April 3rd-7th

Hi everyone,

I hope you have been outside this weekend enjoying the change in the weather.  Only in Canada do you have a snow storm one day and people walking around in flip-flops the next.

The week that just past was a busy one for all of us in grade three.  We changed our seating groups and set our latest individual goals.  Reading logs also came due and we discussed our new Peel attribute focus for the month: responsibility.  We also had the chance to experience five more book reviews.  G.K. shared the book, "Drama" and explained that she enjoyed the play embedded in the story and the mystery of it. J.C. shared "Captain Underpants" and his favourite characters and sketches in the text. A.K.'s book selection was "Hurry Freedom" which is part of the Canadian Flyers Adventures series.  She recommends it as a class novel for next year.  A.P. shared "Miranda, the Goldilocks Fairy" with us and recommended it to readers who enjoy fun and magic.  H.I. was our final presenter of the week.  He presented a different version of "Beauty and the Beast" from the one presented by J.T. last week. He read us a short passage to entice us to read his choice of text.  We are looking forward to this weeks instalment of our book talks.

Last week's spelling focus was words being with "auto".  Tomorrow's quiz is all words beginning with "bi".  We will be focusing on a new prefix in the week ahead.  In other areas of language, we have been reading and analyzing persuasive texts.  We also worked on honing our research skills using texts about various Canadian First Nation Groups.  Some students were even able to translate their research into google slides.  In the course of our research we encountered First Nations legends and looked at what the messages behind those stories tell us about the natural world.

In math, we continued our study of both area and perimeter.  We have also begun to explore fractions.  We will be working on transferring our understanding of fractions to various other areas of math, such as time, money, and probability (e.g., quarter of an hour, half past, 4 quarters equals one dollar, half the times I pull a counter out of the bag it will be red, etc.).  Our daily math challenges may be linked to any math strand as the prose is to have the students be flexible in their math thinking.

In other news, we kicked off our school campaign around Autism awareness by wearing our puzzle pins and watching a video demonstrating what it might be like to experience sensory overload.  We continue to learn more about autism through trivia challenges and resources shared by Ms. Quinn's students and the students in the R.I.S.E. program.  On Thursday, Officer Mackin was in to present to all of the grade threes.  She engaged with students about their role in the prevention of bullying, as well as strategies for dealing with a situation that includes bullying behaviours.

I have switched to trying to get many of our class photos on to Seesaw and as a result do not have as many photos to post here.  Please send me a note in the agenda if you need another copy of the QR code.

Have a wonderful week and please remember that there is no school Friday, April 14th and Monday, April 17th.

Ms. Sparling