Hello,
Take a peek at another busy week.
In Math, the children are practising how to use a problem solving strategy called CUBES. We are starting with one digit easy numbers so that the students feel successful using this strategy. 2 and 3 digit numbers will be introduced once we are proficient with this strategy (or any other strategy that may work for your child).
Another concept being explored is the realization that when 2 parts are joined together, it makes a whole. This tells us we need to add the numbers together and when adding numbers the whole needs to be the last number in a math fact. When our math action is to subtract or separate, the whole number goes at the beginning of the math fact.

We also briefly started our Geometry unit on shapes. Ask your child about the polygon song we heard to reinforce that the number of sides is also the number of vertices the shape will have.

We conducted a science experiment to see how we could build the highest structure by using only index cards and some tape. The children were quick to realize that a wider and more stable base would support a higher structure. I love this experiment because the children actually had to write down what problems they encountered while building and how he/she fixed his/her problems.

  We had an amazing art block this week.  Take a look and see if you can see how the foreground, middleground and background create depth and perspective in the children's artwork. Ask your children to show you where the horizon line is in their piece.

These are photos of a gym activity that gets our bodies moving. Ask your child to explain the game to you or ask what is in the middle of the gym floor that is being guarded by some but picked up by others.

 On Thursday, our whole school went to a WITS assembly. Here, your child was placed on a school team from K to grade 6. Ask your child what his/her team name is. It's animal themed.  The purpose of the assembly was to remind the students how to solve issues that may arise at school. This school wide initiative will be the focus of many more assemblies to come to reinforce the concept that issues can be solved together in a calm and respectful manner.

A few things to remember....

• Library books are due on Tuesday. All books need to be checked back in to take more books out on our usual library time which is now on Wednesday.
• First special lunch is on November 6th. It's a Subway lunch day.
• Please continue to check your child's homework book for completion but also for assessments coming home for your review.

Have a great week. I know we will!

Take a look at the happenings of our week.

Well, we did it! We had our class reward for pushing over 100 marbles. We were the talk of the school because we were in our pyjamas.

Now, onto some sad news. Mrs. Gregory left our school this past Friday. Our classroom community wished her well by making her a card, buying her a gift and sending her off with lots of hugs and warm wishes.  Miss. Natalie will be in our class in the mornings now.

In Math, we started co-creating our anchor chart on fact families. This will eventually lead us into learning how to look at math problems by looking at it in parts to make up a whole number. Once we review fact families, the students will learn the steps needed to follow if one of the parts or the whole number is missing. Stay tuned.

We have started our second type writing -descriptive writing. The focus here is to visualize what a writer is saying  by paying close attention to the adjectives which paint a picture in the reader's head as they are reading. Take a look at the photo below. The first text example had few adjectives. It was up to the children to imagine what the cat looked like. You can see how most are very unique.  The second text example had many adjectives. As you can see, the students were able to accurately visualize what they read. One of our first learning goals will be to know what an adjective is and understand how to use our senses to find adjectives to support the noun they are describing.

A few things to remember.....

The Eco Club has announced that our school will be having Boomerang Lunches every Monday Wednesday and Friday in the hope of reducing garbage at our school. Please try your best to reduce the amount of packaging in your child's lunch. Any garbage on those days will "boomerang" back home via your child's lunch bag.

• Please take a moment to check your child's homework. The reading passage is at grade level. If you feel it is too difficult at the present moment, this is a great opportunity for a parent to assist a student by reading the passage and the question to them while your child is following with their finger.  This will act as modelling how to read and how to make sense of the text by asking and answering questions out loud.

Another interesting week to tell you about....

Our class turned our 100 marbles class incentive into a math lesson. We narrowed our categories to 4 choices and conducted a survey. We then created a pictograph by organizing the data we had. So now, it's party time in exchange for all the hard work done in order to push over the marbles.
This Wednesday October 17th,  your child is invited to wear their pyjamas to school and to bring in a small stuffed animal if they would like. I will be showing a movie for a block and providing each child with a small bag of popcorn as a treat to munch on.


Another progression from start to finish-ART! We were courageous to paint in the portable where, as you know, there is no water source nearby. We did lots of problem solving to display our understanding of warm and cool colours.

Our school was lucky enough to have a presentation on school bus safety to reinforce how to stay safe. Your child brought home a booklet for you to review the rules of bus safety with your child that also had fun puzzles included.

Please please please send in earphones or earbuds for your child to listen to reading for Daily 5. Without them, your child really only gets have the experience that they should be receiving during Daily 5. 

Please check your child's homework book for their assessment on Place Value. Review it, sign it and return it in the homework book by Friday.

I am hoping to have another more formal assessment on data management this coming Wednesday.

Our librarian, Mrs. Cook has moved schools. This has caused our usual library time on Thursday to be switched to another day. This day has yet to be determined with our new librarian. I will let you know of the change just as soon as I know.

A reminder that special lunch orders will only be accepted until October 21st.

Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours. I hope that everyone had time this long weekend to do what matters most-spend time with family and thank God and one another for all your blessings in life.

Our class pushed over 100 marbles! Marbles are pushed from the square container to the apple jar when compliments are given to our class as a whole. For example, if the teacher on lunch duty tells me that our class was the most respectful class out of the 4 she was responsible for, I push over 5 marbles.If the Principal comes to tell us that she did not even notice our class in the hallway because we were so quiet, I push over 10 marbles. So now that we've pushed over 100-we celebrate and start all over again. As a class, we will come up with an incentive. It could be invite another class into our gym time with us for a challenge, it could be a board games block, it could be a movie and popcorn block, it could even be have a picnic lunch outside with the other grade 3 classes. Stay tuned to find out what the class voted for.

Another cause for celebration! Our school participated in the Terry Fox Walk this past Monday. Please do not let the below photos influence your perception of how good our class felt in doing this and how much fun everyone had! A special thank goes out to Luke and Lukah's mom for helping all of us stay safe.

Here are a few books that were read to the class as they were snacking. The one I liked the most was the one called But It's Not My Fault. The main idea that we discussed was how important it was to not blame others for your actions and to accept responsibility for the choices you made. This connection comes in handy when students tell me that their parent forgot to pack their homework book. Instead, I tell them not to blame their parent but accept the responsibility of packing their own book.

In Math,we are finishing up our unit on data management. Here, in the photo we are conducting a quick survey to see what everyone's favourite meat alternative is? See how clever we are! We are making cross-curricular connections.

We continue to dive into RECOUNT text. Feedback was given that most student excel at describing the events in order so as a class, we concentrated more on the INTRODUCTION and CONCLUSION. Take a look at our first shared writing recount. They did a great job!

In Science, we continue to look at STRUCTURES. The purpose of this experiment that these budding scientists are doing was to see which tube was more stable. We conducted the short experiment twice and came up with the same results. Look by Rose's foot to see where the tall tube ended up.

A few things to remember.....

• I am still waiting for some students to bring in small inexpensive earbuds/earphones so that Daily 5 will run smoothly.
• Pizza and Subway special lunches can be ordered through the school website on the cash on line icon. October 21st is the last day to order.
• Picture Day at St. Rita is on MONDAY OCTOBER 15th.