Yetis, Posters and More!

In September, students were introduced to our school wide anchor text entitled: The Magical Yet. This was a great week for grade 3’s as our Yeti’s came to life. Using yarn, card stock and googly eyes students were able to create their very own ‘Yeti". They were so excited to be able to make a visual representation of the ‘Magical Yet,’ Students will be able to access them throughout the year to help remind them that with determination and practice they will be able to do the hard things they cannot do yet.

After learning about Terry Fox and the challenges he faced, students wrote a goal for themselves based on a challenge that they are experiencing at school or in their personal lives. We posted these up in our classroom with our Yetis to remind ourselves of these intentions. Throughout the year we will be celebrating the goals we achieve and continue to set new ones for ourselves.

Fine Arts Learning Outcome: Outside stimulation from sources such as music, literature, photographs, film, creative movement, drama, television and computers can be interpreted visually.

On Monday students watched a news broadcast about a man named Larry who has collected over eleven million pop can tabs for Ronald McDonald House. After writing about what we learned about Larry and the Ronald McDonald House, students decided that they also would like to collect the tabs off of cans to help families stay close to their sick children. Students have already begun bringing in tabs for our classroom jar! We are so excited to see how many we will be able to collect by the end of the school year!

Social Studies Learning Outcome:

3.2.2 explore the concept of global citizenship by reflecting upon the following questions for inquiry:

• In what ways can individuals and groups contribute to positive change in the world?
• What are examples of international organizations formed by individuals

After a couple of weeks of research, students were able to complete their Science posters on various food chains. We began our project by using non-fiction text features to help locate specific information about the producers, primary and secondary consumers and decomposers that make up our specific food chain. Then we learned how to create a poster that will draw people in to want to read it while providing the important information we learned. Students were really proud to display their posters in our classroom.

Science Learning Outcome:

Students analyze and describe how plants and animals interact with each other and within environments.

Student Learning Intentions:

• I can represent various food chains in local and other Canadian environments.

English Language Art and Literature Outcome:

Students relate the form and structure of texts to the communication of ideas and information.

Student Learning Intentions:

• I can examine a variety of text features that provide additional information in a text.
• I can include a variety of text features to organize, clarify, or enhance personal messages.

Fall Painting

 "Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower"

                                                                                 -Albert Camus

We have had another busy week in grade 3. We continue to work on being grateful, kind and continue to take care of each other in our community of learning inside the school and out. This week we have continued to each add one word to our gratitude pumpkin and students are very excited to see how full it is getting.

The beautiful weather inspired us all this week to create a fall art piece that included Aspen trees. We compared Aspen trees to our community of learning and learned that the trees take care of each other in their community through their root system. 

Learning Outcome: Media and Techniques: Students will use media and techniques, with an emphasis on mixing media and perfecting techniques in drawing and painting.

Success Criteria:

Painting

• I can extend brush skills and further experimentation with the medium so as to achieve special effects such as textures.
• I can work with watercolour paint.
• I can mix paints to show intensity of colour.
• I can apply washes, using watercolour paint.
• I can use preliminary sketches as the basis for a painting, as well as painting directly.

Seed Survivor & Outdoor Learning

On Tuesday, students were excited to have the opportunity to experience Seed Survivor’s mobile classroom. Students were able to participate in various multimedia and virtual reality games, a fossil digging station, a sunflower microgreens planting station and many more.

They also received an informative presentation from a volunteer who works in the field of agriculture. Ask your child what their favorite station was and one important fact that they learned. Don’t forget to look after your microgreens and remember they are edible! Once they have matured you can enjoy them in a salad or on top of a sandwich.

Science Outcome:

Students analyze changes in Earth’s surface and explain how its layers hold stories of the past.

Student Learning Objectives:

• I can represent how the movement of water and wind changes Earth’s surface over time.
• I can investigate how changing Earth’s surface by farming and growing crops contributes to daily life in Alberta.
• I can examine soil and its components in the local community.
• I can reflect on and share actions that can be taken to protect plants and animals in local environments.

On Wednesday we took advantage of the beautiful fall weather and took our learning outside to our Sit Spots. We began by practicing how to sit calmly and intentionally in our sit spots. Using the medicine wheel as our guide, students filled out what they could see, what they could hear, how they felt, and what they were thinking.

Then we began collecting fall data. Students were asked to count the number of trees with yellow, orange, green or red leaves. In their visual journals, students created tally charts to document their observations.

Later in the classroom they used their findings to create bar graphs. We then examined our graphs to determine how much information we could learn from our graphs.

Mathematics Outcome:

Students interpret and explain representations of data.

Student Learning Objectives:

I can collect data using digital or non-digital tools and resources.I can represent first-hand and second-hand data in a dot plot or bar graph with one-to-one correspondence.

On Friday we ended the week with a fantastic MakerSpace activity that Mrs. Harris created for our students. After reading the book: 'Those Darn Squirrels,' students were asked to design and build a device that will help a squirrel collect food for the winter. 

Working in groups of three, our students demonstrated amazing creativity, perseverance and cooperation. We were so proud of their hard work.

Terry Fox & Measurement

This week, students have been discussing and sharing why Terry Fox is a Canadian hero.  Many of the students were surprised that Terry Fox started his campaign in 1980. Terry Fox’s campaign this year is “No Matter…”  As we learned of the many challenges Terry Fox faced everyday with road conditions, weather changes, having to wake up super early and his health, he managed some of his stress and worries through daily journal entries.  Students were then asked: “What challenge would you like to overcome?  

Students were excited to be able to participate in two Terry Fox Runs this year. The first was on Thursday to help support their Kindergarten buddies. Today they participated a second time with the rest of the school. Together we learned how we can make a difference by bringing awareness to important issues. Please ask your child what the best thing they like about being a buddy?  

Social Studies Learning Outcome:

I can develop age-appropriate behaviour for social involvement as a responsible citizen contributing to my community, such as:

• Participate in projects that improve or meet the particular needs of my school or community

In Math this week, students were practicing their addition with and without regrouping. They practiced several examples together as a group using their white boards. We reviewed and learned three different methods for solving addition. The methods included: Base Ten Method, Stacking Method (standard algorithm) and the Breaking Apart strategy. Students were asked to solve addition questions choosing the method they felt more comfortable with. Most of our grade three’s chose the Stacking Method. As we concluded our lessons and the students were asked which method they found most difficult, most shared the Break Apart method. Next week we will be spending more time practicing the different strategies as a whole group, small groups, with a partner and by ourselves. 

We also used the trundle wheels to measure how many metres we can run while playing our 'Run and Scream' stick game. Students were really excited to see how far they could run and made a goal for how far they would like to run by June.

Math Learning Outcome:

I can apply strategies for addition and subtraction within 1000.

In Language Arts, students spent some time this week identifying what a complete sentence looks like (a sentence always has a subject and a verb). They were asked, “what if a sentence was missing a subject or verb?” We spent some time learning about a sentence fragment (a group of words that is missing a subject or verb). Please ask your child what the difference is between the two.

Language Arts Learning Outcome:

I can investigate writing and research processes that support informed written expression.

Students were asked what does the term food chain mean? They turned to a partner sitting beside them and brainstormed (shared) what they thought it meant. Students learned many key vocabulary terms, what they means, why they are important and illustrated examples of each. For example: producers, consumers, primary consumers, secondary consumers (predators) and decomposers. Please ask your child what does a food chain mean and why is it important?

Science Learning Outcome:

I can represent various food chains in local environments and other Canadian environments.