As part of my pro-d, I've been looking at social-emotional learning strategies. I came across this resource that I thought might be of interest. Parenting is never easy (I take my hat off to you all!), and these seem like they might come in handy. They've made me think more about my teaching. You can find everything here.

As part of our socials unit, we are talking about putting events in chronological order. We have practiced putting events in Musqueam history in order, and have brainstormed what could go in our own life timeline. Homework for next Tuesday is to brainstorm events along with dates (months and years) that are important in your child's life. Please don't put them in order, instead help them write them in a random order. We will be doing an activity with this in class on Tuesday and Wednesday. Just a reminder that Monday is a pro d! 

 
 

Culture

Our theme this week has continued to be culture, and the students have been so thoughtful and engaged in our conversations. Please keep these conversations going at home - being mindful of what is culture.

We spoke at length about how other cultures' language or food might seem funny to us, but that laughing would not be respectful of those other cultures. No particular incident spurred this conversation, but rather came out of teaching respect of others'. I'll be sure to post more pictures as we get going on more of this unit.

Yesterday, we got to hear and read the Musqueam alphabet, as well as a story about the big dipper in the Musqueam language. I was learning along with the kids, which is always wonderful to do!

I didn't quite get a chance to check everyone's copying of yesterday's dictée. It was just one of those busy days. Here is what they copied from, and the correct spelling for dictée. 

I also sent home some homework about culture. In case you missed the notice, here it is. 

 
 

I just wanted to let you all know that there has been a nasty tummy bug going around the school. If you child is feeling nauseous, PLEASE KEEP THEM AT HOME. We have been told that students should also stay home until they are 48 hours symptom free. I know they are often so excited to come back to school, but please keep them home. 

It's also a good idea to make sure that everyone (including you adults!) are taking care of yourself. Get lots of sleep, drink lots of water, and take whatever vitamins you think you'll need! And hand washing!! 

Stay healthy!

I apologize for the blog silence last week. We are all getting back into a routine!

The kids have had a great start back to school. There is always something that happens after winter break: students return with a new maturity and focus. Second term is always the most intense, and when I gave them a pep talk about this, they showed they were ready!

We have started new activities in our daily literacy practice, one of which is cursive. If you would like a booklet to practice at home, please let me know! They are also working on comprehension with more difficult texts, and learning how to read closely for understanding. As with the end of first teem, we are working on adding more details to writing, and make their writing flow smoother.

We have been reading the book James and the Giant Peach as a class. It would be neat to read it in English at home (but be careful! There is one inappropriate word in the English version). We will be starting a project this week to show understanding of this book. It will be a very open-ended project as per the new curriculum's assessment guidelines. I will be guiding them through this in class, but they may have some work to finish at home. When we go over the criteria, I will post them here so you can have a better understanding of what we are doing. Assessment in the new curriculum is trying to get as far away from testing as possible. While giving tests was never my style, I'm trying some new ideas for grade 3 with this project. Your patience as I figure this all out is greatly appreciated.

In math, we will be doing subtraction with borrowing this week. I ended up a little behind on math before the break, so we will be pushing through quite quickly. In class, it will be lots of practice, and if you want more practice for home, please let me know.

As you hopefully saw, new dictee came home yesterday, It is 5 sentences, which may look daunting, but there is lots of repetition in each sentence. They will be more varied as the term goes on. Happy studying!

Bon Retour!

Happy New Year!

I hope everyone had a wonderful and relaxing holiday. The students had lots of wonderful experiences to share from their time off. I know I enjoyed my time off, but am happy to be back in the classroom!

I gave the students a pep talk today - the second term of grade 3 is the most intense and academically heavy. We will be pushing through lots of math and social studies this term. The students are ready to work hard!

Dictée will restart next Monday. Please send dictee duotangs back for next Monday, but you can keep all previous dictée sheets at home. We will be starting with sentences.

I wanted to remind you that there are lots of home reading books available in the classroom. I won't monitor if students take them out or not. I leave it up to you to decide with your child if you will use books from this collection or not. That being said, I do want to remind you all of the importance of having your child read at home for 15 minutes a night. Since students know how to read by grade 3, there is less guided practice in class, and more learning more complex parts of reading (comprehension, questioning, inferring etc). It is still so very important to be practicing basic decoding skills every night. I encourage you to use these classroom resources for this!