Hello All!
We are now officially into the second term of the school year. Here is what we are up to in our grade 3 class!
Language Arts
Writing
We just started working on another piece of descriptive and letter writing – we are learning to write POSTCARDS!
First, students started to brainstorm about where they wanted to go…some destinations that students are pretending to write from are Toronto, India, Dominican Republic, California, New Jersey and Florida! Students had to brainstorm 8-10 ideas using a word web or point form notes about the things that they might do in the destination that they are visiting.
Next, students are creating descriptive phrases that appeal the reader’s 5 senses: touch, taste, hear, smell and sight. Students have to use adjectives (descriptive words) to describe that they touched, tasted, heard, smelled and saw during their pretend vacation!
Next, students will be using the descriptive phrases that they came up with to write a postcard to anyone they choose! Students will have to include the following in their postcard:
- Date
- Greeting – How you begin a letter/postcard (e.g. Dear _______, Aloha _______, Greetings _______,)
- Details on what they are doing on their vacation in the destination that they chose – students will include their descriptive phrases here
- Closing – How you end a letter/postcard (e.g. Yours truly, _______, Sincerely, _______, From, _______,)
- P.S. (Post-script) – OPTIONAL – In case you want to add something to your letter/postcard after you are done writing it!
- Address of the person they are sending it to in the correct format
- Stamp
- Cover with picture and saying on the front of the postcard
Stay tuned to see pictures of our finished postcards!
Reading
In reading, we will be reading a number of books and texts that relate to our new science unit on Soils and Plants! Some of the books that we will be reading include: “The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss, “The Great Kapok Tree” by Lynne Cherry and many more!
Students will be responding to these texts and asked to support their thoughts and opinions by pulling details from the text and using their own ideas to support their answer. This is a skill that is very important to master as students head into Grade 4 and also will help them greatly on EQAO that students will be taking at the end of May/beginning of June.
Oral Communication
Students will continue to share their thoughts and ideas during classroom discussions on the books that we will be reading. Students will also be presenting their postcards to the class once they are finished.
Media Literacy
Students will get the opportunity to look at different commercials used to advertise products in class. We will look at what product the commercial is advertising and who the target audience might be. We will also be looking at what the commercial is really saying (the message) and if the commercial is effective or not.
Math
In math, students have been working on the strand of Measurement. In this strand, we have been learning to tell time on analogue and digital clocks and reading temperature on thermometers. Here are the expectations that we are currently covering:
Time
– read time using analogue clocks, to the nearest five minutes, and using digital clocks (e.g., 1:23 means twenty-three minutes after one o’clock), and represent time in 12-hour notation
– solve problems involving the relationships between minutes and hours, hours and days, days and weeks, and weeks and years, using a variety of tools (e.g., clocks, calendars, calculators).
Temperature
– estimate, read (i.e., using a thermometer), and record positive temperatures to the nearest degree Celsius (i.e., using a number line; using appropriate notation) (Sample problem: Record the temperature outside each day using a thermometer, and compare your measurements with those reported in the daily news.);
– identify benchmarks for freezing, cold, cool, warm, hot, and boiling temperatures as they relate to water and for cold, cool, warm, and hot temperatures as they relate to air (e.g., water freezes at 0°C; the air temperature on a warm day is about 20°C, but water at 20°C feels cool);
We will be having a quiz on what we have learned so far next week so stay tuned! Math duotangs went home last night so that students could make corrections to their math sheets. I will also send duotangs home on Tuesday night with the word problems we have been working on so you can get a sense of what to expect for the quiz. Please let me know if you have any questions!
Science
In science, we have started our unit on SOILS. We kicked off this unit with Scientists in Schools coming into our class last month and learning all about what makes up soil and what type of soil we need to have in order to grow things. Students even had a chance to look up close at a real live worm under a microscope!
The next unit that we will be diving into in science after our SOILS unit is PLANTS! Stay tuned for some interesting things that your child will be learning – did you know that some plants eat meat?!
Social Studies
Miss Green has started her new unit on First Nations people and Early Settlers in Canada. Stay tuned for more information on what students are working on in class!
Dance/Music/Drama
Miss Green is teaching Dance, Music and Drama on Fridays to our class. Stay tuned to see what students are doing in her art classes!
Physical Education and Health
We wrapped up our unit on volleyball and students just started basketball! Students will be learning to dribble, pass and shoot – they are all very excited to start this unit!
That is all for now!
Please let me know if you have any questions on what is happening in our amazing grade 3 class!!
Ms. Argue 🙂
