News

October 26-  Happy Monday! I hope everyone is enjoying the last of these beautiful Fall trees! I am just sending along some quick updates. Many of our learning units are still underway, so no big changes to report.

Math- Tomorrow I will be sending home a package of work completed during the N2, N3 and N4 outcomes.  Along with student work, I like to include a note about how your child got along.  If you have any questions, please reach out.  Also, the work I send home is just a snippet of what we do in class. Math time includeds daily whole class practice on white boards, hands on games, and partner work that can't be sent home.  We are now into the N1 outcome, which explores skip counting by 2s, 5s, 10s, 100s, 25s, 3s and 4s.  In grade 3 the focus is on noticing the patterns in the place value as we count forward and backwards to 1000.  For more information on this outcome, please look under the math tab above.

Writing-  We are still continuing with our "True Stories" writing unit.  Students are learning the exciting work of revision.  They are putting in a lot of work to "amp" up their stories with description, talking, sharing the character's thoughts, trying new beginnings, and learning how to write a good ending.  Today we talked about the big difference between grade 2 and grade 3 writing is that in grade 3 we move away from stories that are "listy" and focus our stories on telling more about a single event.

Reading-  We are nearing the end of our "Because of Winn Dixie" novel.  There have been so many insightful class discussions during the sharing of this story.  Currently, we are focusing on noticing the "story mountain" and how the main character is changing along her journey.  I am still doing 1:1 reading assessments each day to gain a sense of where my students are at with their individual reading.  One new reading skill many students are ready for is skipping the word that is tricky and finishing the sentence or paragraph and then cycling back up to the tricky word.  Often, with a little more context, our brain can quickly solve what looked tricky to us!

Fundations-  Unit 3 will be wrapping up tomorrow.  There are many skills covered in grade 3 Fundations and Unit 3 focused mostly on how to divide a multisyllabic word.   This skill is usefull for decoding large words in reading,  as we move on from  "sounding out" words one letter at a time .

Health-  I have started our Health curriculum with the "Relationship Choices" unit.  I like to use thoughtful read alouds as a way to have whole class discussions to refelct on situations students may have or might yet encounter.  We often act out solutions to common problems.  For more information on this unit, please check under the Humanties tab above.

With the colder weather upon us, just a reminder to have your child prepared for the days' weather.  We usually go outside even in a sprinkle or light mist!

Please reach out if you have any questions about what we are doing in grade 3- Take care, Tiffany

September 24-  Hello Everyone! We are almost through the first month of school! 9 more to go! I think we are off to a great start in grade 3.  I am really enjoying getting to know everyone and building our classroom community together.  I just wanted to send along a few notes to keep you informed about what we are doing in grade 3.  

Homework-  I am not a fan of homework. When everyone puts their best foot forward at school, I don't see the purpose in more work at home. At the end of the school day, children need to play, be with families, or just relax.  That being said, if you read up on what we are doing at school, there are lots of ways you can incorporate that learning into your family lives to reinforce it.  On the math page, I include activities for home for each of the concepts we are working on.  Reading is reading! Read to your child! Have them read to you, or share the task.  Hearing an expert reader tackle words, and read with expression and laugh at storylines creates a joyful reading experience!  Write together! Make lists, notes, cards, signs, send a letter or find a penpal.  Learning does not exist in the bubble of school.

Math- We have been reviewing addition facts to 18 each day, focusing on doubles and facts that make 10.  Place value is an essential concept for children to master by the end of grade 3.  We are working hard on concepts like "what is a digit?" "how many digits do you expect in a number that is in the hundreds?" "how is the value of a digit determined?" "what happens when you move a digit from one place value to another?"  Being able to show a number in standard form (129), expanded form (100+20+9), base 10 name (1 hundred, 2 tens, 9 ones), and by the base 10 picture helps students to put the ideas of place value all together and work flexibly. If you would like more information about this, look at the N2 and N4 outcomes in the math tab. We do lots of whole group work on whiteboards, play hands on math games/activities and then show what we know on math worksheets. Math is busy but fun in grade 3!

Reading-  I have started our first class novel, Because of Winn Dixie. This one is always a favourite and an excellent tool to teach children how to read a story for deeper meaning.  The focus in this unit is on studying characters.  We notice what the characters say and do to form impressions of them and make predicitions about the story.  I will be starting reading groups in October.  For more information about reading, check out the Character Studies unit in the reading tab.

Writing-  After a soft start with writing to practice the routines and expectations during writing time, we are into our first official writing unit, "Crafting (Mostly) True Stories".  In this unit of study, students write about their lives, and learn that the things that we live through are stories that can be written down and shared with others.  We will focus on how to get an idea, writing a story with a beginning, middle and end, and noticing the difference between a storyteller's voice and a reporter's voice.  Check out the writing tab for more information about what we will focus on in this unit.

Fundations-  Grade 3 is the final year for the Fundations program.  We are starting with closed syllables and making words plural.  In grade 3 we continue to add to our trick words and also learn about sound-alike words (homophones).  We also introduce cursive writing, which is always really exciting...at first (wink, wink).  The program runs in a similar fashion as previous years, with unit tests that help to determine students who may need some additional support through the Tier 2 program.   I do not send home Fundations homework.

Humanities-  Humanities encompasses the subjects of Art, Social Studies, Science and Health.  I usually focus on two of the subjects per term.  Currently, we are elbows deep in art projects!  Art is an excellent opportunity to learn about sticking it out until the end. I always tell them to expect the middle part to look like a mess, but it will all come together in the end!

If you have any questions about what we are doing in grade 3, please reach out at anytime! Take care- Tiffany

September 3- Congratulations! You made it to our Grade 3 website!  As explained in the Welcome to Grade 3 email, this is the place where I will be posting news and information about what's happening in grade 3.  I do not post school wide news and reminders here, as it is just too difficult for me to keep on top of it.  For school news, make sure to visit the SKC website or Facebook page.

To get the ball rolling, we will be engaging in some activities to get the students back in to the routines at school.  We will review some concepts from Grade 2 during our math lessons and then begin with the  3N1 and 3N2 outcomes in math.  To become familiar with these outcomes and see how you can help your child at home, please check out the math tab on this website.

I am going to combine the reading and writing to get us started in the first 2-3 weeks.  We are going to explore the well loved authors Robert Munsch and Kevin Henkes during our reading time and use these stories to springboard into writing about our own personal experiences.  This unit will also give us a chance to practice the expectations during reading and writing time and refamiliarize the students with writing conventions (letter formation, spelling, punctuation, complete sentences).

Our afternoons are mostly comprised of  Fundations, Humanities, Gym/Music, Read Aloud of class novel and flex time.

Please check out the home tab on this website to learn more about homework expectations in grade 3.  When homework gets started  I will send out more information.

Reminders- Please make sure your child has a water bottle each day.  We have 1 microwave in the class for heating lunches.  Please note I do not have condiments or bowls/plates for the students and the kitchen also does not supply these.

That's it for now, but if you have any questions about what's happening in grade 3, please get in touch!-Tiffany