Monday, December 9

 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.

• Thursday, December 12 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
• Pizza Day order deadline for next term is Tuesday, December 17th.  Subway orders are due Thursday, December 19th

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

Monday, November 25

 It was a pleasure to speak with many of you last week.  This school year is really moving along!

No major updates for this week.  We will be heading into Advent season soon, and only 4 more school weeks until the holidays!

As we move through these weeks, we will be working on a pair of persuasive writing exercises.  This week, we will be writing persuasive notes for our favourite holiday or field trip.  This will be followed by an "I want to be an Elf" Christmas exercise.  In both instances, we will be looking at sentence structure, punctuation and paragraph formation.

In Math, we will be looking at how to measure area.  Today, using the unit of Post-It notes, we tried measuring our desk tops and discovered some rules about measuring area.  As I mentioned in many interviews, there will be weekly assignments put on Magma Math (found in the student portal) to help refine their abilities.

In Art, we are working on our One-Point Perspective pictures.  Wow, some great artwork will be heading home!  Also, in Science, they worked on some mini-group assignments on additives to soils.  It was meant as an opportunity to work on our collaboration skills, and they did a pretty good job working together!

Monday, November 11

Today we had a very nice Remembrance Day service!  I hope everyone had a moment to pay their respects.

A couple of announcements for this week:

• we have the Scholastic Book fair this week.  Our class will be going once again on Wednesday morning.
• our last Swim to Survive is tomorrow (Tuesday).  Please make sure they have their bathing suit and towel!
• on Wednesday, I will be emailing a link for parent-teacher interviews.  If you would like an interview, we will have signups for one of the 10 minute timeslots that will run between 3:15 and 7:00 pm on Thursday, November 21.

Monday, November 4

 I hope everyone had a safe and fun Halloween!  It was fun to see everyone in their costumes last week.  This week:

• Swim to Survive is tomorrow (Tuesday).  It went very well last week!  Please ensure bathing suit and towels once again.
• The Scholastic Book Fair starts this week.  Our library time is Wednesday morning.  They are welcome to purchase books this week, but we will also be going during our library time next week.  They can always use this week to check it out and make a list of books they are interested in.
• Friday is a PD Day, so there will be no school on that day.

In Language this week, we will be looking at a pair of poems for Remembrance Day.  As a challenge, I am going to suggest some to try to learn parts of In Flanders Fields by memory to be recited next week in class.  If they prefer to do a read it out loud next week, they can do that too.

In Math, we will continue to be looking at place value and comparing numbers to 1000.  This week, we will be reviewing the concept of rounding numbers.

Monday, October 28

 I hope everyone has had a great October.  Heading into November soon...time flies!  A few updates:

• tomorrow (Tuesday) is our first Swim to Survive.  Make sure your child brings a bathing suit and towel tomorrow, and the next two Tuesdays.
• Thursday is Halloween!  Mr. Hogg sent a school message regarding Halloween at our school.  Costumes are allowed, just no masks.
• The Scholastic Book Fair is coming up.  Our library days are Wednesday, so the next two Wednesdays (November 6th and 13th), the class can make purchases if they would like.

Lots of interruptions this week, so we will be wrapping up descriptive writing in Language with our Monster Match activity (the class each made a clay monster that they have to describe), continuing with some work on place value in our Math class, and will be working a little more on soils during Science.  

Tuesday, October 15

 I hope you had a wonderful Thanksgiving weekend!  There are a pair of updates and reminders this week:

• please don't forget to go to the parent portal and fill out / sign the four different forms that are there.  One is an off-site permission form that will be important for our upcoming bus trips.
• we have Swim to Survive coming up!  Hopefully you saw the information come home last week.  We have 3 dates coming up (October 29, November 5 and 12 ...all Tuesdays).  Make sure they come those days with a bathing suit and towel!

In Language this week, we will be continuing with some sentence writing tasks, and I will be introducing our final descriptive language task where we will be describing a "monster" that they created.  We will be looking at proper sentence form and punctuation.

In Math, we will be moving on to 3D solids this week. We will be looking at the differences between pyramids and prisms, and counting all their edges, vertices and faces.

In Science, we will be continuing with our Soils unit.  Specifically, we will be looking a the components of soil (sand, soil and silt) and how it can help/hurt plant growth.

In Art, we will be looking at how to draw a picture using one-point perspective.

Monday, October 7

 Here are some updates for the week:

• this Thursday afternoon is our Terry Fox Run.  If you haven't yet donated, and would like to, here is our school link:  Terry Fox Donation Page
• this Friday is a PD Day, so there is no school.  Also, with Monday being Thanksgiving, you will have a nice 4 day weekend!

This week in Language, we will be doing some writing for Thanksgiving, showing our thanks for things around us.  We will also be using some of our Language block time to read about Terry Fox.

In Math, we will be doing a little more on 2D shapes.  Today, we looked at congruent shapes and slides.  This week we will also be looking at flips and turns, as well as deconstructing and constructing shapes.

In Science, we will be looking at how glaciers helped form the Great Lakes (the Great Lakes were brought up in French class).

In Art, we will finish up the amazing trees the class drew last week.  We are adding colour with our pencil crayons using techniques that were taught earlier in the school year.

Monday, September 30

 This year, our Terry Fox run will be on Thursday, October 10th.  If you would like to donate, please go through the following link:

Terry Fox Donation Page

This week in Language, the class will be working on a "Descriptive Setting Mystery" whereby they will be giving 6 clues (surrounding the 5 senses) towards a hidden setting picture of their choice.  The focus will be on the descriptive language that they will use, in addition to using proper sentence form.

In Math, we will be continuing with our addition and subtraction to 100, then moving onto some lessons on 2D shapes.  I have added a class page at thatquiz.org where there will be regular practice assignments posted.  Here is our class link:

That Quiz Class link

In Science, we have been looking at our sand is actually just rocks broken down.  This week, we will be doing another class experiment to display how this occurs.

In Art, we will be using our colouring and drawing skills that we have been practising by making a picture of a tree.  We will be looking at lines, curves and using the shading techniques that were taught last week.

Monday, September 23

First a quick message:

• next Monday (September 30) will be Orange Shirt day.  Wear something orange if you have it!

This week in Language, we will be working a little further on descriptive writing.  Last week, we looked at different shades of colours.  This week, we will be adding taste words and working in groups once again to brainstorm some descriptive words based on taste.  Also, we will be doing an EQAO reading this week (likely Wednesday) and will go through the questions and answers that would have been part of that years EQAO test.  I will go over some exemplars with the class to show what different levels/grades look like.

Late last week in Math, we looked at how shape patterns can change using a variety of different attributes.  We looked at how shapes can change in colour, size, number, direction and their shape.  We attempted to make some patterns using 2 different attributes.  For example, changing the colour from red to blue (an AB pattern), but the shape changed using the core triangle, square, square, triangle (an ABBA pattern).  It was challenging, but making a plan on paper certainly helped!  This was done on an online tool (https://www.coolmath4kids.com/manipulatives/pattern-blocks) so that they could change the colours of the pattern blocks.  When they were done, they were taught how to screen-clip these patterns and place them into their google slide (found in the workspace).  They are very quick tech learners!! This week in Math, we will be moving onto Addition and Subtraction to 100. 

After our lesson last week on how to use colouring pencils, we will be having a lesson on "Atmospheric Perspective".  This will give the students a chance to start to see how depth can be used in pictures.  To help with this, we will also be using an online drawing tool called Kleki.

We will be having our first library visit this week.  We will be going to the school library on Wednesday mornings.  Please ensure books are returned each Wednesday so that we don't have many overdue books this year!

Monday, September 16

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.

In Math, we have continued our patterning unit.  Last 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.  As such, we have started some skip counting this week.

In Language, 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 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.  

We try to start each math class 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 go home on Monday.  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.

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.

This year, the class will have French first block, so I won't see them until after recess.  We spent the second block learning a little about myself, the school and our routines.  It didn't take long until we were already at lunch! 

After lunch, 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, as we do have a nut allergy in the classroom.  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).

Fourth block, we 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?

Finally, 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

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 and if there are any school activities coming up (you should also regularly review the school newsletter for this information as well).  I usually post around once a week (usually Monday) 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 2024-2025 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