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.