Monday, February 2

 We have made it to February!  Hopefully, we can look forward to milder temperatures soon!

Here is what we are doing this week:

• Math: We will be moving onto 3-digit addition and subtraction for a little bit.  Please continue reviewing multiplication to x9
• Language: We will be returning to our Working with Words this week.  Also, the class will have a chance to hear more of their Little Red Riding Hood stories.  Since I was away last week for one of the quotation lessons, we will review that this week again.  The class will also do some new recordings on RAZ-Kids.
• On Tuesday afternoon, we have a Pow Wow presentation in the gym during 3rd block!
• Hot Dog day is on Tuesday.
• Science: We will be reviewing friction in our forces unit.
• Physical Education: The class will be learning the rules about Handball and trying it out.
• Health: The class has been discussing healthy eating choices.  In Book Creator, they are making a full day plan of healthy eating choices (breakfast, lunch, dinner and a snack).

Monday, January 26

I hope everyone had a great weekend!  This is what is on for this 4 day school week (Friday is a PD Day):

• Math:  We are still working on our multiplication and division.  It would be very help to keep practising the multiplication facts to x9 to help put them to memory!  This is likely the last week before we move onto a new topic.  Continued practice is always helpful!
• Language: We are working further with quotation marks on Monday and will begin presenting our Little Red Riding Hood stories on Wednesday.  Tuesday will be used for some self-editing and some final work.  There will be no Working with Words this week.  We missed our test on Friday due to a visit from Father Rick, so we will just have a quick quiz on Monday and focus more on a lesson on quotation marks.
• Science:  We are finishing up some work on forces.  We will be reviewing a lesson on Friction.
• Drama: On Thursday, we will present our jokes with our puppets or teddy bears in our "Comedy Special".  Each student has found 5 jokes they like, and they will try to tell these in a loud, clear voice while showing some "body language" with their puppets.  They are encouraged to bring a small stuffed animal if they have one, otherwise they will be welcome to use one that is available in class).
• Health: We have been looking at proper nutrition and food labels.  There will be another lesson on this.  Have them check out the labels on some boxes in your home!  We have been looking at the website www.fooducate.com to search up different foods to see how they "grade".

Monday, January 19

 Very short post today!  Not much to update, but here are a few:

• Math:  We are still working on our multiplication and division.  It would be very help to keep practising the multiplication facts to x9 to help put them to memory!
• Language: We are working further with quotation marks and will be working further on our Little Red Riding Hood stories late this week.  Ask them how they changed the character, setting and problem.
• Science:  We are finishing up some work on forces.  This week, we will discuss balancing forces.
• Drama:  This week the class will decide on 5 jokes they would like to have their puppet/teddy bears say in our "Comedy Special".  They will try to tell these in a loud, clear voice while showing some "body language" with their puppets.
• Jungle Sports in this week (thanks again for returning the permission forms quickly)
• Health: We will be looking at food labels.

Monday, January 12

Thank you for returning the Jungle Sports permission form so quickly!  They will be setting up in our gym next week!

In Math, we are still going through multiplication and division strategies.  It is important for children in grade 3 to learn their multiplication to x9 and division to 81 divided by 9.  In class, we go through strategies, use arrays and number lines to model what it means.   We will be continuing this to the end of next week.

In Language, we will be looking at narrative writing.  We will be listening to different versions of Little Red Riding Hood, and starting soon, we will be making our own versions by changing the character, setting and even the problem (and how it is solved!).  This will be done in class, using Book Creator.  We are going to have a lesson looking at quotation marks to help understand how they can be included in our work.

We will be continuing with drama this week, playing a variety of games.  Also, we are looking at nutrition during Health class, badminton during Gym and forces during Science (we will get a chance to play with some magnets this week!)

Monday, January 5

Happy New Year!!  I hope everyone had a restful holiday season! 

This week, we will be beginning our work with multiplication and division.  Again, it is important for the class to learn their number facts up to x9.  Perhaps pick one of the facts, and practice that at night.  Keep an eye in their workspace for our lessons.

In Language, we will be working on our New Year's Resolutions this week.  On Monday, we will be looking at picking a single word to represent what we would like to change or do better this year. 

We will also be working in these areas during the next few weeks:

• Language: We will be starting some work in narrative writing soon (learning about the parts of a story, and creating our own as well).  There will also be a lesson on quotation marks.
• Health: Working in Book Creator to display a balanced meal plan for one day.  
• Drama: We will be starting to  work with expressions and body movements through games and activities.
• Science:  We will be continuing to work on our Forces unit
• Family Life: We will be having some discussions about brothers, sisters and good friends
• Physical Education: Practice with badminton and handball over the next month.

Monday, December 8

Two weeks of school until Christmas!  I will make this the last post until after Christmas, so I will try to list some of the big events/theme days coming up.

• Tomorrow, we have our week 2 Advent Liturgy at 12:45.  Several students from our class have been asked to do a reading.
• Monday, December 15 our class will be doing our cookie decorating activity thanks to the parent council.
• Thursday, December 19th is the Christmas concert for the parents.  It will start around 9:45 am and last until 11:15 am
• Here are the theme week activities for the week of December 16-20:
• Monday: Wear your ugly/tacky Christmas sweater
• Tuesday: Dress like Santa/elves/toys/trees/reindeer, etc
• Wednesday:Wear your favourite Christmas accessory (scarf, tie, headband)
• Thursday: Wear your favourite Christmas colours!
• Friday: Pajama Day

I hope you and your family have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Monday, December 1

December has arrived!  Wow, only three school weeks until Christmas!  A reminder that this Friday is a PD day, so there is no school that day.  Also, I should point out that the school also posts updates here if you wish to bookmark it:

SMY Updates

In Language, we finished up our writing on our vacation spots and will be reading them out loud this week.  As an final exercise, we will be doing another persuasive writing piece called "Elf for Hire".  The class will be trying to convince Santa to be hired as an elf.  He is looking for a hard worker, follows directions well and has creative ideas.  They will use this criteria in order to help make their written piece.

In Math, we are working on area still.  This will help move us towards the early lessons on multiplication (the use of arrays to help with understanding).