A Busy and Joyful Last Week Before Winter Break!

Our Grade 3 classroom had a wonderful and busy final week of learning before winter break, beginning with some outdoor fun in the snow! Students worked together to build and create in the snow, using teamwork, problem-solving, and creativity. Back in the classroom, students drew on this shared experience to inspire their writing. Using what they saw, felt, and did outdoors, students wrote five extended sentences, carefully adding adjectives and adverbs to make their writing more detailed and interesting for the reader.

We also spent time getting our bodies moving in Physical Education. Students worked in small groups to exercise different muscle groups while continuing to practice cooperation and perseverance.

Another highlight of the week was reading How to Catch a Gingerbread Man. After discussing the story, students used their imaginations to write about a trap they would design to catch the Gingerbread Man. Their writing showed creativity, clear explanations, and thoughtful details.

Despite the excitement of the upcoming winter break, students demonstrated strong focus and effort with the many writing tasks we completed this week. We are very proud of the growth they have shown as writers.

We ended the week on a special note by attending an assembly to say farewell to Ms. Scarrow. We also shared a heartwarming moment singing Christmas carols with our kindergarten buddies, celebrating connection and community within our school.

Talk With Your Child About Their Learning:

Here are some questions you can ask your child to help them reflect on their learning this week:

• What did you build in the snow, and who did you work with?
• Which adjectives or adverbs did you use to make your snow-writing more interesting?
• What muscles did you use during Physical Education, and why is exercising important?
• What kind of trap did you design to catch the Gingerbread Man? What materials would you use?
• What was your favourite writing activity this week, and why?
• How did it feel to sing with your kindergarten buddy?

We wish all our families a safe, restful, and happy winter break. Thank you for your continued support, and we look forward to learning together again in the new year! 🎄✨

Curriculum Connections – Grade 3 New Learn Alberta

English Language Arts and Literature

• Creating and extending sentences to communicate ideas and experiences clearly
• Using descriptive language (adjectives and adverbs) to enhance meaning
• Responding to texts by sharing ideas and creating written responses
• Building writing stamina through sustained writing tasks

Physical Education & Wellness

• Developing physical competence through movement and muscle-building activities
• Working cooperatively in small groups
• Understanding the importance of physical activity for overall well-being
• Collaborating respectfully with peers
• Demonstrating perseverance and focus during learning tasks
• Building relationships and a sense of belonging within the school community

Hip Hop Art & Music

Our Grade 3 students have been exploring the world of Hip Hop through Sound Creations, and this week they brought their learning to life in a creative and colourful way!

Students painted vinyl records to represent what they’ve learned about the roots, rhythm, and expression of Hip Hop culture. Each record tells a story—some show movement, some show emotion, and others show the energy of music and dance.

To go along with their artwork, students also created graffiti-style word art. Each student chose one word that inspired their painting—such as creative, love, fun or move—and designed it using bold lines, bright colours, and expressive lettering, just like real street artists do.

These activities connect beautifully to the new Learn Alberta Grade 3 curriculum, especially in the areas of:

Fine Arts: using different materials and artistic techniques to express ideas and emotions

Music: exploring rhythm, pattern, and musical traditions

Literacy: choosing meaningful words and designing creative text to communicate ideas

Well-Being: understanding how music and art help us express who we are and what inspires us

Our students have shown so much creativity, confidence, and teamwork throughout this project. We are so excited to see everything come together during their Hip Hop performance on Tuesday evening. We know they are going to shine!

We can’t wait to celebrate all their hard work!

Writing Complete Sentences

This week the grade threes continued working on writing strong and interesting complete sentences. To demonstrate their understanding of sentences, they followed the writing process. First, students used a word web as a planning tool to generate and organize ideas before writing. Then, we reviewed that every sentence needs a subject, verb, complete thought, correct capital letters, and end punctuation. Students also worked on (or will work on) adding adjectives and adverbs to make their writing more interesting.

As a class, we also looked at different levels of writing and determined what would make a seed, sprout, sapling, or tree. Then, students wrote at least five sentences about a topic and added clear, helpful details to add interest and description. To end, students edited their work, using teacher feedback and a checklist.

English Language Arts Learning Outcomes:

• I can use organizational processes, methods, or tools to support the creation of written texts.
• I can create written texts that draw upon a variety of sources of inspiration.
• I can include a variety of carefully selected words and to add interest.
• I can edit writing for spelling, punctuation, and grammar.
• I can include an adjective (word that describes a noun).
• I can include an adverb ( word that describes a verb).

Possible Questions to Ask Your Child:

• What is a subject (noun)?
• What is a verb (action, linking, or helping)
• Can you write me an interesting sentence about your picture prompt from last week (animal, sport, place or celebration)?
• What feedback did your teacher give you to work on?

Alberta's Six Regions

This week in Grade 3, we continued our Social Studies learning by building our understanding of Canada and where Alberta fits within our country. We were excited to zoom in and begin exploring the six geographical regions of Alberta.

To help us learn, we sang fun songs about Canada and Alberta, which helped us remember important places and features. We also used loose parts (such as rocks, buttons, sticks, and fabric) to create our own maps of Alberta, showing each of the six regions. Students worked together to think about shapes, borders, and textures that could represent mountains, forests, grasslands, and more. The results were wonderful!

We then began learning in depth about the Grassland Region. Students discovered that this region is home to wide open spaces, prairie grasses, unique wildlife, and dramatic landforms like hoodoos and coulees. We had great conversations about how wind, water, and erosion shape the land over time.

We are excited to keep exploring the rest of Alberta’s regions in the coming weeks as we continue to build our knowledge of our province and our country!

How Families Can Support Learning at Home

Here are some easy ways to extend our learning and spark great conversations:

Ask your child questions such as:

• “What are the six regions of Alberta? Which one are we studying right now?”
• “What did you learn about the Grassland Region today?”
• “Can you explain what hoodoos or coulees are?”
• “How did you use loose parts to represent Alberta on your map?”

🌿 Try simple extension activities:

• Look at a map of Alberta together and find the Grassland Region.
• Explore photos or videos of hoodoos (like the Drumheller area) and talk about how they were formed.
• Compare Alberta’s regions—Which ones have mountains? Which ones have lots of trees?
• Take a walk and notice landforms or natural features in your community. How might they be similar to or different from other regions of Alberta?

These small conversations and experiences help strengthen your child’s understanding of our province and Canada as a whole.

Food Chains

In Science, our class has been exploring how animals can be grouped by what they eat. They learned that carnivores eat mostly meat, herbivores eat only plants, and omnivores eat both plants and meat. Knowing what an animal eats helps us understand how it survives and where it fits in a food chain.

They also learned that every food chain has producers, consumers, and decomposers. Producers are plants that make their own food using sunlight. Consumers are animals that eat plants or other animals. Decomposers, like mushrooms and worms, break down dead plants and animals and return nutrients to the soil.

To help us understand all of this, we looked at diagrams, examined animal skulls to compare different types of teeth, watched videos, played games, and read stories about animals. These activities helped students see how each living thing gets energy and how they all connect in a food chain.

By the end of the week, students practiced classifying animals (consumers) as carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores, and placed them in simple food chains with producers and decomposers.

Science Outcomes:

• I can represent various food chains in local environments.
• I can classify animals in a food chain as carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores.

Possible Questions to Ask Your Child:

• What is a food chain?
• What is a producer? Can you give me an example of a producer?
• What is a consumer? What are the three types of consumers?
• Can you draw me an example of a local food chain and explain it to me?

Literacy and Remembrance

This week in Grade 3, we have been reviewing “What is a sentence?”

We discovered that a complete sentence needs two important parts:

• a subject – who or what the sentence is about (a person, place, or thing)
• a predicate – what the subject is doing (the action or verb)

For example:

The dog ran.
“The dog” is the subject, and “ran” is the predicate.

It also needs to express a complete thought!

We practiced building complete sentences together, fixing sentence fragments, and writing our own creative examples. We also noticed how authors use complete sentences to make their writing clear and interesting!

English Language Arts and Literacy Learning Objectives:

• I can understand how sentences work together to create meaning.
• I can use correct sentence structure to communicate ideas clearly.
• I can revise and edit our writing for complete sentences.
• I can express ideas in complete sentences when we speak and write.

These skills help us become confident communicators and thoughtful writers.

Remembrance Day

On Friday, we took time to recognize Remembrance Day. We learned why Canadians wear poppies and how we remember and honour those who served for peace and freedom. Students reflected thoughtfully during our class discussion sharing messages of peace and gratitude.

This connects to our Grade 3 Social Studies learning, where we explore how communities in Canada remember and celebrate important events and people. We are learning that respect, remembrance, and gratitude are important values that help shape who we are as Canadians and as members of our local and global communities.

How Families Can Support Writing at Home:

Here are some ways parents and caregivers can support their child’s learning about sentences at home:

• Read together: Point out complete sentences in books or on signs. Ask, “Who or what is this sentence about?” and “What is happening?”
• Write together: Encourage your child to write short notes, journal entries, or captions for pictures. Then check together if each sentence has a subject and a predicate.
• Play “Fix the Sentence”: Say or write a sentence missing a part (e.g., “The cat ___.”). Have your child fill in the missing predicate or subject to make it complete.
• Celebrate effort: Praise your child for using capitals, punctuation, and complete thoughts in their writing!

Sit Spots

This was an exciting three days for us in Grade 3. We came back together as a class community and settled back into our routines! We reviewed what a community is — people who care for and help each other. We shared ideas about how to continue to make our classroom a kind, inclusive, and fun place to learn.

We also got back into reading, writing, and math! We did this while working together and listening to one another.

We read a story this week called ‘My Sit Spot’. The students demonstrated mindfulness as we had some rich conversations about Sit Spots and why we need to be respectful when we are observing nature. Outside, the students were very excited to go into the nature classroom and choose a spot. We sat quietly, listened, and noticed things in nature like birds, leaves, and bugs. We noticed how being outside made us feel. We felt calm and connected.

Students chose:

- a comfortable spot that feels good.

-a place where they could be quiet.

-a place where they could be alone.

-a place in nature

-a place they could study their senses.

-a place to be mindful.


Our grade threes did an excellent job illustrating and describing things that they could see, hear, and feel while sitting in their sit spots.


Science Learning Outcomes 

• I can be respectful interacting with nature
• I can minimize disturbance to plants and animals

Possible Questions to Ask Your Child:

• What did you enjoy most about being back at school this week?
• Where was your sit spot? 
• Why did you choose this spot?
• What did you see and hear in your sit spot? 
• How did being there make you feel?