  Directed drawing will raise the confidence of our little artists as they see that they can draw something and it does look like a scarecrow!  We finished off our work with pastels and we apologize if it got on our clothes.  We were working hard!

Asking questions is a great way to start a new investigation.  So, we brainstormed questions we would ask the four children who live in India, Peru, Ukraine, and Tunisia if we could meet them.  We then learned the words hemisphere and equator as we looked at a world map.  I used my nesting sock monkeys (ask your child what they are) to teach the concept of continent, country, province, city and community.  It is hard for us to understand, but we are working on it😅  We are now working on our first map - labeling and coloring.

Even and odd numbers continue to be a problem for us so today we read Even Steven and Odd Todd and created an anchor chart for ourselves to we can remember important facts.  We played a game of Buzz and learned that even + even= even and odd+odd=even and odd+even = odd.  Interesting.

Headphones and a rock for next week please.
No school tomorrow or Monday

Have a great family weekend!

Location of Four Countries

In our first little unit of social studies we are looking at the communities we study (Tunisia, Ukraine, Peru and India) and their locations in the world.  Our textbook (Pearson) introduces us to a child from each country and gives us a little bit of information about each one.  Today we wrote about ourselves in the same style and drew a few pictures like they did - even a Canadian flag which believe you me is not easy to draw!  Tomorrow we will locate the four countries on a map and label important places.

We all have new reading material as we visited with Mrs. Paolini this morning.  We love going to the learning commons!

Using the poem Scarecrow from yesterday we answered a few comprehension questions which will lead us into writing complete sentences next week.  A lot of us seem to think a sentence is well written when it says, "Because it does."  Yikes.  Much work to do in writing.

Headphones need to be at school next week as we will be practicing for the SLA's starting Tuesday.

Everyone will need a rock next week as well.

No school Friday or Monday

Four Strikes and You're Out

We play a lot of games in room 11 because they motivate certain children and are a great way to sneak in practice without anyone realizing what is happening!  Today I introduced 'Four Strikes and You're Out' to our math centers.  Ask your child how they did.  I believe I won the first couple of games, but then they caught on and won a few themselves.  Ask your child to play with you after supper tonight.

Punctuation is an on-going hurdle for some students to over come.  Today we made an anchor chart for our classroom on how to use periods, commas, exclamation marks, question marks and quotation marks.  First we talked about what they looked like, their names and how they were used.  Then we used Cynthia Rylant's book Scarecrow to find examples of each one.  We loved the story and so we brainstormed what we knew about scarecrows and I gave them a poem about scarecrows that I had taken punctuation out of.  Their job was to put it back.  All went well so we will begin becoming punctuation detectives and I will be looking for it in all their writing.

Everyone needs a rock at school next week as we begin our Rocks and Mineral unit in science.

No school Friday - system wide PD

Book exchange tomorrow morning - all books should have been returned today.

Read to your children

Did you know children who are read to make successful adults?
Did you know children who are read to develop better logical thinking skills?
Did you know children who are read to are more empathetic people?

Three great reasons why you should still be reading to your child.  Even though they are good readers themselves it is still super important you have that bedtime routine or lap time together daily.  

Our goal as writers is to make sure our writing is interesting to our audience.  We looked at robot writing and how boring it is.  "I like snow."  "I like candy."  "I like dogs."  So, we are working on giving a fact.  "I can swim." and adding a detail to the fact.  "I can swim and I go to Thornhill Pool and swim 1km twice a week."  We are trying to get our reader to feel that they are sharing something personal with the writer and it is not just a list of facts.  BORING.  We had an excellent writing time this afternoon and began writing with a fact followed by a detail.

Sticker math started today.  Hooray!

Sticker math is essentially a sticker to place in our math workbooks that is a problem to solve.  Problem solving prepares children for real life and develops logical and abstract thinking. The key to sticker math is explaining your thinking.  It is important that children are able to explain how they know.  I often ask children, "Why do you think that?" and "Does you answer make sense?"  Sticker math will come home for home work if it is not finished in the classroom.  If you start to see a lot of sticker math coming home please ask your child if they are getting started right away on math and sticking with the problem without giving up.

Who was Terry Fox?

'Rolling to 100' is the game we played today in math.  It is a cooperative game that uses problem solving to stimulate our thinking.  The winning team was finished in just over 10 minutes.  We played the game as part of our unit on creating patterns on the 100 chart and to build confidence when working with the 100's chart.

"Who was Terry Fox?"  I asked this question this afternoon and got some pretty interesting answers.  We read a book about Terry and added to our chart and then had a look at a few short videos that highlighted his struggle with cancer and his dream to raise money so other children would have hope when faced with cancer.  He was a remarkable Canadian and we will celebrate his life and legacy Friday with our school run.  Please consider donating a toonie for Terry.

Friday - Pillars of Care Assembly @ 8:15am

Friday - Terry Fox run about 9:30am

Does that make sense?

"Does that make sense?" is a question I ask a lot during the day.  In math it could be to the answer, an estimation, a pattern, the place value of a given number.  Students also need to be able to rationalize their answer and think clearly about what they are doing.  Today we played a number sense game called 'Guess My Number.'  I introduced some questions that could be asked about a number, such as, "Is the number even?"  "Is it between ___ and ____?"  The range we used today was 1-100.  I secretly picked a number and held it in my head.  On the SMARTboard we had a hundreds chart.  Children began asking me questions about my number and I marked on the hundreds chart the answers.  They wrote on their whiteboards what they thought the answer could be and made a prediction.  Everyone was involved and everyone had an answer. It was great.  As we asked more questions the number was narrowed down and within the 5 question limit they had figured out my number.  We played several times and we will play again tomorrow and the next day and the day after that.  Number sense is super important.  Help your child by playing at home, in the car, waiting at the restaurant etc.  No tools required, really.  Ask your child to "Guess My Number."

What do author's do?  Actually a book that we read today.  First we brainstormed all the things we thought author's do and then we read the book!  The author showed us how authors develop their ideas into books and find a publisher.  They gave us ideas about where to look for things to write about too.  We then went to work on our 'Friends' poem which may have come home in your child's backpack.  If their writing was not finished they were asked to take it home and finish for tomorrow.  They have in their journal the example from Jessica Crum we are using and the beginning of their own poem.  I will be marking their writing for capitals, ideas (hidden gems) following the pattern (You get, I'll get, We'll go together) and sentences that make sense.  Other children were working on their heart map of things they know and love and can write about.

Friends homework due tomorrow

Terry Fox run Friday - bring a toonie for Terry

"Where do authors get their ideas?"

"Where do authors get their ideas?" was the question that was asked this afternoon to begin our discussion.  Brainstorming we came up with: imagination, facts they know, books they've read, their own life, nature, movies, T.V.  We then read, "Ralph Tells a Story" and although his teacher insists there are stories everywhere, Ralph cannot think of any to write, until he stands up in from of the class and tells them about the inch worm he played with in the park.  We found out that stories best come form our heart, the things we know best.  We talked about a sign the teacher had in the classroom that said, "Stories happen to those who tell them."  Everyone is now creating a heart map of things they know a lot about that they could write stories about.

SPLAT.  A great interactive hundreds chart that allowed us to look at, create and talk about patterns in 100.  We created some patterns on our own and wrote about them.  This work will continue into next week.

Great excitement in the room today as we began handwriting.  Everyone looks forward to this grade 3 right of passage and we are well under way!!

See you tonight!

No school tomorrow

Goldie Socks and the Three Libearians

Today we talked about the 5 Finger Rule for finding 'just right' books and then we practiced.  We read, "Goldie Socks and the Three Libearians" where Goldie Socks used the five finger rule to see if her book was too hard.  She started with a closed fist.  When she came to a word she couldn't read, she put up one finger.  All five fingers went up while reading the first page of the book, so she knew that book was too hard for her.  She tried another book that was too easy.  Then she found a book that was just right.  We are looking for books to read that are just right for us.  Please help your child to use the five finger rule at home when they are reading.  Remember that we are reading for 20 minutes by ourselves every night and 10 minutes to someone else.

We went to the Learning Commons today to get ourselves new reading material.  Your child should have new books to read with you tonight.  Wednesday's will always be our book exchange day.

Ask your child how many words they were able to make when we played 'Rush' this afternoon.

Friday September 29th is our annual Terry Fox run.  It will immediately follow our Pillars of Care assembly (approximately 9:30am).  Everyone is welcome.  We are collecting Toonies for Terry from Monday September 25th to Friday September 29th.  You can also go to:  http://www.terryfox.ca/BeddingtonHeights  to donate online.  Please make sure your child is dressed for the weather and wearing appropriate shoes to run (running shoes).  Thank you for your support.

Book orders due tomorrow

Meet the Teacher night tomorrow

No school Friday

Stepping Stones

We are currently working on our hallway display for you to see on Thursday evening when you come for 'Meet The Teacher'.  We have been tasked with creating a display around the Beddington Heights Pillars of Care.  We have been reading books about people who make a difference in the lives of others.  Today we read 'Steeping Stones' a story about Rama and her family who were forced to flee their once peaceful home to escape the civil war in Syria and make their way to Europe.  She was so happy to be welcomed by people who smiled, offered food and toys.  These people did some little things that made a big difference to Rama.  We are all thinking about the question 'How can you make a difference?'  Check out our hallway Thursday night when you come for Meet The Teacher.

We used 'Stepping Stones' to answer the question "When do we use capital letters in writing?"  We brainstormed together and came up with; at the start of a sentence, using I, proper nouns, and titles of books.  All of which are grade expectations so we used these rules to begin writing a poem about our friends.  'Friends' follows the pattern of a poem we read yesterday by Jessica Crum.  Everyone has a copy of her poem and we looked at it for patterns and capital letters.

Meet the Teacher Thursday September 21 - please sign up on the school website.

Book orders due Thursday September 21

No school Friday September 22

"Why do people read?"

"Why do people read?" is the question we explored today.  There seems to be many other things to do with our time.  So, why read?  Our discussion included; to fill out forms in the office, to become a better reader, to get a job, it is fun!  In the story "How Rocket Learned to Read" Rocket is a new student and he discovers the excitement of listening to stories and then wants to be able to read him self so he learns the sounds of each letter in the alphabet!  Reading is our job here at school and we are all striving towards that goal.

Raising readers with the help of Scholastic book orders.
Scholastic book orders went home today in our blue 'important papers envelope.'  We oohed and awed over the books.  We talked about what we wanted and we talked about why we read books😍  Scholastic is a great way to put books into the hands of children.  To become better readers we must read.  When you purchase books from Scholastic for your child they provide books for our classroom.  A literate classroom needs to have over 1000 titles in it so your help is appreciated.  Book orders are due Thursday September 21 and can be paid for in cash, cheque and on-line at Scholastic Canada.

What is language arts?

"What is language arts?" was the question we discussed today while we read, "Miss Brooks Loves Books (and I don't).  We discovered that in grade 3 language arts means reading, writing, listening, speaking and representing!  And, although the little character in the story was "as stubborn as a wart" none of us are :)  

We had our first visit with Mrs. Paolini in the Learning Commons this morning.  Grade 3's can take 2 books each week.  Our visiting day with Mrs. Paolini is Wednesday BUT if your child is finished with their book before library day they are welcome to go and get new books during our afternoon quiet reading time.  Your child should be reading 20 minutes a day at home to themselves and 10 minutes to someone else.  They know in order to become a better reader they must practice.  A hockey player doesn't just show up on game day.  The must practice.  Practice, practice practice.

Meet the teacher night Thursday September 21