Main Idea, Regrouping and Much More!

Quite a few events are coming up soon! 

Look at these wonderful graphic Mrs. Horrock has made!

Reading Focus

Determining the Main Idea of a text can be a difficult concept for students. When we looked at this strategy, we want to know what the writing is mostly about.  Looking at images on the board, students worked to see how they were related, what was the theme? It is important when looking at the pictures that our Main idea can relate to every picture. 

Students worked in small pairs and groups to read leveled non-fiction texts and to determine what they think the main idea of the writing was. What was each piece trying to tell us? 

Working together they completed a circle map about the main idea. 

 
 
Down the hallway, in our classroom were students working on a new sentence starter!
Where sentence starters were our new technique we worked on. These are sentences that start with preposition words, such as, deep, down, above, below, etc.

How did we learn these word? Well, with Simon Says of course! Using cups and a red fuzzy ball, students played Simon Says, moving their ball around, inside, above, below or even deep into a cup!

Students when worked on writing sentences about some farm animals, using Where Sentence starters. It is so hilarious some of the sentences these kiddos write!

We also worked on Stretching Sentences this week. Students are given a "Bare Bones" sentence to work with and then add detail words. We practiced as a class, making quite the hilarious paragraph!

Then students worked independently in google drawings on their own. 

Gr 4 Science 
We are starting our unit on Waste and Our World. This week we started discussion on what waste is, what types of Waste there are and how we create waste.
As a class, we came up with a definition of waste: Waste is anything we do not need, or discard. 
Students came up with many examples of what they thought was waste, and then we sorted them on the board in different categories.

Gr 3 Social

We are continuing to look into India's celebrations and traditions! First we look at what kind of celebrations we have in our homes, community and country. Before we looked at India's celebrations, we had to first understand what the word Culture meant. Culture is a way of life shared by a group of people, and includes food, language, beliefs, music and art. 

The first area of culture we looked at was Language! We discussed the different languages in our country, and then looked at India's.There are 22 official languages spoken in India and they're official language is Hindi, but many Indians also speak English! We all learned how to greet someone in Hindi, by bowing and saying "Namaste", as well as, learning how to write it. 

Remembrance Day Ceremony and We're Settling in!

YAY!! We've finally moved into our new classroom, and it is absolutely wonderful! 

I am sorry about the late post, as I had no technology until Wednesday this week! 

Last week, our Grade 4's did a wonderful job reading aloud Flanders Field at the Remembrance Day ceremony. If you missed it, here is a video! 

Everyone dressed up so nicely, I couldn't resist a little photo shoot with some of our kiddos! 

"Ok, pose like this!"

"What do you think business men really stand like?"

 Even Mr. Coffin joined in!

Water cooler chatter 

We read and researched a lot last week about the meaning of the poppy, the importance of Remembrance Day and how we celebrate. 

WeSearch Wednesday this week was focused on the The Poppy's Story. Students watched a video to learn the history of the poppy and what it represents. Did you know the poppy is made differently in other countries? Ask your child about it! 

While I was away Thursday, students read A Poppy is to Remember with Mrs. Dupperon. They discussed why we celebrate Remembrance Day. This was a moment for them to really ponder and think - what will you be thinking of during our moment of silence?

Students wrote some very thoughtful responses to this question. 

Our reading focus has been on Making Connections to Text. This can be done in a few different ways, so as a class, we discussed the three most common ways and what they mean. 

Then we starting practicing our skill! I read aloud a book I thought everyone could relate to - Crankenstein by  Samantha Berger. This is a book about things that happen in a child's everyday life that might turn them into a Crankenstein! Things like bedtimes, cold Halloweens and getting up early in the morning! 

To find those Text to Self connections, as a group we discussed which situations we could relate to. 

Students then walked around and verbally discussed times they related to Crankenstein in the book. Then they completed a double journal entry. This is where they wrote about a particular part of the story that reminds them of a time when something similar happened to them. 

The next connection we made was Text to Text. I read aloud to the students the book, I Want My Hat Back  by Jon Klassen. 

Right away, students connected the title to a previous text we had read This is Not My Hat  by the same author. As we read, students use a Venn Diagram to compare the different books.

Then they wrote out parts from each book that reminded them of the previous text.
For example, in both books someone is looking for a hat, and similarly to the first book they person who took the hat have a certain fate (no spoilers here!)


In Math students have been working with comparing numbers to 1000 and 10 000 using base ten materials, expanded form and numbers. When comparing numbers by place value, students are encouraged to look at the number from left to right, starting at the highest place value.

Next week we will begin talking about regrouping tens and hundreds. 

Grade 4's have wrapped up their lights and shadows unit with jeopardy and kahoot! Next week we will begin our unit on Waste and our World. 

Grade 3's are continuing to learn about communities around the world in Social. We are now focusing on India and their quality of life, what a day in the life of a child there would be like and what kind of homes they have. 

Before learning about our Indian friend, Ravi, in pods students brainstormed questions they would have for Ravi about his life in India. As they read through the chapter they found some answers to their questions! 

You also may have gotten a sheet of paper this week with our Seesaw class info for grade 3's! You can go on this site to see your child's Country Flags they designed!

Happy Halloween!

We had an awesome week in 3/4 B!

It has been quite a busy week with Halloween and our PD day.

Here are a Few Reminders for November:

• Lice Checks Nov. 7th
• Early Dismissal Nov. 8th. 
• Christmas Card orders due Nov. 10th (10 for $10)
• Remembrance Day Ceremony Nov. 10 at 10:45am
• Family Movie Night Nov. 10th
• No School Nov. 13th
• No School Dec 1st

Compound sentences were our focus in Grammar this week. 

Before we got to compound sentences we did a check in on What Makes a Sentence? Through a sorting activity, students determined what complete and incomplete sentences look and sound like. Then looking at complete sentences we discussed, what makes a sentence complete? Complete sentences need to have a Subject (what the sentence is about) and a Predicate (what that thing is doing).Without both parts our sentence is incomplete! To mix our reading and writing strategies, students worked on writing strong, complete sentences (using different sentence starters!), and then identified subject and predicate. Afterwards, they swapped with partners, read each other's sentences and visualized! 

 Most students are able to confidently identify compound sentences, conjunctions and simple sentences, however some still struggle to use them in their own writing. We will continue to work with this concept for the year, and work on adding it to our personal writing. 

A new rule we encountered during Structured Word Inquiry this week was how we add Vowel Suffixes to the end of words. 

A vowel suffix is any suffix that BEGINS with a vowel etc. 

When we add a vowel suffix to a word that ends in a single silent e we drop the silent e. 

If you want to play around with some words with your child, try writing more word sums for the base words move. 

Students are still working on strengthening their understanding of how to represent numbers using Expanded form, Base Ten Blocks and Numerals. Our next concept will be to compare and order numbers to 1, 0000 or 10, 000. 

In Science the 4's are finishing up their Lights and Shadows unit. We talked about the shape or convex and concave mirrors, and how they change what we see. This was done through some SPOONY SCIENCE! Using the concave and convex sides of a spoon, students observed how moving the focal point changes how we see our image in each mirror. 

Next week we will wrap up a few last concepts and then play some Jeopardy to review before our unit quiz. 

In Grade 3 we have moved on to Social! The four countries we will be studying this year are Peru, Tunisia, India and Ukraine.
This week, through ThingLink you we have located our four countries on a map of the world, researched their flags and which continent they are on. As we work through the year we will add to our ThingLink more information we learn of our countries. 

Here is a link to My ThingLink so you can get an idea of what we're working on. 

Students are also working on creating a flag for their very own country! When making their flag they have to explain why they chose their symbols and colours. Stay tuned to see what we're going to do with these flags!  

HALLOWEEN! 

What an awesome day! Everyone had such awesome costumes, and believe it or not, we got some work done! After reading a story, I'm Not Afraid of This Haunted House we decided to write some For Sale ads for our very own Haunted Houses! 

Last Friday we began by painting the backgrounds to our houses, using white and other colours to tint our spooky moonlit night! 

Next we had to cut out our Haunted Houses and add some details! 

Now onto the writing part. Students brainstormed with their sentences how they could describe their Haunted House. 

Each student wrote their very own Haunted House for Sale Ad, complete with spooky and terrifying reasons someone would want to buy this estate!

STAY TUNED TO SEE HOW THESE ADS TURN OUT. 

And finally, A HALLOWEEN PHOTO SHOOT! 

Happy Friday Everyone!