What fun this was! Surprisingly, very few marshmallows were eaten! 

Here is this week's dictée 

Have you all seen this space news? http://m.huffpost.com/us/entry/new-planet-discovered_us_569fbf96e4b0875553c28ac0?ir=Good+News&section=good-news&ncid=fcbklnkushpmg00000023

This week's dictée is going to be a bit different. There is nothing to study (yay!), but we will be having a celebration (test) on Friday. It will be grade 3 sight words that we have been working on since the beginning of the year. 

Also, we will be doing lots of work on subtraction with regrouping, or borrowing, this week. Please take the time you would normally use for dictée to practice this. An example of a subtraction question with borrowing would be 

 54

-39

Spaghetti structures

Famous structures

We have spent the last two days looking at famous structures and trying to duplicate them. Some are definitely easier than others! 

This week's dictée

This week's dictée is long but repetitive. Just incase there is any confusion, here it is! 

One of my New Years resolutions is to be ok asking for help! After some encouragement, and as I work during my prep, I realize I could use some help cleaning! I have a few hundred planting containers that were given to me last year for our plant unit. Before we use them in the spring, I would like to use them to build our structures. Problem is they are covered in dirt. If you are able to take a few home to rinse, please stop by the portable after or before school to grab some. It would be greatly appreciated!

It was wonderful to have students come in to class this morning excited about structures they made at home last night after starting our structures unit yesterday.I love when learning is taken out of the classroom. Today in centers, without prompting, almost everyone was building different structures. 

I love this unit because it is so hands on. So far, we have classified structures as human-made or natural, as well as learned the definition of structures. Next week, we will be learning about different parts of human-made structures, and then will be doing many experiments building structures. If you are able to help out, I am in search of some supplies. We need:

- mini marshmallows

- red 'solo' cups or equivalent dollarstore version (red not necessary)

- both normal and large sized popsicle sticks

- rolls of masking tape

- newspapers

- small wooden cubes (I can't remember if they are 1cm squared or 1 inch squared) that can be found at most dollar stores in the craft section.

I will post more needs as we go along. 

Thanks so much for your help!

Oh dear! My brain must still be on vacation. On the dictée, it should be heureux with a u. I was writing too fast!

Today we started our next science unit - structures. I am looking forward to this unit and all the hands-on learning! 

Happy New Year!

I would like to start by wishing you all a happy new year! I hope everyone had a restful and relaxing break. I heard all about the fun things everyone did today! I also want to say a heartfelt thank you for the lovely Christmas gifts and cards. I feel spoiled! Spending time with your children is a gift! I really enjoy every day with the class this year!

Just to let you know everything is status quo for the new year. Dictee continues as is, home reading continues as is (we will take class book out starting tomorrow), and one of our library days stays the same (exchange books on Mondays). the only change is that we won't be having library on Fridays. Instead we will have music with Mme Christina on Wednesdays. Each class gets two terms of music, so it's our turn now!

We also have our new vice principal, Mr Daniel. Be sure to stop by and say hi to him if you get a chance.

I will be sending home more information on our new math, science, and socials units as we get started on them. For now, if you have any extra of the following supplies at home, could you please send them to school for our next science unit:
- white glue
- twine
- newspapers
- mini marshmallows
- toothpicks
- popsicle sticks

Much appreciated!

Here is to a happy and healthy 2016, filled with lots of learning!