A massive thank you to all the parents who were able to join yesterday for the student led conferences. It was lovely to hear and see the children sharing all their hard work with you. We hope you enjoyed it as well. Here are a few photos from yesterday!
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Overview: This past week has been one of goal setting. As the students work towards completion of their art creations, fractured fairy tales and postings on their blogs, they are continuously asked to set goals of what they hope to accomplish. This permits them to orientate to the task at hand, thinking about what they will need to get started and choices they need to make in hopes of reaching their goal. They have had the chance to feel failure and success. Reflecting and learning from the failures to have successful re-tries. They are so excited to share their final pieces with their parents in the upcoming assembly and student-led conferences. Maths: The children are continuing on with their practice of multiplying by 10's, 100's, & 1,000's in looking at measurement conversions. They also had an usual problem solving challenge this week. They were asked to study a variety of tessellations and create story problems that matched the tessellation of their choosing. Story problems spanned across many math categories, such as: number, shape and pattern. In preparation for upcoming work on equivalent fractions, the children had a chance to brainstorm & record their understanding of fraction vocabulary. They were asked to create "graffiti boards" with words, symbols and examples of fractions.
UOI: This week the students have been diligently creating their plans for their art pieces by choosing colors, shading, textures, and materials needed to create their final pieces. They have just begun to the exciting process of creating. Their has been a buzz in the air!!!! Maths: Measurement and conversions of length measurement has been a focus this week. The students were posed with some questions, such as: How does what we measure affect how we measure? We made a table to help us organize our thinking. What do we measure, how do we measure it, and what tools do we need to measure. After, we began to discuss conversions for measurements; particularly with length. The students had a chance to practice measuring and converting measurements from cm to m. Literacy: The children have been working diligently on moving through the writing process to create their fractured fairy tales. They have been independently planning, meeting with a writing partner for feedback, creating a first draft, conferencing with a teacher, and then finally, moving on to making final edits for their published piece. ICT: Student led conferences are quickly approaching and the students have been preparing and updating their blogs. They had a chance to spend a little more time in the lab this week to choose and reflect on the work they plan to share at conferences.
UOI: Welcome Back! I hope everyone had a relaxing break. The students have come back ready to learn and work. They are showing great enthusiasm for the chance to express themselves through art. They have started to think about the ways in which artists find their inspiration and choose a medium to create. While inquiring through online resources, books, and their own imaginations, they began recording their inspirations in their art sketch book. Today, they will continue to plan their designs and make lists of supplies they will need to begin their creations. Maths: While exploring the aspects of geometry, the students are beginning to make discoveries and connections. They are identifying how shapes and patterns in mathematics are found and used in art. They have used their knowledge of shapes and patterns to begin making tessellation patterns using regular polygons. Literacy: Over the last several weeks, the students have been orally re-telling fairy tales, thinking about the structure and plot, retelling in their own words using dialogue and expression. They have been studying how fractured fairy tales compare to the classics and have identified the various elements needed to make a good story. They have also begun to see how authors make changes in the story to craft an adaptation to the classic story. They have begun to create their own adaptation of a classic fairy tales and will continue through the writing process to create their very own, original fractured fairy tale. More to come.....
It has been a week of hands on learning in just about every area of study. The students continued on with their Tuning In activities for our new How We Express Ourselves unit of inquiry. During literacy, the children continued practicing re-telling fairy tales, particularly thinking about how to organize and make the story interesting. We also began to compare classic and fractured fairy tales. In Maths, the students started creating their own 3D shapes recording the edges and vertices. To end the week, the students used their imaginations to create various pieces during Genius Hour. The students have come home with a small folded piece of paper that they will use over Spring Holiday to capture their inspirations. Ask them about it and please remind them to start using it in preparation for their art pieces they will be creating after the holiday.
Have a wonderful break! See you back on April 4th. It has been a while since the last posting. My how times flies when you are busy. Let me take the time to catch you up on what the students have been doing. Literacy: As we enter our new unit of inquiry, How We Express Ourselves, we have also begun a new reading and writing unit of study. We have started to read classic Fairy Tales looking at the story elements that compose these tales. The students are viewing with a critical eye, as readers, to identify all the story elements as well as, observing with a writers lens to see how to construct fairy tales. We are now moving into looking at how classic stories can be adapted and made in to twisted or fractured fairy tales by changing one or two of the story elements. The students will be writing their own fractured fairy tales in the weeks to come. Maths: In connection with our new UOI, the students are looking at 3D shapes. We will identify the names and properties of these shapes over the coming weeks. They students will also begin to identify various 3D shapes in their everyday life and in various pieces of artwork. They may even decide to incorporate 3D shapes in their own artistic creations. The students also took their knowledge of multiplication facts and began extending it to multiple factors for various products. They will continue to practice with this over the coming weeks to strengthen their understanding and use of fact families with multiplication and division. Lastly, in maths, the students had a very challenging problem solving task this week. It was thinking about a 3D cube and how many sides would have icing on it if it were cut into 27 pieces. It was definitely a mind bender and extended their thinking of 3D shapes and space. Unit of Inquiry: Well, the new unit has officially begun! It has been a week of Tuning In as the students begin to think about art in its many forms and purposes. They have had a variety of activities to do in order to explore the many ways in which art can be used to express emotions, in particular. Gamcheon Art Village: A huge thanks to all the moms who came out to help on the field trip yesterday. The kids were bursting with excitement and energy! They LOVED it!!!!! It wouldn't have been nearly as successful without you. The students had a chance to identify various forms of art: sculptures, wall murals, graffiti, installations, and more. They also had a chance to ask questions like: What is art? Why do we make art? Additionally, they had a chance to observe details within/form within the artworks such as: lines, contrasting colors, balance, shape, patterns, etc.
UOI: It has been a challenging and exciting week as students explored different groups of animals in the animal kingdom. They created displays to share with their classmates and are now investigating ways these animals bodies are designed to take in food and water, if they rely on other animals and plants, and what features they have to protect themselves. The students also began to add to their understanding of the water cycle. They are beginning to use scientific language to describe the different stages. They have made an experiment and we will observe what happens over the next couple of weeks. Please ask you child to explain to you how the water cycle works and why water is important to us. Literacy: Over the next couple of weeks, the students will begin to learn about the disruptions to plant, animal, and Earth's natural cycles. As a result, it is very important they understand the concept of cause and effect. This week, the students had several opportunities to think about cause and effect. First, they played a game of charades where they had to act out different scenarios and the results of a particular action. The thinking was extended as we brainstormed all the possible things that could happen as a result of not brushing you teeth. We used a graphic organizer to better visualize how cause and effect works. Later in the week, we read "If You Give a Pig a Pancake" where we worked together to identify the chain reaction of cause and effect. The students then set off to make their chain reactions with a partner to illustrate their understanding from the book, If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" . Literacy/Writing: In writing workshop, the students learned about to write a hook for a persuasive speech. They looked at examples, identified strategies the author used, and then had a chance to practice making one of their own about a school issue of their choosing.Maths: The children learned two new maths games this week to help them with their mental addition of both ones and tens. The first one is an easy card game called "21" that your child can teach you how to play at home. The second is a dice game where you roll and add either by tens or ones. The first to 100 wins. This is also and easy and fun game to play at home.
Maths rotation gave students continued time to practice with math facts, graphing, and money. This week for problem solving the students utilized a table to recognize a pattern and solve. UOI: This week the students started to discover more about classification of animal and plant species. Working in partnerships, they are reading about different groups within the animal kingdom and lifting key ideas that they will share with the class. They have been asked to draw on their previous understanding of informational texts and graphing to illustrate the information from their reading. They will continue to work on this into next week. UOI/Literacy: As the students read and take notes, they are also identifying unknown words within the text. These are scientific words related to the unit. We have collaboratively been recording and defining the words to create a shared list and understanding of the meanings as we proceed through the unit. Literacy: In writing, students began to discuss how writers of persuasive speeches find ideas for their writing. First.....They find/identify a problem Then....They have a want, belief, or opinion about the problem Last......Present ideas for a solution using convincing reasons Any good piece of writing needs to hook the reader with an outstanding opening. The students are learning to craft an enticing opening to convince the reader to keep reading. Word Work: Many of the scientific words used in the current UOI are complex and have root or base words. The students learned that a base word can be changed into many different words. They looked at roots like: -logy, meter, & cycle. They used the roots to "grow" many other words. Below are some examples of what they found. Maths: This week the students had a chance to practice graphing, particularly looking at parts to a whole up to 100 or $1.00. They used the information from the book: Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday to illustrate his spending over the course of one day with one dollar. In Maths rotation, the students also had a chance to play the Allowance Game for further practice with adding and changing money. The store will continue to be in operation over the next few weeks for additional practice.
In connection with money, the children have been thinking of parts to a whole with fractions. They have been practicing identifying the numerator (part) to the denominator (whole) and stating it in a fraction form. Happy New Year! I hope everyone had a fun and relaxing break. The students are embarking on a new unit of study as the new term and calendar year begins. UOI: Our current unit of inquiry is Sharing the Planet where the students will be looking at how "The Earth's natural cycles help to regenerate its resources". It's an inquiry into: Earth's renewable and nonrenewable resources, the importance of life cycles, and our responsibility to manage the earth's resources. The students have delved into a few of the formative questions this week, such as: What are resources, what are natural resources and which ones are renewable, what are plant and animal cycles like? UOI & Maths: At the start of the new unit, the students were given a survey of questions to assess their background knowledge of the unit content. This information was collated and presented to the students to graph the results. The students began discussing and learning about different types of graphs and ways to present information. They used their knowledge to graph the results of each answer from the survey. Maths: Along with graphing, the students will continue on with practicing multiplication & division facts. We have also started a unit on money. This has already proved to be challenging with all the currencies represented, within the class, from the various countries of origin. However, the bigger concept that is being addressed is parts of a whole. This is connected to their understanding of fractions as well. The students heard the sad tale of " Alexander, Who Used to Be Rich Last Sunday" and have realized he foolishly spent his money. The students will have a chance to practice their addition and subtraction of money as they browse the classroom store to see if they can spend their money more wisely than Alexander. Literacy: As we head into a new UOI, the students will also begin a new unit of writing. They will be focusing on opinion or persuasive writing. The children had a chance to investigate what this type of writing looks like. They thought about the author's purpose for writing, the convincing words they used, and the format in which they wrote to persuade the reader. In the coming weeks, they will be studying persuasive writing samples and practicing with the various elements in order to craft their own writing.
Perseverance: The students have done an amazing job this week staying strong and determined to complete their last three tasks of the term. I am simply amazed at their ability to teach each other in so many different areas of their learning. They have been peer editing writing, teaching each other how to find, crop, save and upload images to their e-books, and offered suggestions for research when someone gets stuck. A break is well-deserved and each student should be so proud of the progress they have made over this first term of school. Thank you: A massive thank you to all the parents who were part of organizing the winter party for the children. It was so lovely for them to have a break from all their hard work and it gave both classes a chance to come together and celebrate. Lindy and I really appreciate all your support and effort in making Grade 3 a wonderful experience for all the children.
Have a safe and relaxing winter break. See you all back in January! |
AuthorWelcome to Grade 3 Green! I am Mrs. Deanna Wilson and I am excited for a wonderful year of learning ahead. Please feel free to contact me @ [email protected] Archives
May 2016
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