Raz Kids and Newsletter

The December newsletter was sent home in your child agenda. Please read all about our fun learning in December. Please note that next Friday our class along with the grade 3's will be planning the 2nd week of Advent mass.  It will be at 9:30 in our gym. We hope you can make it!

Raz Kids information was sent home too. Login information is attached in your child's agenda along with a note.  You can access leveled books at your child's just right level.  There is important information in the letter so please have a read. Login and password information!!! 

Students got the chance to practice all week during our literacy centers. It is important to click on the eye and not the ear when reading a book. Students can practice reading on their own and then complete a reading comprehension quiz. Students may also write about their raz book in their book worm homework book!

Happy reading!

New Learning

We are working on some new learning goals in our classroom. In Math we are starting to talk about patterns in numbers. We are looking at different patterns and trying to determine what the pattern rule, the pattern core and the changing attributes for each problem. We created a chart to show what we know. We also added some different types of attributes. We learned a grade 3 math word: Orientation. Ask your child what orientation is another word for. And ask your child to name some of the other attributes we learned about today!

In Language we worked in our new literacy center groups. Students are working in small groups on some descriptive writing activities. We also started to talk about a new online reading program called Raz Kids. I am in the process of setting up login information and passwords for each student. Parent letters will be going home soon! In the mean time, we will continue to practice using Raz Kids during our literacy centers in class. Ask your child what kind of learning they participated in during our literacy centers today!

Shared-Twitter Thinking and Learning

Together with Mrs. Swan's grade 3 class we created a Twitter wall in our school. We are using the wall to share our thinking and learning using the similar learning opportunities our classes participate in.  


Last week our 2 classes participated in similar problem solving and kindness activities. We were happy to hear that the grade 3's also participated in the kindness paper person activity. Our Twitter wall is a way for our 2 classes to share our thinking and learning about how we can choose to make a positive choice in a problem situation. 

The wall is located close to the lunch room. We hope to inspire other students to make positive choices when faced with any sort of problem or issue (whether big or small)! 

Our classes have already used the online version of Twitter for shared learning opportunities. We will continue to watch one another's learning on Twitter as well as use the Twitter Wall in our school to share our learning in many ways over the year. If you are in the school, come by and visit our Twitter Wall!

New Word Wall Words

Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Visit

Today we enjoyed a visit from the Ottawa-Carleton Wildlife Center. Kate, the Educational Coordinator talked about many of the animals that live around us in Ottawa. We talked about raccoons, foxes, porcupines, skunks, deer, moose, baby bears, bats, beavers and more! 

We focused on why these animals are important and how we can help protect them.

We learned about their habitats, what food they eat, what they do for our city and how they adapt to their surroundings. We shared our learning on our Class Twitter page, click to see! @MrsCiampaClass

Ask your child to tell you what they learned today about habitats, the different animals and how we can protect the animals around our city!


For more information about the local center, check out their website: http://wildlifeinfo.ca/

Sharing our Learning

We have been working on our bullying awareness posters all week long. We are sharing in different ways all that we've learned about making good choices when we face a problem. We used the paper-person kindness activity, songs from Maria Hawkins and the stories we read to recall how we can solve our problems. We used describing words and thought about how we can make the better choice in a problem situation.

Today we used the Tellagami app to share what we wrote about on our posters. Have a listen to some of the problems we've faced, and the positive choice we made to solve it:

MD: https://tellagami.com/gami/6VMOPH/

NN: https://tellagami.com/gami/7FRPJL/ 

CW: https://tellagami.com/gami/G5CA9G/ 

AB: https://tellagami.com/gami/93OD4B/ \

DL: tellagami.com/gami/8UT6GJ/ 

CO: https://tellagami.com/gami/K52HG9/ 

HH: https://tellagami.com/gami/SU38MJ/ 

EC: https://tellagami.com/gami/ZQ3LWZ/ 

WN:  https://tellagami.com/gami/X9QQMU/ 

RC: https://tellagami.com/gami/YX0JEY/ 

PJ: tellagami.com/gami/OIY2SF/ 

FF: https://tellagami.com/gami/7PXTL3/ 

AO: tellagami.com/gami/XVZB4D/ 

Paper Doll Kindness

We continue to focus on bullying awareness this week. This morning we read a story about Howard B Wigglebottom and how he learns about bullies. He taught us to Be Brave, Be Bold...a Teacher Must be Told!

We also completed a kindness activity using a paper person. We worked really hard to make a beautiful paper person of ourselves. Next we ripped and marked up our person (to the surprise of the students). We did this to show the affect our words and actions can have on us. We say hurtful things or do mean things to someone and we don't realize how it makes them feel.
We tried to use tape and erasers to fix our paper person but it didn't work. We made a wordle to describe how we felt about ripping up our beautiful paper people. We connected how these words also make us feel when someone is unkind to us. Ask your child more about these describing words. We will talk about this again tomorrow!

Math Practice

We are preparing for our math test this week. We are skip counting by 2's, 5's and 10's forwards and backwards. We are recalling how to represent numbers in different ways. The students recalled so many different ways to represent numbers.  Today we represented numbers using number lines, tally marks, number words, number sentences, place value and standard form!  Way to go friends.  Keep practicing at home. Our math test will be on Friday!

Maria Hawkins

What a fun morning we got to enjoy - again! Maria Hawkins joined us for the 2nd day in a row. She shared some inspiring songs that focus on Bullying Awareness. We got the opportunity to work in groups where we had to work together to perform a song! We also shared what makes friends in our class special people. Maria Hawkins is a lovely performer. Thank you so much for sharing your gifts with us!!
       

Our tweets focused on some key concepts we learned from Maria Hawkins together. Have a read at what we loved about singing and dancing with her the past few days! 

Homework this Week

Our Word Wall Words for this week! Please copy these words into your homework books, practice making sentences and spelling each word at home this week.

In Math we continue to focus on Place Value and Representing Numbers. We will be having our first Math Test this week! Details on when we will have the test will be shared soon. In the meantime,  how can you help your child prepare for the test this week?

-Practice counting forwards by 2's, 5's and 10's!

-Practice counting backwards by 5's!

-Choose a number between 1-200 and represent that number in 3 or 4 ways!

-Choose a number between 1-200 and determine the place of the ones, tens and hundreds in that number. 

Anti-Bullying Week Kick-Off

Today we enjoyed an inspiring morning with a musical performance by Maria Hawkins. She made us laugh, dance and sing! But most of all she made us think about how we can be the positive change in the face of bullying.

Here is a video link of one of her memorable performances. She encouraged us to distinguish between small and big issues. She also showed us how teachers want students to succeed. Be happy not sad. Be caring and kind. And if you say sorry mean it.  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TMuPKZr7dbM

All week long we will be addressing various topics about bullying to raise awarenss as well as to give our class problem solving tools to help them! We are using Twitter to connect with other classrooms to share how we can be the positive change. Follow our tweets @MrsCiampaClass and watch as we use the #nomorebulliesocsb hashtag!
Today we read the story The Recess Queen about a school yard bully. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uJiWhQDz4_c  We used the story and the musical performance by Maria Hawkins to tweet to our friends in Mr. Robinson's class. We talked about what words that come to mind when we hear the word bully. 










Today the Ottawa Catholic School Board appeared on CTV to show how we as a school board are using social media in positive ways to promote bullying awareness across all of our schools. Here is the link: http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/videoclipId=1045521&binId=1.1487308&playlistPageNum=2

Tadpole Wonders

At the end of the day today, we started to read a book about tadpoles. In Science, we continue to talk about animals, habitats and cycles of life. We are working to identify the life cycle of a tadpole. Tadpoles become frogs or toads.  During our story we learned that when a tadpole hatches from an egg, they look like a fish. They have a tail and no legs. We started to wonder....how does a tadpole get their feet? 

RC suggested we check on Google to find our answer. We can go to google.ca and search "Tadpoles for kids" and then we will see how tadpoles get legs! This is exactly what we learned about all week long during our digital citizenship lessons! 

Our homework for this weekend will be to find out how tadpoles get their feet! Please bring in your proof on Monday. You can bring in a book, or a printed answer from the internet. 

Can't wait to see the replies!

PS...don't forget to watch our Digital Citizenship iMove: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_20PwcxHZs

Digital Citizenship iMovie

Today we made a movie all about being a good digital citizen! We used the iPad app iMovie! Here is the link to our YouTube movie:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p_20PwcxHZs

Digital Citizens and Safe Googling

Today we focused on using Google to help us search kid friendly content on the web. Just like when we look for books that are just right, we can add "for kids" in our Google searches to find just right websites! 

Here is what the students had to say about safe internet searching:

-CH says: Only talk to people you know

-AB says: Only play games that are just right for you!

-HH says: You go on kids stuff. You watch a movie that is for your age.

-FF says: Ask your parents if you can go on the computer.

-CO says: Play games that are FOR KIDS!

Donations for the Philippines

Father Pedro from Assumption Parish was on CTV news today. He is appreciative of all of the donations that our community has provided for the victims of the typhoon in the Philippines. He is urging our community to donate cash donations instead of materials and food. Please watch this video for more information on how you can help:  http://ottawa.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=1043061

Our school will be collecting money for the victims in the Philippines. If you can help, please do!

Digital Citizenship

All week long we are using the parable of the Good Samaritan (from the bible) to relate to being a good digital citizen. This is an initiative created by our school board to help us practice safety on the internet!

Digital Citizenship means practicing safe and responsible choices while using the internet. We watched a few videos today and talked about how we show safe internet practices at home and at school!

Being safe on the internet means a lot of things. It means only talking to people you know. Asking permission  from an adult to use a device or the internet. Being responsible and only posting information if you have someone's permission.

In our classroom, we practice good citizenship everyday. We have our own class Twitter and Blog account. We use video chat (Google Hangout) to talk to Mr. Robinson's class. The students know that the teacher is my friend and it is safe to video chat with people you know. We also use Twitter to talk to other classrooms and share our learning. We do this in a safe and responsible way and are kind with our words!
At home students are making great connections. They are using YouTube to watch videos. They are using a DS and video chat to talk to family far away. Technology allows us to connect and learn with family and friends both in our classroom and at home!

Here is a great video about online digital citizenship and safety: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3oOZ93jfAhg&list=PL6ABC8F3C315AFA16 


Ask your child what they have learned about Digital Citizenship today. They have a lot to share!

We Remember

Today we had a Remembrance Day liturgy in our school's gym. We remembered those who died and those who had to go to war to fight for our country. A police officer named Constable Salinas spoke to us about the importance of being a peacekeeper. He said he gets to be a peacekeeper each day and its his favourite part about being a police officer. He said that his brain and his heart are the most important tools we can use to be peacekeepers in our community. He left us with a question: What can you do to help your community? How can you help keep the peace in your community? Talk to your child today about  how we can do these important things. If we work together, we can all be peacekeepers!

Students also got to hear a few peace songs and listen to Jesus' gospel about love and peace.





Our Word Wall Words for this week:

\

How will you show you remember? We used the Twitter hashtag #werememberocsb to share some ways we can show peace and remember on Remembrance Day. Ask me about this today!

Remembrance Day Visualizing

In class today, we talked about Remembrance Day to prepare for our mass on Monday morning.  We started by reading the book A Poppy is to Remember.  We learned about the war from a long time ago.  We talked about why soldiers had to go to war.  We talked about peace and freedom and what they mean to Canada.  Ask your child about what they learned about peace today.

After reading the story we wondered: Why do we need to wear a poppy on Remembrance Day? Below are our word collage answers:

We also watched a video that shows how the soldiers who were Canadian in the war are heroes... here is the link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IsCVlM1CSPU

We also read the poem In Flanders Field. The students were not shown any photos of the poem but used their imagination to visualize and picture what the poem might look like! When we visualize we picture in our minds what a story looks like. We recorded AudioBoo samples to share what we visualized. Follow the links to hear our visualizing pictures!

CW: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1713213-cw-visualizing

EC: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1713210-ec-visualizing

FF: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1713205-ff-visualizing

DL: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1713181-dl-visualizing

CO: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1713178-co-visualizing

MD: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1713169-md-visualizing

RC: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1713166-rc-visualizing

HH: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1713168-hh-visualizing

AO: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1713157-ao-visualizing

WN: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1713159-wn-visualizing

AB: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1713146-ab-visualizing

NN: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1713155-nn-visualizing

Place Value

We continue to work on identifying place value today. We are working with ones, tens and hundreds! Thank you to Naisha for teaching us that we use Base 10 Blocks to help us figure out how to represent a number! We are making a Place Value chart to help us as we work with numbers. 

Today we worked with partners to figure out how to make numbers with our snap cubes. We had to determine if the number needed a hundred, how many groups of 10 and how many ones. Students are using counting by 10's to help them get their answer. A lot of great team work today. 

We will review this again tomorrow and talk about how we can represent more numbers using place value and base ten blocks! Ask me about place value and see what I can remember tonight!

Place Value and Skip Counting

In class today we worked on identifying place value in numbers.  We have a good idea of how to represent a number using ones and tens.  We are working to represent hundreds on our place value chart too!

We also practiced skip counting by 2's and 5's today. We even skip counted backwards.  We need to practice this a lot more.  At home today, you can practice skip counting forwards or backward by 1's, 2's, 5's or 10's with the help of our hundreds chart. Enjoy!

Using Adjectives to Describe Animals

In class today, the students finished working on a describing animals activity. We continue to use adjectives and visualizing to describe animals in the stories we read.  

Students worked together to describe features of country animals such as raccoons, deer, mice, foxes and even skunks. We referred to our 5 senses to help us describe.

The students got the chance to read with partners. They also got the chance to add to our Padlet thinking using an iPad. We are using so many different adjectives to describe animals. Take a look at our  Padlet Thinking: http://padlet.com/wall/describeanimals

Raspberries Visualizing

On Friday we began talking about our new reading comprehension strategy...Visualizing! We recalled what visualizing means as a class and created this chart to help us. When you read, you visualize by creating a movie in your head! We use our 5 sense to help us visualize.

To help us understand how we can visualize, we used raspberries to help us. The students worked in partners to describe raspberries using their 5 senses. We wrote our ideas and posted them to our raspberries chart. Visualizing helps us to describe! We can do this while we read as well. We will continue to work on this reading strategy over the next few weeks.

AudioBoo for Fluency

In class on Friday we worked on a friend interview. The students worked with a partner to ask questions to find out new information about each other. It was great to watch the students work so well together. After we finished our friend interview, the students created an AudioBoo recording.We are starting to use the AudioBoo app to capture student thinking and to listen to our reading fluency. 

Have a listen to our reading on the AudioBoo iPad app:

HH: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1700576-hh-new-friend

MD: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1700574-md-new-friend

FF: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1700566-ff-new-friend

DL: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1700569-dl-new-friend

AO: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1700337-ao-new-friend

WN: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1700332-wn-new-friend

EC: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1700327-ec-new-friend

NN: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1700322-nn-new-friend

AB: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1700319-ab-new-friend

CO: https://audioboo.fm/boos/1700314-co-new-friend