We are wrapping up our unit on time. Today the kids worked through some time centres. The centres included time bingo, SmartBoard games, an I spy scavenger hunt, and a time worksheet. Tomorrow we will have a little time quiz, and then off to our unit on geometry!

We are wrapping up our unit on time. In grade 3, students are expected to be able to tell the time in 5 minute increments. Next week we will start a Geometry unit.

In language we started working on paragraph writing. Today we learned the parts of a paragraph while looking at a few examples. Then, partners unscrambled a mixed up paragraph and glued it on a hamburger organizer. We use this hamburger organizer to help us remember the parts of a paragraph (see poster below).

This is a paragraph that we unscrambled as a class.

Partners unscramble paragraphs...

Last week we had a fabulous time snowshoeing and cross country skiing. The kids haven't let me forget that it was me who almost fell in some water! Phew, close call!

Tomorrow we are going to Duntroon Highlands Nordic. Students need to bring a lunch and warm clothing for the day. They may also bring some money to buy a treat at lunch.

The students brought home a permission form for a movie buy-out on Friday. The movie will be Madly Madagascar. We will also have a Valentine's celebration in the classroom. Students received a list of the names of students in the class to prepare valentines. We will exchange them on Friday afternoon. Students who wish to bring a snack/treat for the celebration may do so, but as usual, it is not required!

In language we have been reading and writing about the Olympics. Look for some of the journal writing prompts the students bring home. They are great for dinner time discussions!

In math we have been learning about temperature. We focused on benchmark temperatures such as 0 degrees celsius is the freezing point, room temperature may be anywhere from 20-24 degrees celsius, water boils at 100 degrees etc. We also learned what different temperatures would feel like outside, and how to properly dress for the weather. Today we explored with thermometers. We measured the room temperature and then watched the thermometer rise as it was left in a cup of warm water. Then we saw it go down below 0 degrees when put in a cup of snow. After that, it rose again when it was held in a student's hands. To follow up this activity, students completed 2 temperature worksheets. This was to practice telling the temperature on thermometers that count up by different increments. One of them counted up by 1's. The other counted up by 2's. Our next math unit will be telling time.

In social studies the students have been busy making sure their duotangs are up to date. They have also been creating a map of either a rural or urban community. We need a little more time to work on these. Pictures will be up shortly!

January has been a long, cold month, but we have been as busy as always in the classroom. We are wrapping up our procedural writing unit. We blew bubbles, made hot chocolate and designed monsters!

In math we have been learning about area and perimeter. We have also been doing partner math jobs to master answering word problems. To help us remember what to do, we use 4 colours and the chart below.

Here are a couple of questions we did this week using this method.

We have also been working on giving feedback to help improve our work. We use the posters below to help us understand the levels of achievment. After feedback is given, the students have extra time to add/change parts of their work to 'bump it up' a level.

Today we finished our how to blow a bubble procedures. We also completed a winter sledding scene. The students used blue and white paint and mixed various shades of blue to make their backgrounds. Construction paper was used to create the snow hill and silhouettes. Finally, snowflakes were added using q-tips and white paint. The artwork turned out beautifully!

In math we reviewed choosing appropriate units of measurement. We also worked on converting metres to centimetres and ordering a group of measurements from longest to shortest, and shortest to longest.
For example, ordering 1m 45 cm; 180 cm; 1m 60 cm according to their lengths.

We are working on procedural writing in language. Today we decided to break the rules (with permission!) and had fun chewing gum and blowing bubbles. As the students did this, they discussed what they would need to include in a procedure about how to blow a bubble. After practicing, they started writing their procedures.  We need a little more time to finish the writing tomorrow.

Today in math, we reviewed units used to measure distance (cm, m, and km). After that, the students completed a measurement scavenger hunt. Here they are measuring all kinds of things using rulers, metre sticks, and tape measures!

To end the day, the students completed a plants test. We had several classes of review as well as study time during class to prepare. The class did really well! We will be moving on to the next science unit soon. The topic will be Forces Causing Movement.