Counting Pop Tabs

 

It was another excited week in grade 3 as students were counting the number of pop tabs that were generously donated!

To connect to our math we challenged students to first make an estimate and then try and count all the pop tabs that were in the above wagon. 

Students began by counting out ten pop tabs, then with their group they put them together to make one hundred pop tabs. Once students saw what one hundred pop tabs looked like, they were asked to make another estimate of the number of pop tabs they thought were in the wagon.

After each group counted out one hundred pop tabs they were then challenged to count out one thousand pop tabs. Students discussed how to organize this so they were able to keep track and make sure they were being accurate in their counting.

Once again, students were asked to revise their estimates one they saw the size of one thousand pop tabs! Many students' estimates increased significantly!

After two days, we had counted 18 760 pop tabs! It looked to be approximately half of the pop tabs in the wagon so we doubled our number and decided that there are around 37 520 pop tabs. (We kept the 18 760 pop tabs we counted separate in case we want to continue counting another time!)

Thank you so much to all the parents, friends of family and of course students who have been helping us with our collection. We even have students in other grades coming to bring us their pop tabs as well!

Mathematics Learning Outcome:

Students interpret place value within 100 000.

Student Learning Objectives:

• I can express various compositions of a natural number using place value.
• I can round natural numbers to various places.
• I understand for numbers in base-10, each place has 10 times the value of the place to its right.
• I can express natural numbers using words and numerals.

Warm Feet, Warm Hearts

“I am only one, but still I am one. I cannot do everything, but still I can do something, and because I cannot do everything, I will not refuse to do something that I can not do.” 

                                                                                -Helen Keller

This week, our grade 3 students and their kindergarten buddies have been discussing and sharing, what is the Mustard Seed and what does it mean to be homeless?

As a school community, we are working to speak about homelessness using respectful language. We can use “people first” language. (“Someone who doesn’t have a home”)

Students learned:

• Homelessness is an important issue in our community, country, and world.
• We can learn about compassion and caring for others.
• We can learn about diversity.
• We can participate in community building.
• We can work together.

On Wednesday, November 20th we will be having a speaker from the Mustard Seed come in the speak with our Grade 3 and Kindergarten students further educate them about this important topic.

How Can Andrew Sibbald School Help?

We can collaborate through communication, empathy, and respect.

The kindergartens and grade 3’s are preparing a school wide collection for ‘Warm Feet and Warm Hearts’. These items will be donated to the Mustard Seed and they will distribute it to their clients.

One Thursday our students partnered up with their kindergarten buddies and made posters illustrating what items students can bring in for donation. These poster will be posted around the school to help inform their peers.

What are we hoping to collect?

• New pairs of warm socks, gloves, mitts, and hats
• Packaged bars of soap
• Lip balm
• Toothbrushes, toothpaste, dental floss
• Travel-size shampoo and conditioner, body wash
• Travel-size lotion / hand cream
• Gift cards (i.e. Tim Horton’s or McDonalds)
• Kleenex, Band-Aids, Hand Warmers
• Transit tickets

When can we bring in donations?

We will collect donations from December 2nd– December 6th, 2024.

Social Studies Learning Outcome:

I can develop age-appropriate behaviour for social involvement as a responsible citizen contributing to my community, such asParticipate in projects that improve or meet the particular needs of my school or community.

Remembrance Day & Solving Problems

"When you go home, tell them of us and say, 

for your to-morrows these gave their today."

                                                                                               -John Maxwell Edmonds

This week students participated in several activities to develop their understanding of why we celebrate Remembrance Day and to remember those who have and are currently participated in conflicts around our world.

Students were surprised to learn that it wasn’t only men who partook in fighting for our freedom, but that women, people of all cultures and religions and even animals were involved in keeping us safe.

Did you know that animals had vital roles such as:

Mules: Carried panniers and artillery.
Horses: Carried mounted troops and hauled field guns.
Carrier pigeons: Delivered messages to specific destinations.
Dogs: Used as messengers, medical assistants, bomb detectors, and search and rescue workers.

 

Many other animals were mascots and helped to keep the soldiers spirits up. One famous example of this is 'Winnie,' who became famous when later named Winnie-the Pooh.

We were inspired by the UK artist Jacqueline Hurley’s ‘Remembrance Collection’ honouring military heroes. Using actual black and white photos from different wars as their base, students created handmade poppies to which added a pop colour to the photo. We were proud to see them on display at our Remembrance Day assembly.

We also wrote a letter to a soldier expressing our gratitude for their sacrifices and made a promise of how we will maintain peace in our lives.

In math we have been working on learning different strategies to solve multi-step word problems. Students learned a strategy using the acronym ‘UGLY’ to help them carefully examine problems and ensure that they fully solve and answer the problem.

We also looked at clue words that might help us understand which operation we could use to solve problems. 

Mathematics Learning Outcome:

Students apply strategies for addition and subtraction within 1000.

Student Learning Intentions:

• I can solve problems using addition and subtraction.
• I can estimate sums and differences.

Lots of Learning & Halloween

In Language Arts, students have been continuing to practice their reading strategies through our book clubs. Using our annotating bookmark they are clarifying, making predictions and noting any text-to-text, text-to-self or text-to-world connections. Please ask your child what book they are reading and who is in their group. 

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.

This week in science we played a game in class called Predator-Prey Hunt. The goal of the game was for students to understand the relationship between predators and their prey. Students were randomly given a card with an animal name, a brief description classifying if their animal was a herbivore, omnivore or carnivore and a list of what it ate. Students then moved around the room meeting up with one another. When a predator found an animal on their list they took that students card and that student had to sit down. When there were only a few students left, the remaining students shared what animal they were. Of course, we only had predators left. We concluded the lesson by summarizing the importance of a food web and the predator-prey relationship. We discussed what would happen in our game and in an eco-system if there were more or less predators.

Science Learning Outcome:

• I can classify animals in a food chain as carnivores, herbivores, or omnivores.

In math, students worked on estimating sums to the nearest hundreds. Students estimated the sum by rounding each addend to the nearest hundreds. We also worked on problem solving using both estimating and addition. 

For example:

  592               600
+238            +200
                      800

Students are learning how to read problem carefully so they are able to figure out what order of operation they need to use in order to successfully solve the problem.

In the gym, we played an invasion game called, “Trick or Treat”. Students took turns with a partner grabbing candy pieces from the edges of the haunted house, and the monsters inside the haunted house tried to tag them. If they get tagged, they had to put the candy back and had to go to the trap. When they got there, the students did ten mountain climbers and then went back to their partner and try again. We started off using short noodles to tag and then switched to long noodles. Students were asked which one was easier to get candy with? Which noodle was more challenging? What were some of the strategies they used to try and get the bean bag 'candy' and not get tagged. What worked well, what didn’t work well? Why? Did they enjoy the game and have fun? Why or why not?

Continuing on with our Social Studies, students learned about the difference between needs and wants and how they affect someone's quality of life. After research and classroom discussions, students created their own quality of life quilts making sure they had all their needs included first.

In part of our Halloween celebrations, students had a lot of fun participating in our whole grade 3 STEM challenges. Partnering up with students from each class, students were given the choice of using straws and connectors to build a 3-D pumpkin or using popsicle sticks and plasticine build a bridge.