Tuesday, May 19

I hope you all had a great Victoria Day long weekend!  Certainly nice to see the weather start to get better!  Short update today:

• last Friday, the Grade 6's had a freezie day (you can pay on School Cash Online).  They gave a freezie to every student.  If you could make a payment (if you didn't already), it would be highly appreciated as it is used for their Grade 6 graduation.
• Some notices were sent home in the past 2 weeks about overdue Library books.  If you received one, can you please have a look around for it to be returned.  Library has been moved to Thursday mornings.
• EQAO will start on Friday, May 29th and should run for 4 days.

In Language, the class should have finished up their Endangered Animal slideshow.  They will be presenting them this week.

In Math, we will be finishing up a unit on probability and then having a few coding lessons.  This will lead to review before we do EQAO.

In Science, we have planted seeds and some have already sprouted.  We will be looking at the needs of plants of the week.

In Music, we will be working further on beat and rhythm. 

Monday, May 11

 Just one little change to last weeks updates.  

• EQAO will start on Friday, May 29th, and will continue the following week.  It should take about 4 days (2 blocks per day).  If your child has a pair of headphones, that helps.  We will be trying to provide headphones at school as well.
• The Book Fair is this week.  Our class is going to view the book fair on Monday, May 11th, and will be going to shop on Wednesday, May 13th. 
• Our field trip is scheduled for Thursday, June 11th.  A reminder that if you are looking to volunteer that day, you need to make sure you have a Vulnerable Sector Check completed 

In Math, we are moving onto Probability this week.  In addition, we will continue reviewing concepts taught during the year to help our EQAO preparation.

In Language, they will get 2 more afternoon blocks to work on their endangered animal projects.  They are really enjoying the opportunity to research and work on a Google Slideshow.

In Family Life, we will be going through the Created Sexual unit this week.  It should only take 2-3 afternoon blocks.  We will start this on Monday afternoon.

In Science, we are attempting to germinated some bean seeds.  They will be put in soil later this week so we can take care of them and watch them grow.  

In Music, we are going to continue with some beat and rhythm exercises.

In Physical Education, you may hear about the school track and field meet for Grades 4-6 which I help out with.  Soon, we will be taking our gym class outside to try the 100m and long jump as well!

Monday, May 4th

 There are some dates to be aware of:

• tomorrow everyone is welcome to wear Red as it is a day entitled Red Dress Day 
• The Book Fair is coming up next week.  Our class is going to view the book fair on Monday, May 11th, and will be going to shop on Wednesday, May 13th.
• EQAO is coming up.  We will be writing it in class on the week of June 1-4. 
• Our field trip is scheduled for Thursday, June 11th.  A reminder that if you are looking to volunteer that day, you need to make sure you have a Vulnerable Sector Check completed 

In Math, we are currently working on an Algebra unit.  Soon, we will be doing a little on probability and then a little on coding.  Once we are done these areas, we will be spending some time reviewing before the EQAO dates.

In Language, we are beginning our explanatory writing unit.  The class will be making a slideshow of an endangered animal, using some of the text features we have been looking at.

In Science, we have just begun our unit on Plants.  We will be planting seeds soon to watch grow in our classroom.

In Family Life, we will be starting the Created Sexual unit next week.  You should have received a letter from me 2 weeks ago explaining the information that will be shared.

Monday, April 20

Some short announcements for the week:

• next Monday is a PD Day.  So there is no school that day
• Father Rick is in the school on Friday for our mass during 4th block
• I sent home a letter last week to inform you that we will be starting the Created Sexual unit soon.  If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out.

In Math, we are working on counting money and making change.  The website thatquiz.org has some great practice activities for those looking for further practice.  We will be working on these concepts throughout the week.

In Language, we are working a little further with some writing.  I have been asking the class to write 10 sentences with their Working with Words list and we have been working on one more writing task (a letter to the principal about what gym or yard equipment we should have).  Next week, we will be starting some work on explanatory writing, and the class will be working on a short project about an endangered animal.

In Dance, I have linked a fun activity with math (coding) and the class will be working on some choreography at code.org.

In Science, we will be starting a new unit on Plants soon.

Monday, April 13

 Looks like a rainy week ahead!  Please ensure your child is prepared to go outside if it is lightly raining.  Boots can also be helpful as the yard has been fairly muddy in the past week.

Our mass with Father Rick last week was postponed until next week.  Our school will have a short mass hosted by the Grade 2 classes this Wednesday afternoon.

Now for the subjects:

Math - We will be moving on this week to looking at angles on 2-D shapes.  Particularly, we will be using the terms Right Angle, Acute Angle and Obtuse Angle.  After these two lessons, we will be moving onto look at money.

Language - We have another writing task this week.  We are going to write a pretend letter to the principal recommending a piece of yard or gym equipment, and why this would be good for our school.  We will also be doing another EQAO reading through the Wayground website (found on the student portal).

Science - We will be building a paper bridge this week to see how many pennies it can hold.  This is a Mystery Science activity, so there will be hints on what shapes and designs work best.

Dance - For fun, we are going to combine dance with some coding!  There is a fun activity through code.org that will give the students the change to do some choreography through coding.

Tuesday, April 7

I hope everyone had a wonderful and restful Easter weekend.  Hopefully, the warmer weather can get here quickly!

Just some short updates:

Math - We are working on fractions this week.  Using cuisenaire rods, we will be looking at how a "whole" can be different sizes and how we can make equivalent fractions.

Language - We will still have our regular Working with Words lesson.  We will be spending more time with sentence and paragraph writing.  The class will be making sentences from their word list and we will review their superhero power writing.

Religion - Hopefully, the Stations of the Cross mini books made it home last week.  Today, the class will be making Resurrection Wheels for fun.  We also have our mass on Friday with Father Rick.

Science - We have a fun assignment on locating famous world structures this Wednesday.

Dance - We have lesson 3 of 3 from the National School of Dance that will teach us some hip-hop dancing.  This will be on Thursday.

Monday, March 30

 Wow, March really flew by!  Just a few updates for the upcoming week:

Math - we will be moving onto learning about Fractions this week and next week.  

Language - we have been working on sentence and paragraph writing through some EQAO practice tests and writing tasks.  This week, they will be given a new writing task.  They will be ask to write about a superpower they would want and why.

Religion - Lots of lessons about our upcoming Easter and we will be going over the Stations of the Cross.

Science - Short lesson on mad-made vs. natural structures

Dance - We have been learning some hip-hop from some interactive lessons from the Canadian School of Dance.

Monday, March 23

 I hope everyone had a wonderful March Break!  I know I did...just spent a week in Buenos Aires, Argentina!  Quite the opportunity to see that part of the world.

Not a ton of updates right now.  We are continuing with Data Management this week in Math class.  In Language, we will be continuing with some sentence and paragraph writing.  In particular, we will be looking at some of the upcoming EQAO style of questions.  We will be doing this more regularly as we approach EQAO, which will take place in the first week of June. 

Otherwise, limited updates here as we return back to school and we look ahead to the Easter weekend approaching shortly!

Monday, March 9

 Very short post as we head towards March Break!  We are trying to wrap a few things up before the break, so not starting anything too new.

In Math, we have been reviewing Perimeter.  Today, we will review what we did late last week, and try a few of the Magma Math questions.  The rest of the week, I will be introducing data management with particular emphasis on Pictographs and Bar Graphs with scale.

In Language, we have been working on some writing pieces.  Last week, the class worked on a 3 paragraph story about a day they got to be the principal.  We will be reading a few of these this week, and we will also be trying a grade 3 EQAO reading question and how to properly construct a written word answer.  

In Science, we are continuing with structures.  In particular, we are looking at stability.

I hope you all have a wonderful restful March Break!

Monday, March 2

Sorry, it has been a pair of busy weeks for me, so I wasn't able to provide any news.   Some little updates:

• Today we are receiving an Inuit Games presentation in the gym for our class.
• this Wednesday we also have a dance presentation in the afternoon.

In Math, we have moved onto telling time.  Last two weeks, we made our "Metric Staircase" to help us understand the differences between kilo-, centi- and milli- units. We will be continuing a little with this during the week as well, looking at measuring weight and capacity this week.

In Language, there has been a focus on writing short stories.  Specifically, we have been working on a "Dog's Adventure" story which we will be reading some in the class. I have been trying to spend extra time with the class on the editing process, wanting them to focus on sentence structure, punctuation and what a paragraph looks like.  Our next writing task will be n a short story called "The Day I Got to be Principal". 

In Science, we are moving onto Strong and Stable Structures.  We will have an introductory lesson this week.

We will also start some in-class dance lessons through the National Ballet School of Canada.  We will learning about Hip-Hop dance, and learning some of the basic moves.  Lots of fun!

Now a message from the school:

"During the season of Lent, we are called to practice almsgiving — sharing what we have to support those in need. As a school community, we are collecting non-perishable, nut-free food items to give back to families in our local community through The Pavilion Food Bank. Each week will focus on a different food category. 

Thank you for helping us put our faith into action by caring for others in our community."

Kindness Week (Feb. 17-20)

  Next week is Kindness week.  THe student council of the school has organized a Spirit Week.  Here are the activities they have planned.

	Tuesday Dreaming of  kindness	Wednesday Double the Kindness	Thursday Show Some Love to Teachers!	Friday Kind Card Day
February 17-2    0	Wear your favorite pj’s	Wear the same clothes as a friend	Dress as your favorite teacher!	Make a card for someone special

Monday, February 9

 Well, anyone else getting tired of the cold?  Looks like some nicer weather is coming!

This week, we will be working on the following:

• Language: We will have our usual Working with Words lesson on Monday.  The rest of the week should include a lesson on commas, a new writing assignment called A Dog's Adventure (telling a short story about what happened to their dog during the day it escaped from their yard) and a possible EQAO practice reading.
• Math: We are still working a little on addition and subtraction with regrouping to 1000.  The class as a whole could continue practising these kinds of questions at home through websites like Magma Math, Thatquiz.org and just pencil and paper practice.  Once we complete this unit, we will be switching to lessons on measuring length.
• Visual Arts: Although we have already had our lessons on visual art, the class will be working on a Black History Month school project. We will be learning about an artist named Alma Thomas and try to mimic a style of her art.
• Religion: Last week we had a lesson about the Fruits of the Holy Spirit.  This week we should get to a lesson around the Symbols of the Holy Spirit.
• Science: If time permits, we will have a final lesson on Forces about safety considerations
• Valentine's Day coming up!: Although Valentine's Day is Saturday, we will have a card exchange on Friday afternoon. I sent home a class list on Friday.  A reminder that all students should receive a card if your child is participating, and there is a school-wide ban on children handing out food/candy to others. So, please stick to just cards and non-edible items.

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.