Home Reading

Last Friday, I sent home our home reading sheets. In grade 3, we track home reading minutes that convert to kilometers. With those kilometers, we try to cross Canada! There is a page explaining all this at the front of the package, which is now at the front of the dictee duotang.

Later this week, we will start taking books home from our home reading collection at school. It's up to you and your child to decide how often to change books. This is not something I will police, instead, it is to make it easier to read at home by having books at an appropriate level.

Happy Thanksgiving. I was going to send our gratitude trees home for thanksgiving, but I loved having them in the class, and want to give students a chance to read what others wrote.

This morning, there was a segment on the news about gratitude. They listed some of the benefits in children of recognizing what they are grateful for. Those benefits include improved happiness, increased life satisfaction, improved sleep, increased motivation to improve relationships, and generally able to focus on the positive instead of the negative.

If you're looking for ideas to focus more on gratitude at home, a candid approach is best. Let your children hear you talking to others about what you're grateful for, or try keeping a gratitude journal. I personally keep a gratitude journal and try to write one thing I'm grateful for every night. It's not an easy practice, but it is extremely powerful. It doesn't have to happen every day, and doesn't even have to be formal journaling. When I have done this activity with children in the past, it can be helpful to take a '5 senses' approach. What did you smell today that was nice? Did you taste something yummy today?

Yesterday, we spent a whole day talking about what we are greatful for. This is always my favourite project to do with students, as they come up with so many amazing things! This is a group brainstorm we did, that I had to cut off after 20 minutes so we could start the project. I'll post a picture of their finished projects tomorrow! 

We also did an experiment to examine how matter changes form in class today. It's very easy and can be done easily at home! 

Just a reminder to bring dictée duotangs to school tomorrow. We will be starting our home reading program tomorrow, which will also be kept in the duotang. 

 
 
 

In math, we have been working on patterning. We do lots of number patterns, but it's fun to go back to colour patterns too! 

 
 
 

Yesterday, we did our terry fox run. The students ran so well!  We listened to a song about terry. You can find the song and YouTube video here: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=nwpzXxU7VWk

I spent the morning at musqueam cultural center as part of my professional development. I had a wonderful time, and  learned so much. If you're interested, they have a great exhibit at their cultural center that has many artifacts from the culture.  If you have some spare time, I'd highly recommend checking it out! 

Here is some beautiful art the kids did last week. Feel free to stop by and see it in the hallway 

 

 

Just a reminder that tomorrow is our turn to provide goodies for the bake sale!

 

 

Here are some pictures from last week. 

 

 
 
 
 

Thank you for your patience as I get the blog back up and running. While technology can be a wonderful thing, there are always technical glitches. I seem to have everything sorted out and will be able to post more often.

Just a reminder that tonight is the open house at douglas annex. Please come stop by, come say hi, and see the classroom. I will be here if you have any questions about our class.

As you hopefully have seen, dictee duotangs come home on Monday. Please help children remember to bring them back on Friday so they can do their test. Remember that it's not your job to put it in your child's backpack. Instead, you can help them remember.

See you all tonight!

Mme Jessica

Dear division 1 of 2016-2017,

Welcome to your class blog! I will be writing here as often as I can remember.

If you're not feeling confident in checking all the time, you can sign up to have an email notification every time I post. The box is to the right ---> We have been so busy so far. Lots of writing, math, and art. I'll post pictures soon.

I know the September re-start can be challenging for all of us. I came across this article that gives great perspectives into the beginning of the year for children, and provides some great strategies to help get over the September grumpies. You can read it here. I think the biggest thing to remember, is to keep to an early bed time!