Science Wonders

Our current science focus is on plants and life systems. In class, we are reviewing what we already know about plants. Students worked with a partner last week to post and share their ideas on what they know about plants on a shared Padlet. Have a read at what we know so far:

Created with Padlet

Today we read through our Padlet and shared what we know about plants. Some students shared what they know and names of different plants they remember. During our discussion, many students shared questions about what a Venus Fly Trap was. We started to research the plant and learned a few things about what it looks like and what it does. We had a few other questions about the Venus Flytrap so we decided to ask the website Wonderopolis for help on our Class Twitter Account....

Dear @Wonderopolis How does a Venus Flytrap eat a bug?

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) September 29, 2015

Wonderopolis is a wonder website that students can access from home to research questions they might have. We will be consulting this website a lot this year to help us with our science wonders. We created a Science Wonder book today and wrote about what we know and what we wonder about plants so far. We can't wait for Wonderopolis to reply to our question and to share with us how they eat bugs.  During our unit in Science, we hope to answer these questions and more. If you would like to research Venus Flytraps at home please do! Ask your child to share with you what they know and what they wonder about Plants so far.

Thank You Wonderopolis for helping us with our Wondering. They posted on our Padlet and shared a link with us. Take a look!

@MrsCiampaClass We LOVE all the WONDERing & thinking represented on the @padlet! We left a message for you! Keep up the GREAT WONDERing!

— Wonderopolis (@Wonderopolis) September 29, 2015

Place Value

In Math we are currently working to represent, order and compare numbers up to 1000. We are learning to represent big numbers using strategies on our criteria chart. Have a look at how many different ways we know to represent a number. We are learning that when the numbers get bigger we need to think of strategies that will help us to represent the number in quicker ways. Students know how to use Base Ten Blocks to represent 3 digit numbers very well. This week we continued to identify  numbers using expanded form and standard form. Practice this at home this weekend. Give your child a 3 digit number (ex: 348). Have them represent the number in 3 different ways. Example: Standard Form (348), Expanded Form (300+40+8=348) and draw out the Base Ten Blocks. Students should also review the place and value on a number (hundreds, tens, ones).

Additionally, we talked about greater than and less than. We remembered the symbols and worked to identify bigger and smaller numbers. Ask your child to compare numbers using the < > = symbols!

When we are finished our math work, we work on our math centers. Currently we are learning to play cooperatively and quietly while others finish their work. We are playing math games that help us to practice what we are learning.

We also play fun math games to reinforce our learning. There are many games on ABCYA that we've been working on. Have your child show you some of the fun games we worked on this week including Guess My Number and Base Ten Blocks fun.

Next week we will continue to focus on place value and work towards skip counting and rounding numbers to the nearest ten. Have a nice weekend!

Reading Strategies

Our current reading focus is on Reading Strategies. We are reviewing strategies that help us read and write unfamiliar words. We are also learning new strategies that will help our learning. When reading daily, these strategies will really benefit our learning. It provides students with ways to decode words when reading. Our goal is to use these strategies independently without always asking for help first.

Students should also be using these strategies when attempting to write words they are unfamiliar with. Please have your child refer to these strategies daily when reading books, when doing Raz Kids homework or when practising their weekly word wall words. I sent home a copy of the strategies attached to the homework note this week.

We continue to work on reading quietly to ourselves each day for 10 minutes. Students are reminded that when we Read to Ourselves we are quiet, we read the whole time, and we use strategies to sound out words. Pictures can help us to decode words so take a picture walk with your child before reading a new book. This may help with decoding unfamiliar words while reading.

DotDay

On Tuesday September 15th our class celebrated International Dot Day. Dot Day was celebrated by over 4 million students from 115 countries around the world!

Dot Day is a day created by the author Peter H. Reynolds. He wrote an inspiring book called The Dot. A story that taught us about perseverance and to make our mark by starting with a simple dot. Dot Day inspired us to  use our imagination and take a chance even if we don't think we know how to do something. DotDay was a great story to start the year off with a focus on building our confidence and perseverance.
To celebrate DotDay we used only Q-Tips and paint. Students had to start with a dot and then see where that dot took them. They were challenged to use dots in their picture to make their mark and be creative. It was great to see the students take chances with their work. We used our dot work to write about what inspired us.

Created with Padlet

We also used our dot work to try out some new tools in our room. We are learning how to scan QRCodes to read and post our work. We are practicing our reading fluency on the app AudioBoom. We are learning how to post our ideas on Padlet using iPads and Chromebooks. We are also working to explain our thinking in writing and explaining WHY using words like because to extend our thinking. Some students got to read their work on the AudioBoom app. A huge thank you to those families who have read and signed the internet permission forms. Please sign and send to school if you haven't done so already. Below is a picture our our artwork. We can't wait to show you at our school's Open House BBQ on Thursday September 17th. See you in Room 222!

Our First Week

We celebrated our first week together with many games and getting to know you activities. There are a few new faces in our room, so the students got to know one another in fun ways. We began our journal writing this week by reading morning messages. Students read letter style messages from me to get used to the letter writing format. In their journals today, students brainstormed and wrote about their favourite parts of Grade 3 so far. We shared many ideas as a class and tried to write 3 sentences in our journal today.

A few friends shared their journal on the iPad app AudioBoom. Have a listen below to some of our favourite memories from our first week in Grade 3 together. Thank you to those of you who have read and signed the Blog permission form so promptly!

Brain Snacks

We began our first week in school by focusing on math thinking activities that we call Brain Snacks. Students come into the classroom each day to a math problem on the board. They work on the problem by themselves in their notebooks and then we discuss the problem as a class. During our discussions, we get to know what our different strategies are. The discussions this week helped us to build our first criteria chart on Representing Numbers. Take a look at what we know so far about representing numbers!

Additionally, we have been playing number games and challenges to build on our knowledge from Grade 2. Ask your child how to represent a number. We are working on 2-digit numbers and will soon work towards 3-digit numbers. We will also be looking at Place Value and Skip Counting soon. Please review with your child how to identify the value or place of a digit in a number. Here is a game that we will play next week to get started: http://www.abcya.com/base_ten_fun.htm

Welcome to Grade 3

Hello and welcome. My name is Mrs. Ciampa and I am very excited to be your child’s Grade 3 teacher for this academic year. This will be my 3rd year at Assumption so I know many of your children very well already. I have degrees in Linguistics, Early Childhood Education and a Bachelor in Education.  When I'm not busy teaching, I enjoy cooking many italian dishes with my husband Joey. We share a love of Italian food including pizza, pasta and coffee. I have a passion for educational technology, global collaborations and learning about how to mindfully implement technology in my classroom. I am excited to get to share my learning with my students and enjoy watching them grow into technology experts!

We are fortunate this year to have Mrs. Maher as our Educational Assistant and Mme. Milic as our French Teacher. A reminder that our daily school schedule has changed this year. We begin school at 9:15 and finish at 3:45.  Our School has a Walking School Bus, if interested please contact the school. Healthy snacks and lunches are preferred each day. Students should have 2 healthy snacks and a hearty lunch to enjoy each day. Students are encouraged to help make their own lunches each night! A reminder that students are welcome to visit our Breakfast Program each morning starting at 9:00am. 

This year in Grade 3 students will prepare for EQAO! We will work on practice questions throughout the year to get ready. We will be practising quiet entry, including modelling how to read silently (DEAR time) and brain snack math problems to begin our day! Students will be encouraged to continue using their agenda to keep organized and to demonstrate their responsibility by completing homework on a nightly basis. Raz Kids and Dreambox online learning will be available again this year. More details including Homework information will be sent home soon.

Our class is in need of the following items: Kleenex (tissue), Plastic Spoons and Ziploc bags (large and small). If you have any to donate, please send some to school with you child. Many thanks in advance!

Important Grade 3 tips:

-Read our Blog daily and follow along our Tweets for up to date information on what we are learning and inquiries we are exploring. Take the time to explore our Blog for helpful tips and links

-Students are encouraged to read books at their just right level each night.

-Students will be responsible to use their AGENDA to keep organized. I encourage them to check it each night to complete homework or to return important school information in a timely manner.

-In Grade 3, students are encouraged to work on 30 minutes of homework each night. This may include reading, writing or math drills.

-Great News: Raz Kids and Dreambox access will be sent home soon. These sites are perfect to help your child practice their reading or math skills. 

I am excited to meet you at our Open House and BBQ next week on Thursday September 17th. I have a class magnet that I'd like to share with each of you when we meet in person in Room 222. 

Yours in Education,

Mrs. Ciampa