Monday, May 22, 2017

March - May

Here are some activities that we've done so far since the end of the March Break.

1. Our field trip to the Pioneer Village

Students experienced the school life of the pioneer children in Upper Canada. This is part of our Grade 3 Social Studies curriculum. The experience was very authentic and the facilitator was a great teacher/actress! Students had a lot of fun!
 
 

2. Spring rain art activity

Students explored an interesting technique to express colorful rain. Students completed their work by adding more lines and colors with markers and adding a cut-out character as a focus of the space. Beautifully done!


3. Flower painting inspired by works of Georgia O'Keeffe.
Students learned to use their work space in a creative way by drawing an object that sticks out of the work space.



4. Paper plate woven tree art
In this work, students explored the ways to express distance in their painting of a scenery on a paper plate and combined it with a woven tree to create a mixed 2D/3D art work.


All the artwork will be sent home in June in their art portfolio. Evaluation rubrics will also be sent along.

5. Fractions of Pizza
Students read a book on fractions where the main character create different pizzas showing different fractions. Students become chefs themselves to create their own pizza, using their health / math knowledge!


6. Group work continues.. 

Students are sharing their ideas on how to support their opinion with rich examples and reasonable explanations to persuade someone. In this engaging activity called "graffiti," students are putting their ideas down on the chart paper before sharing them with their group and the whole class.

Students are solving a math problem in pairs using fake money cut-outs.

7. Math centres - essential part of a comprehensive math program.
Some centre activities continued on during these months. Through a variety of purposeful puzzles and games, students work collaboratively, practice their math skills and have fun at the same time.



8. Students were also lucky to be the very first class to check out the Maker Space at Learning Commons (AKA library). This is a special program run by our awesome teacher librarian Mr. Mittelstaedt, in line with the board's STEAM initiative (science - technology - engineering - arts - math). Students completed special tasks related to the ministry curriculum expectations.




9. For our soil unit, we have been investigating the effect of artificial substances on the growth of plants.

Students will continue to observe the plants watered with three different types of water (tap water, salty water and water with fertilizer) to draw a conclusion on the effect of salt and fertilizer on plants.

10. Our class was one of two classes that participated in 20-minute makeover, an initiative by the City of Vaughan and our school EcoClub. While participating in this activity, students also found a couple of killdeers protecting their eggs. This led to our lesson on how to ask good questions to start an inquiry process.

11. G Suite workshops.
We have started using G Suite products (Google Slides and Google Doc) to get students used to working on computers. We have so far explored how to control texts and images on Google Slides and how to complete a writing task and submit it to the teacher using Google Doc. These workshops are to continue until the end of the school year combined with different subject areas.








Tuesday, May 9, 2017

May Newsletter

Dear Family,
Here are some curriculum updates and important information for the month of May.

Curriculum Updates
Language & Health
o We are working on our opinion / persuasive writing unit combining the writing activities with health curriculum expectations on avoiding bad habits.
o We are learning to ask “good question” for inquiry projects and while reading.
Math
o We are learning to estimate, measure and record length, perimeter, area, mass, capacity, time and temperature using standard units. We will also be learning to compare, describe and order objects, using attributes measured in standard units.
Science
o We are almost finishing our soil unit. We have been learning to identify and describe different types of soil and their characteristics. We have also been discussing the relationship between living things and the soil.

Important dates in May
19th Funky Hat & Diversity Day : Wear funky hats and traditional clothing.
22-26th Scholastics Book Fair / EQAO tests. Specific dates to be announced.

Reminder
We are still collecting BBQ related items to put a basket together for a silent auction during our Fun Fair this year. It is a great way to raise money for our school. Thank you for your support!



M. Jung

Science Test - Soil

Students are expected to know:

1. How soil is formed and what  different elements are found in soil (les matières organiques, les organismes vivants
2. How to 3 different types of soil particles (le sable, le limon et l'argile)
3. Characteristics of soil when they are wet.
4. How different living things help soil.

Some materials to look at are found in their science duotang.

Thank you for your support.