I also sent home some homework about culture. In case you missed the notice, here it is.
Tuesday, 17 January 2017
Thursday, 12 January 2017
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!
Tuesday, 10 January 2017
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!
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!
Tuesday, 3 January 2017
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!
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!
Thursday, 15 December 2016
As you hopefully saw, a bunch of work came home in backpacks today. We are cleaning out all our work from term one so we can have a fresh start for term two in the new year. What came home yesterday is their morning work and work when they're finished section. It's normal that not all of this work is finished and it's nothing essential in the curriculum. It's more to warm up our brains first thing in the morning. Feel free to work on these things over the break if you're looking for academics to do.
Today and tomorrow, more work will be coming home. There maybe some things that are unfinished but that's nothing to stress about.
Just a reminder that our winter concert is tonight at 6 PM at the main school. Students can wear any combination of white black and red and if they want to wear a winter hat that's totally cool.
We had great success yesterday with gingerbread houses! No tears when they didn't succeed at first, and they're all standing today!
Monday, 12 December 2016
Thursday, 8 December 2016
Wednesday, 7 December 2016
Tuesday, 6 December 2016
We have just been having too much fun for me to remember to do a blog post. While we are still continuing with all of our academics right through until the end of December, we have been doing a fun winter activity every day as a countdown to the end of school for the year.
Thursday, Friday, and today were all to do with decorating our class! It's looking very Wintery in div 1!
Please send dictée books on Friday. Our dictée activity for this week will be done only in class. It is essential that students bring their duotangs in order for this activity to happen.
Some students have some writing to finish for homework tonight, and need to practice their song for the winter concert. You can find the words here, and the audio here.
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