Monday, September 21

 Just a short note today.  

• Pizza, Subway and Popcorn orders are due this Thursday
• This Friday is our School Photo Day.  Class pictures will be taken later in the year, but this will be the day for individual photos.

Monday, September 14

First a quick reminder to ensure that you go through all the forms if you haven’t already.  These can be found on the parent portal.  These include the Responsible Use of Technology form, the Verification Form, and Off-Site Permission.

Also, Pizza, Subway, and Popcorn are now available to order on School Cash Online. The deadline for students and staff to order pizza, subway, and popcorn is Thursday, September 24th.  Late orders cannot be accepted.

In Math, we have continued our patterning unit with our new Jump Math program.  We looked at growing and shrinking patterns.  We have also been looking at a variety of patterns jumping on a number line and looking for the size of the gaps.

In Language this week, we will be 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 will be posting some links on the workspace for the class to explore.  We have also looked at ways to describe the colour (eg. bold, brilliant, deep). 

In Science, we will be exploring Soils this week.  There will be a pair of texts that we will be reading together on Tuesday and Wednesday.

In Visual Art this week, we will be exploring how to use colouring pencils to provide different shading techniques.  This will likely be on Thursday of this week

Week 2

We are certainly chugging along through the first week of school!  Quick note that this Thursday, our school will be hosting an Open House from 3:30 - 5:00.  I will give a short presentation in the classroom around 3:45 and 4:30 about the year.  

This year in Math, our school is working with a new program called Jump Math.  It comes with a practice and assessment book that the work on in the classroom.  Currently we are counting up and down with our hands and a number line..

In Language, you may have seen a yellow duotang go home on Tuesday.  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.  We also continued our read aloud of A Dog's Life.  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.

Welcome!

 Dear Parents,

Welcome to the 2026-2027 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.  Please note that walkers are picked up at the primary gate.

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 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 which I will try to update once a week.

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 and Magma Math, websites that will be linked in their Hapara workspace. These are excellent websites 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)

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