Sorry for the lack of blog posts, but this time of year is always so busy!

For tomorrow night, students should wear something that is any combination of black, white, red, or green. Shores don't have to be that colour, and please don't wear hats because we will have other parts of our costume to wear. 

Please bring your child to the LIBRARY, not the portable at 6:45 tomorrow night. 

I look forward to seeing you all there!

Winter seems to have exploded in our class!

We had a great time skating today! Everyone had big smiles on their faces, and were wonderful representatives of Douglas Annex. 

We also started a December project today. We are doing a 30 days of gratitude challenge for the month of December. It's so important to think of everything we are grateful for. I challenge you to do it at home as well! I did a 100 happy days challenge and I have to say that it made a huge difference in my own attitude and outlook on life. 

I hope everyone is ready for skating tomorrow!! Please remember booster seats for your children. 

Here is this week's dictée 

It is the chorus of the song we are learning in class. The song can be found here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=YIPi-Zr-kzo

Happy singing!

As you hopefully saw in the agenda, there is no dictée this week. Instead, this week we are learning how to proof read our own work. On Thursday, since there is no school on Friday, we will do a proof reading célébration. 

We are using an acronym to help students remember what to look for when reading. The acronym is e-pomme. Here is a picture of what we did...feel free to use this when practicing writing at home!

Sensory play

Today, we did a full day of papier mâché and writing. It was a very busy day! I was impressed with how little mess there was on the floor, and I apologize for any mâché that came home on faces or in hair.

Watching how calm the students were while doing the art project, I was reminded of how important sensory play is. We have learned lots about it at some recent professional days, and there is endless research about how important this is for brain development. Sensory play is basically a 'buzz word' for letting kids play with their hands. It can be anything as simple as water. As a child, I remember getting to play in the sink with the leftover coffee grounds for what seemed like hours. It could be as simple as that! Squeeze balls from the dollar store, or any fidget toys works great too! As your children get older, it's so important to remember that this type of play is just as important for their development as reading and writing.

We will be making fidgets in class, and we will be talking about how to use them to help us learn, and also to help calm us down if we are feeling upset or agitated.

If you're looking for something to make at home, you can try this space-related goo! http://www.two-daloo.com/night-sky-activities-preschool-galaxy-slime-borax-free/

Happy playing!

If you have any extra newspaper at your home, please send it to school tomorrow! Thanks!

I hope everyone is staying safe, warm, and dry in this weather! 

Last week, we worked on our space book. We are almost done our pages and the kids will bring home a copy soon!  This was their informational writing project, and they have done very well! 

We will also be doing some creative writing and will be making our own planets! 

I've also sent some of the goal setting work home. There are just a few more things I have to copy!! 

Finally, here is this week's dictée: 

I hope everyone has a wonderful rememberance day, remembering in whatever way your family does. The students did an AMAZING job singing yesterday. I'll try later today to get an audio clip on here. They also wrote thank you letters to veterans that I will be delivering to a legion today. I was very impressed with the thoughtfulness and sincere words of thanks. 

I know I said I would try to have goal setting stuff out early this week, but with no preps, and our network being down (no access to files), it didn't get done.  I will hopefully have it for you by Friday!

Une Colombe

On Tuesday, we will be singing for the rememberance day assembly. Here is the song to practice this weekend!

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=cdM3bz8OOMg

Dictée

This week's dictée is made up of sentences that we spent a long time talking about yesterday. They are all phrases that French immersion students use very often that are direct translations from English. In French, we call them anglicismes. This week we will be working with these phrases quite a bit, so there is no work to be done at home. 

Happy Halloween!

I hope everyone has a fun and safe Halloween! 

https://m.youtube.com/watch?ebc=ANyPxKrRmCG4ZvKJSBJECGshcy7sLGbGFptIOO1jZjiP0YmR6isErNZ7qBWgeMaXYghg3QAdIqB0YbLUCHVbn_d4w-78U8hiHQ&v=ibUzDIWhsFg&time_continue=23

Thank you for all your well wishes!! It is wonderful to be back at school, and the students' warm welcome this morning was amazing. I definitely missed the students, but I'm so glad I took the time to be with my family who flew in from all over to celebrate with us. We spend a good 45 minutes this morning catching up on everything that happened in their lives while I was away, and I promised them I would show them pictures tomorrow. There were also lots of sweet and innocent questions if I have a baby now that I'm married, and if we received a baby as a wedding gift. I can assure you that I will not be going on mat leave any time in the foreseeable future!!

Today we spent the whole day with our pumpkins...their worksheet came home, along with one more page to finish tonight. We did lots of math with our pumpkins as well! 

Remember to vote today!!

Just a reminder that tomorrow is our field trip to the planetarium. Please make sure you pack a healthy snack and lunch, and send your child in comfortable clothes. We will be leaving the school at 9:45 and will be arriving back around 3. 

We spoke extensively about the election today. I enjoy covering this part of the curriculum!! We spoke today about different levels of government, some of their roles, and also about how political parties work. Tomorrow morning, before we go to the planetarium, we will start looking at the parties platforms. I find it is of utmost importance for me to stay neutral when teaching this, but I encourage you to talk to your children about your political opinions. It's always great for students to hear from others about voting! 

We will be doing the actual vote on Thursday. I will need two volunteers to be our election officials. If you are free between 11 and 12, please let me know!

I have to keep the results of the vote secret until the official results are announced, but I will make sure to post our results as soon as I am able to!

Finally, just so you are awake, my last day before my wedding will be this Thursday. If you have any questions or concerns you want to address before I go, please let me know!! Otherwise I will be back on the 27th. 

So much to be thankful for

Yesterday, we did one of my favorite projects of the whole year! We spent the whole day talking about what we are thankful for. The list they came up with amazing!

I hope everyone had a great weekend, and got to enjoy this wonderful weather we are having! 

We had a very busy week last week. Here is some of the stuff the kids have done: 

We have almost made it through learning facts about all the planets, as well as patterning in math. We are now in full swing daily 5! 

If you are looking for some cool space stuff, the CSA YouTube page is great! I also recommend finding astronaut Scott Kelly (I personally follow him on Instagram). He is part way through a year in space, and is helping NASA learn about how the human body functions in space. His twin brother is on earth doing similar tests. 

Today, the students brought home their new dictée words, as well as our home reading program! It is now in the front of that duo tang. There are institutions, maps, distances, and many pages for logs. This is not mandatory but, I can't stress enough how important it is to read at home!!! If you have any questions about home reading!

Students also brought class books home today. These are very precious resources so please take care of them! I will have book bags for the students tomorrow. Students can exchange these books any time during our travail du matin. 

Both grade 3 classes will be participating in the CIVIX Student Vote program. This is an election program that is run parallel with the federal election in October. You can find more information here: http://civix.ca/main/

I love this program, since it is so important that young people vote in any election. I encourage you to talk to your children about voting and why it's important!

In class, we will be learning about the electoral process, and will be learning about every party's platforms. When I teach it, it is definitely a simplified version and we don't get a chance to talk about every election issue. That would take up our whole grade 3 year!! 

If you are looking to help your child figure out who they would vote for, CIVIX recommends two different quizzes. I know they are still a bit advanced for grade 3, but with your help, they could take it through it!!

They can be found here https://votecompass.cbc.ca/ and here https://pollenize.org/canada

It was so heart-warming to come back to school on Wednesday (I appologize for being away - I was so so sick with a cold) to hear how wonderful the class was with the TOC. She had nothing but wonderful things to say about your children. They were helpful, polite, hard workers, and friendly. They should be very proud!

It was also wonderful to come back and hear all of the lunar eclipse viewing stories!

This week, we have started our daily 5 routine in full swing! Students are picking different literacy activities, and working very well on them!

In math, we are working on advanced patterning and will be doing a 'célébration' soon! 

Just a reminder that tomorrow is dictée as well as library! Please make sure your children bring their library books and dictée duo tangs

Super moon Eclipse

I love teaching space because there are so many connections to events going on in the world! 

In case you haven't heard, there is a very rare lunar eclipse tonight! You can learn all about it here: http://globalnews.ca/video/2234014/understanding-the-sept-27-super-moon-eclipse/?utm_source=Article&utm_medium=MostPopularVideo&utm_campaign=2015&hootPostID=8c3640ac74d7c0f6fe18422442f73679

Remember there is no school tomorrow, so it's ok to stay up a bit later to watch the eclipse! 

Space apps

We have been spending some time everyday learning about a new planet. It's amazing how much the students know and are soaking up!! There are some very good apps out there that are unfortunately in English, but are great none the less. If your children have access to 'I devices' you can try out some of these apps. They should all be free!

There are also great websites such as the CSA (Canadian space agency) site, and the NASA site! Happy space exploring!

Just a reminder that tomorrow is photo day!! 

Tomorrow I will be posting some cool links about space to supplement all the learning we have been doing this week!! 

I'm looking forward to meeting everyone tomorrow! If you can't come, no problem. Just let me know and I'll pass on the hand out. 

We have been talking lots about space already, and have been thinking about questions we have about space. If you are looking for a dinner topic for tonight, this could be a great one! 

We also started an art project today. They're looking great already!

Our first unit

At meet the teacher night, we will go into more detail of the grade 3 curriculum, but I wanted to let you know that this week we will be starting our space unit. Take the time to talk to your child about space - what they already know, what they're curious about etc! 

What a wonderful first week! I hope everyone has a well deserved relaxing weekend!! 

A quick note: the mug is for a herbal tea taste testing unit we do later in the year to help students with vocabulary to express preferences in detail. I will send another notice later in the year. 

Here are some pictures of this week! 

Bienvenue!

Hello division 1 and welcome to our class blog! I will post as often as I can about things we are doing, important information, and other reminders. 

I hope that you can use this to keep current on what we are doing in class. I know so often, students come home and when asked what they did at school, the answer is 'nothing' or 'I don't remember'.  Please use these posts to ask more pointed questions, or help them remember what they did at school! 

On that topic, here is some food for thought for you all: http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/5738338

We have had a very busy week so far! Lots of routines to learn, materials to hand out, and learning to do! Yesterday and today, we got our binders and supplies, and came up with class jobs. We also started working on a project about ourselves that we will display in the class to learn about each other! 

I don't know if it's possible to put into words how thankful I am for this year. It was so much fun, full of challenges and learning. As I told the class today, I truly had an amazing year. Each and every one of them was a true pleasure to work with. 

I also wanted to thank you all for the thoughtful gifts, but more so for the kind words in person, and in cards. I sat down to read them all when I got home tonight and am so humbled by all you wrote. I love my job, and hearing how much your children enjoyed school means the world to me. This is what keeps us teachers going!!

I hope you all take the time to watch the DVD. I'll admit I've watched it again since I've been home. If any DVDs don't work, please let me know! I didn't get to check them all. 

I hope you all have a restful and relaxing summer! 

With sincere gratitude,

           Mme Jessica 

Last day

I appologize for not posting for a while, but the end of school is always so busy. 

Most work has been sent home, and some things that aren't finished can be finished during the summer. We hardly got started on cursive writing, but if they bring back the book, done, after the summer, I will have a little something for them. 

Tomorrow, we will be having some Popsicles we made today, and students can bring something healthy to share with the class if they want! Students can also bring a board game to play with the class for the afternoon. 

On Wednesday we will be heading up to the main school to watch the grade 4 and 5s present their plays. Please make sure your children are dressed for the weather (it will be hot!). We will most likely be eating our lunch in the park that day.

This was all them! All I did was project the provinces so they could trace them, then glue it all down at the end. They worked so hard! Be sure to stop by the school to see it!

I apologize for the major delay in posts but I got locked out of my account! I'm back now and will try to update you slowly as we go along. 

First, know that tomorrow will be a pajama/costume day (they voted...for the same thing again). 

Here are a bunch of pictures from the past week. Enjoy!