Monday, 7 December 2015

Week of November 30 - December 4

I can't believe we only have 2 weeks of school left until Christmas break.  We have so many things going on in the classroom and special projects to complete before the holidays.

Reading Workshop

This week during reading workshop I read the "Snow Globe Family" by Jane O'Connor to the students. It's a wonderful story about a little family who lives in a snow globe. They long for a swirling snowstorm—if only someone in the big family would pick up the snow globe and give it a great big shake.  


While reading this story I focused on the comprehension strategy of making predictions as you read and using text to confirm you predictions.  To predict, readers tell what they think will happen in the story; to confirm, readers find out whether their predictions were true, partially true, or way off.  Using this strategy helps readers make connections to the text, think ahead, and become more engaged.  Readers follow three steps:

1. Look at the details in the selection.
2. Decide what they think will happen next based on the details and background
knowledge.
3. Look back and check to make sure the prediction was accurate (confirm).

Writing Workshop

This book inspired our cute writing project about "Life in a Snow Globe."  The focus for this activity was to continue to add elaborative detail in our writing. The students were asked to write a paragraph about what life would be like in a snow globe.  They will continue to work on this writing project next week as well.

The students also wrote our letters to Santa this week.  We focused on learning the proper format of writing a friendly letter.  The students are anxiously waiting for their responses from Santa.


Handwriting

The students continue to practice their handwriting in class. 




Author Visit

The grade three students at Robina Baker had the privilege of receiving a visit from Nicole Brook, a local children's book author.  Nicole has launched a children's book series called "The Amazing Adventures of Abigail Andrews."  The students were lucky enough to be given a signed copy of her newest book called "Pool of Secrets" to take home.






As part of her presentation, Nicole spoke to the students about how in order to achieve your dreams you need to believe in yourself.  Nicole will be releasing a new book in the fall and she is looking for a new main character.  The students have been asked to write their own adventure story at home and bring them to school before Christmas.  The lucky winner of the story writing contest will be the main character in Nicole Brook's next book!  For more information about the contest, please click on the link below.


Math

This week we covered the following curricular outcomes in math:
  • Regrouping - regroup base ten materials and coins to make standard models of numbers.
The process of grouping ten single blocks into one stack of ten is called regrouping because you are rearranging the blocks into groups.



Below is one of our students writing down all of the ways to make the number 43:



Science

This week we continued to discussed how sound is the result of vibration. 

By extending a ruler over the edge of a desk and pulling down on the ruler, the students were able to observe the different "pitches" that the ruler made. We were able to measure the highness and lowness of sound according to how far out the ruler was extended. The length of the ruler determines the "pitch" of the sound. High and low sounds depend on how fast an object vibrates. When the ruler was vibrating faster, we heard a high sound. A longer ruler makes a lower sound and a shorter ruler makes a higher sound.



The students enjoyed playing "Jingle Bells" on their vibrating comb instruments!


Social Studies

In Social Studies this week we finished discussing and filling in the customs and traditions of India in our travel journal. Next week we will begin looking at services in India.

Amazing Race

The students continue to "race around the world" as part of our home reading program.  We have two students that have recently arrived in Ukraine by reading 1750 minutes.  Great job readers!


It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas in 3D! The students enjoyed decorating our tree during one of the indoor recesses this week.



Student of the Week



Congratulations to Miss L for being chosen as our Student of the Week during the assembly on Friday!

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