Monday, December 18

 Wow...last post of 2023!  A few reminders for the final week:

• this Thursday, December 21st, the school will be having a Christmas concert in the gym (9:45-11:10 am)
• for the concert, if the student is part of choir, they have been asked to wear a white shirt with dark pants.  Otherwise, the rest in our class can where a white or red top (if you have one available).  If they have a Santa hat, please bring it to school that day as well!
• this Friday is also "Dress like your favourite Christmas Character"

This week we will be having a number of Christmas activities throughout the week.  Today, they even got to decorate a Gingerbread Man cookie!  As such, there will be no Working with Words this week.   

Please have a great Christmas holiday!  I want to wish you all a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Monday, December 4th

December is here!  Only a few weeks of school before the holidays.  A couple of reminders:

• this Friday is a PD Day, so there is no school
• this Thursday is one of our Christmas theme days.  So, this Thursday the class is encouraged to come dressed in their PJs or comfy clothes.
• On Thursday, December 21st, there will be a school Christmas concert.  Each class will have a Christmas song to perform.  It takes places from 9:45 - 11:10 am.
• speaking of the Christmas concert, if you happen to have a Santa hat, the class can wear it during our song (Santa Claus is Coming to Town).  It isn't mandatory to have a hat, just a suggestion if you have one.

There won't be too many updates between now and the Christmas holidays.  In brief, we are going to be finishing up our persuasive writing over the next two weeks, working with Area in Math (which we will follow up with an introduction to multiplication) and we will be doing many advent and Christmas activities (so more heavy on Religion and Family Life than Science in the next 2 weeks).

Monday, November 27

Can you believe it is almost December??  4 school weeks until the Christmas holidays.  Wow, time has flown by!  With December coming, we have some theme days ahead.  Check out this calendar:

In Language, we are continuing our work on persuasive writing.  I have been sharing the OREO strategy with them.  Basically, it stands for Opinion, Reason, Evidence, Opinion.  It helps provide some structure in their writing, and it also promotes writing their ideas in paragraphs.

In Math, we will be moving on to measuring area, using square centimetres and non-standard units.

Monday, November 20

 Weather is getting colder!  Make sure your child has a good fitting pair of winter boots (expecting it to snow this week) plus a good hat and mitts/gloves.  These always go missing during the day, so it is a good idea to put their initials or name on an inside tag so that they can be returned more quickly!

Announcements for this week:

• Parent/Teacher interviews are this Thursday, from 3:30 - 7:00 pm.  If you haven't signed up and would like an interview, please use the link in the email I sent the other day.  If you requested a phone interview, I will try to call at the allotted time, but could be delayed a few minutes depending on how behind I may get.  The call from we will be listed as "No Caller ID".  If you requested an in-person interview, I will open the door as soon as the previous one is complete.  Interviews run 10 minutes, and I will have to try to stick to that timeframe as other families are trying to coordinate multiple interview.  
• Walking Wednesdays start soon.  If your child was interested, they would have received a permission letter sent home by our principal.  Please make sure that the other online forms are filled out as well (accessed through the parent portal), as one of them also involved off-site activities.
• Today, a box of chocolate was sent home to each family as part of the School Council fundraising efforts.  There was a page sent home with all the information and explanations that you would need to understand what this is for and how to go about it.  Whatever chocolate is not sold, please return back with the money sales by the deadline (December 18th).
• this week is Bully Awareness Week, so you may here some discussions around this topic.  Also, we will be having a Bus Safety presentation this week.

In Language this week, we will be working further on persuasive writing.  Last week, we started our first task of writing a small movie review, and trying to use some persuasive language to either convince people to see their movie or perhaps even avoid seeing it!  We will be working on this a little more this week.

 

In Math, we are working on comparing numbers to 1000.  Specifically, we are rounding numbers to their nearest 10 and 100.  Also, we are comparing the size of numbers using the greater than and less than symbols ( > and < ).

Monday, November 13

I hope you all had a great weekend!  The class last week spent some time learning about Remembrance Day.  I was very impressed that some went home to try to learn parts of In Flanders Fields.

There aren't any updates for school activities this week, so I will stick to our subjects.

In Language, the biggest introduction this week is a Spelling and Vocabulary online program that the class was introduced to today.  It is linked in the Language workspace, and it is through Typing Club.  There is a typing practice course linked there, in addition to the Spelling/Vocabulary lessons.  The class will be provided a little time each week, but they are welcome to keep practising at home if interested!

In Math, we are going to spend a little time reviewing numbers to 1000, and will then start the Estimating and Comparing Whole Numbers unit. 

In Science, we will be moving on this week from our unit on Soils.  They will be starting the Forces unit, which should run into the new year.  

Also, in the Arts, we will be starting some work with Drama.  Again, this should carry us into the new year.

Monday, November 6

 For those that celebrate, I hope you had a fun Halloween.  I heard the dance at the school was fun and it was nice to see the various fun costumes for the day.

• this next week is the Scholastic Book Fair.  We went today to look and shop.  For those that didn't bring money and they were interested in some things, I had them write down the name of the book and price.  They can always return to the book fair on Wednesday or early next Monday.
• this Friday is a PD day, so the school is closed.
• we will be having our Remembrance Day service on Thursday morning.

This is a short week.  They still got their Working with Words lesson today.  The rest of the week we will be reading some Remembrance Day readings and will be taking a look at the poem In Flanders Fields.  

In Math, we will be working further on numbers to 1000.  Specifically, we will be examining numbers within place value charts and writing numbers in expanded form (eg. 200 + 30 +9).  

In Science, we will have one more lesson on Soils, looking specifically at decomposers and composting.  

Monday, October 30

 Happy Halloween!  As you see from my previous post, we have some theme days this week.  Lots of interruptions, so there isn't a ton to update.  However, there are some announcements:

• please take note of the last post for all the theme days this week.  There is a dance on Friday where you can order a loot bag that will be distributed at the dance.
• the Scholastic Book Fair is at our school over the next two weeks.  Our class time to go is next Monday, November 6th during our library time.  You can have your children bring money during this time.  If they forget, no worries...they can always write down what they were interested in, discuss it at home and they can then bring some money to visit later in the week. 
• with the arrival of snow today, just a quick reminder to ensure the boots, mitts, snowpants and jackets all still fit and the zippers all work!

Not much to update otherwise.  We have been working with and building 3D solids in Math, finishing our Monster Match descriptive writing exercise and have been trying some one-point perspective art.  Also, we have been trying some beginner volleyball skills in our gym class!  

Spirit Week: October 30 - November 3

 

Monday, October 23

Sorry for the late post, a lot going on today!  

Main announcements this week:

• pumpkins will be decorated in the school this week for a fundraiser on Halloween.  You can buy raffle tickets on SchoolCashOnline if interested.  
• Halloween is coming!  On that day, we will be having a Halloween Dance.  I believe there will be loot bags being offered at the dance.  Again, you can find this on SchoolCashOnline

In Language, we have been working on our Monster Match descriptions.  The class used Book Creator to brainstorm their ideas, and they have written rough copies using this information.  It was handy using this tool to help with spelling and sentence format.  We will be working on the good copies this week, and will have the "game" on Halloween.  Also, we have had our second library visit today.  Please ensure the children return their books for each Monday morning library.

In Math, we have moved on to 2D shapes and 3D solids.  We have been learning words such as vertices, edges, and faces.  We have also be comparing and sorting prisms and pyramids.  This week, the class will have an opportunity to build these 3D solids while looking at their properties.

In Science, the class has been working in groups to present some findings about things that are added to soils (intentionally or not).  They will be presenting as group this week, but we will be following up with a discussion about what Collaboration looks like and how they felt their groups worked.

Monday, October 16

 I hope you all had a nice weekend!  Not many big announcements this week aside from Pizza and Subway orders are due this week (payments to be made on School Cash Online).

This week in Math, we will be continuing to look at addition and subtraction with regrouping.  Soon, we will be starting some review work on 2-D and 3-D shapes, followed by more in-depth 3-D solids work next week. Please continue to practice your addition and subtraction facts over the next 2-3 weeks as we move to this new topic.  There will be "assignments" place on:

https://www.thatquiz.org/tq/classpage?01e23679abf890f

In Language, the class had their new Working with Words lesson.  It was very interesting to see all the words that have the word "one" inside of it.   We made words like lone, clone, alone and even cyclone.  You could see how each word has a relationship to the word one in its meaning.  Also, the class made some clay monsters last week that they will describe for a little in-class Halloween game.

This week in Science, we will be working further in our Soils unit.   The class has been working in small groups to look at a variety of "additives" that can enter soil (ie. salt, herbicides, fertilizer and pesticides).  Soon we will be looking at the advantages of composting.  In Art, the class will soon be learning about one-point perspective, the vanishing point and the horizon.

We also had our first Library time.  The class can each take out a book for the week.  Please make sure these return for the following Monday (we go to the library every Monday morning).

Tuesday, October 10

I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving weekend!  Too bad the weather wasn't more cooperative, but it was still nice to spend some time with the family.

Here are the updates for this week:

• if you haven't filled out the school forms (Verification, Technology, etc) found on the Parent Portal, please do so as soon as possible.  Still waiting on a few from the class to get this done.  Here is a link to the Technology form 
• this Friday will be Pajama Day!
• the Terry Fox run was a success!  Thanks to all who donated even a little!

In Language, we did a EQAO reading sample last week (Where is Ms Mitra?)  I have linked this in the workspace, and many children took it home to reread.  We also went through the questions together, and I showed them exemplars of what a grade 3 answer should look like. We looked at how level 3 and 4 answers were phrased, and will be setting a goal for ourselves to be more clear in our answers, with lots of detail and proof!  Both the reading and the questions are linked on the workspace and provide a good reading for those that want to review it.

  

In Math, we have been working with addition and subtraction strategies.  Again, the lessons are all in the workspace on Pear Decks, along with the Sum it Up information page.  We will be looking at different ways to mentally add and subtract numbers.  For example, if given the problem 36 + 49, you may add 36 + 50 instead, and then give back the extra 1 afterwards.  Similarly, we tried questions like 78 - 39.  We tried these strategies on hundreds boards and number lines.  I encourage the class to keep practising and to try some mental addition and subtraction when they are out and about!

In Science, we have continued looking at the parts of soil, and how soil can be different depending on where it was found.  We learned that soil can contain a combination of sand, silt and clay.

Monday, October 6

I hope everyone enjoyed the past weekend and are looking forward to a week of summer-like weather!  Here are some notes for this upcoming week:

• Terry Fox Run is this Thursday afternoon.  Here is a note from our Terry Fox committee
• SMY is participating in the Terry Fox School run on October 5th! We are proud to be a part of this Canadian tradition to fight cancer. If you would like to donate, here is a link to our donation page: https://schools.terryfox.ca/40172
• On Thursday, everyone is encouraged to wear crazy socks that day for the theme, Socks for Fox!

In Language, we have been working on descriptive writing and looking at creative ways to add description to our sentences.  We have been going through a "Descriptive Setting Mystery", which is giving clues to the class around a selected setting picture.  We have also done another RAZ-Kids recorded reading.  I encourage everyone to keep reading for 10-15 minutes a night.

In Math, we have been working on skip counting on a 100s board.  They have been looking at patterns they see on a hundreds board in order to predict future numbers in the given pattern (for example, counting by 2s leads to even or odd numbers depending on where you start).  We will be moving onto Addition and Subtraction strategies shortly.

In Science, we did an experiment called "Sugar Shake" to demonstrate how rocks break down into smaller components, which becomes part of the soil.  This lead to discussions about weathering, erosion and we even looked at rock tumblers.

In Art, we looked at Atmospheric Perspective.  This is how colours can be used to show distance in a picture.  We looked at real pictures of mountainscapes to show how the shading gets lighter the farther away it is.  

Monday, September 25

  Here are a couple of important announcements for this week:

• the Terry Fox run will be next Friday
• Orange Shirt day will be this coming Friday
• as part of the daily reading students should be doing, our class has access to both RAZ-Kids and Epic Books!  However, Epic Books is only "open" during school hours between 7 am and 3 pm.  The Epic Books! class code is found in the Hapara Workspace.  With RAZ-Kids, I am hoping to get the class to be able to learn how to do some recordings of their readings in class.  I went through this last Wednesday, so hopefully this will continue to work smoothly.  In the future, if they have access to technology at home, they will be able to hopefully do some recordings there as well.  However, it isn't necessary as I will be providing in-school time on their laptops.

Now onto today!  This morning, we had our daily math plus the students had an opportunity to talk about their weekend before we headed to our photos for Picture day.  We had an outdoor gym in the afternoon, and played a game where they hid tennis balls in the yard (then had to find the other teams).

In Language, we went through the new Working with Words lesson.  I highly recommend that each child write 10 different sentences using these words, to be completed by Friday.  Some students use the on-line document found in their workspace, whereby others do hand written copies.  They can use the back side of the sheet found in their yellow duotang if needed.   If they prefer lined paper, I can have some added to their duotangs.

In Math, we had a short task to see what they understood from the past two weeks regarding patterning.  After this, I introduced them to the website thatquiz.org where I will leave the occasional assignment (they access this in their Math workspace).

Also this week, we will continue going through the school boards Digital Citizenship lessons to help them create a positive digital footprint and well as be a positive digital citizen who models the gospel values during their online citizenship.

Monday, September 18

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  Thanks for coming by last week for the Meet the Teacher.  It was a pleasure to meet so many of you.  First, a quick announcement.  The Terry Fox run will take place on October 5th.  St. Marguerite d'Youville School is participating in the Terry Fox School Run on October 5th! We are so proud to be a part of this Canadian tradition in the fight against cancer. Please support our student’s fundraising efforts and donate today at: https://schools.terryfox.ca/StMargueritedYouvilleSchoolOttawa 

In Math, we have continued our patterning unit.  This past week, we looked at growing and shrinking patterns.  We have also been looking at a variety of patterns on hundreds charts, bar graphs and number lines.   We have also been using number lines to help us understand and assist us with our addition and subtraction.  The strategy of "jumping" on a number line to help break larger numbers into smaller portions is helpful for some.  

In Language, we have been looking at a variety of words used to describe colours.  For example, instead of using the word orange, the class was exploring additional ways to describe the shade of that colour (eg. pumpkin orange, apricot, marmalade, merigold).  I have posted some links on the workspace for the class to explore.  We have also looked at ways to describe the colour (eg. bold, brilliant, deep).  

Also last week, we were practising some colouring techniques in advance of some of our Visual Art lessons.  Most of the students took this work home, but here are some examples in case you missed it.

Onto Week 2!

We are certainly chugging along through the first week of school! I will try to get at least two posts a week to keep you updated.

We start each day with our Daily Math, followed by our "Math Up" lesson on patterns.  We looked at patterns around the classroom and in our life, then looked specifically at number patterns on 100-charts, number lines and calendars.  As we progress through the year, if you are interested in seeing what our "Your Turn" questions look like, they are linked on the student portal (in Hapara) under the Math tab.  This is accessed by going to the student portal (https://sites.google.com/a/ocsbstudent.ca/k-6/), and clicking into the workspace.  The student log in using their email which is firstname.lastname@stu.ocsb.ca  If they do not remember their password, please feel free to let me know (or they can tell me at school).  The math work in the workspace does not have to be completed as it is the same as what is done in class.  There will also be some "Sum it Up" pages which is a good read for you if you would like to see the taught concepts for the day/week.  One quick comment about the daily math.  This is only a 5-10 minute exercise at the start of the day that I project on the front screen.  We go through all the questions together, and the class puts their answers in a notebook.  It is just a nice routine to do that helps touch upon concepts that they will see at different points of the year.  For example, this week there are some questions that involve fractions.  Although we won't specifically look at fractions until later in the year, it gives a quick look each day now which will make it easier when the time comes for more formal lessons.  Again, I post the daily math in Hapara so you can see what the questions look like if you are curious.

In Language, you may have seen a yellow duotang come by at home today.  This is for the Working with Words lessons for the week.  The class can practice these words for the week, and they will be quizzed on 10 of them for Friday.  If you are looking for homework for the week, I recommended to the children that they can choose 10 of the words at write them in a proper sentence either in the document in Hapara, or they can write them on paper too!  Last week (and this upcoming week), we worked on our descriptive writing.  We have been looking at the 5 senses and how they can be used to add description in their writing.  So far, we have focused on sounds (the Pear Decks are always linked in Hapara if you are curious).  We also continued our read aloud of A Dog's Life.  I have also linked the first and second chapter on the workspace if anyone wanted to reread (we are halfway through Chapter 2).  While I read this aloud, I have multiple pause points that I will discuss "tricks" the author uses, get them to predict what may happen next, draw real-life connections and give them basic thoughts that a "good adult reader" thinks about as they are reading a story.  

Finally, in Science class we have started our unit on Soils.  We looked at the parts of soil (tiny rocks, air, water and humus) and designed our title page.  Also, we are finishing up our Lego Portraits (I will share some pictures soon!).  

Day One!

 It was nice to see everyone this morning!  The enthusiasm to come back to school that was seen in the morning, carried through the whole day.  I am sure this will be a great year.

We spent the first block learning a little about myself, the school and our routines.  It didn't take long until we were already at recess! 

After recess, I showed them a number of read alouds I will be reading during the year.  I prefer to read from chapter books, where I provide numerous pause points to discuss what is happening in the story and take predictions of what may happen next.  It leads to a lot of deep conversations.  The books are projected on the Smart Board so they can read along, and we often use it to discuss the language concepts for the term.  For example, we will be looking at descriptive writing first, so I will be using opportunities in the book to analyze how the author described the setting.  The first book I will be reading from is A Dog's Life: An Autobiography of a Stray, written by Ann M. Martin.  Each night, you can always ask your child what happened in the chapter for the day.  Would provide a great opportunity to provide a little recount!  I will also be posting each chapter in their workspace, so they will have access to past chapters as well as the chapter that will be read the next day!

Afterwards, the class filled out an All About Me page that we will finish up tomorrow.  

On a side note, we do have 2 snack times after each recess, plus our lunch of course.  Please make sure you send nut-free snacks and lunches.

During third block, we had our first Art class.  We discussed the difference between portrait and landscape.  To make our art today, we were going to use portrait style because we are making Lego People.  This helps discuss concepts of line and shape to make forms.  This is the video we were learning from:

Lego Person Self-Portrait

Soon, we will be adding their face and hair to make it unique to themselves.  Here are some samples we referred to:

Lego Hair

Lego Faces

During fourth block, the class watched a Mystery Doug science video.  We normally will be watching this on Mondays, but the Lego video was too good to ignore today.  Here is a link to the video.

How were LEGO bricks invented?

Then they had French class with Mme Faly.  Last block will be their regularly scheduled time for French.  If you would like to take a peek at our day schedule so far, I have included a link at the top of the sidebar on this page (you will have to be on a web browser to view).

Whew!  That is a lot!  I won't be posting so much every day, but did want to give a good idea what we have been doing.   It usually will be posted two times a week before 5:30 pm, hopefully earlier, but it depends on my schedule after school.  Still lots of driving to help out my own family!  See you all tomorrow!

Welcome!

   Dear Parents,

Welcome to the 2023-2024 school year.  It gives me great pleasure to welcome your child into our Grade 3 classroom as we kick off another great year at St. Marguerite d'Youville.  On the first day of school, I will be meeting the children in the primary yard.  I will be outside by 8:20 am, so if you have any questions, please feel free to ask!  It would also be helpful to know how your child will be heading home at the end of the day.

School is an environment that is fun, exciting and full of many wonderful learning opportunities and challenges.  As your child’s teacher, my goal is to help create an environment that focuses on the whole child: mind, body and spirit.

I believe it is very important to have open communication between home and school.  Always feel free to contact me at school.  I will also be more than happy to schedule a time to virtually meet with you outside of regular classroom time.  I have a blog that you can check regularly for quick information about what is going on in the class and in the school.  My blog is located at mrgpope.blogspot.ca. 

For homework, the most important thing I can recommend to do on a regular basis is read.  15-20 minutes per night is highly recommended for every student.  We also have access to Prodigy Math, a website that is linked off of our class blog.  This is an excellent website to help practice a wide range of math skills (I will be sending the log-ins and passwords in the first weeks of school). Unfinished work may also occasionally find its way home to be completed.  Finally, each child will have access to work on in-class writing assignments through Google Docs at home if needed. I will be posting most activities and links on their Hapara Workspace.

    Although most school supplies will be provided to your child, here are some items that are beneficial throughout the school year:

• pencils (students will go through 3+ per month)

• eraser

• coloured pencils

• scissors

• highlighter (any colour)

• glue sticks

• pencil case

• pencil sharpener (closed)

• indoor shoes (non-marking soles)

• hand sanitizer

I truly look forward to a great year together.  I know that our journey this year will be full of rewards and challenges as we learn, laugh and grow together.

Mr. Pope