Halloween Adjectives

This weekend for homework students can recall some of the Halloween adjectives and nouns we talked about in class all week. Please have your child post some of the ways that we can describe Halloween using adjectives and nouns on our Padlet below. We have a few great examples already. 

Happy Halloween!!

Created with Padlet

GRA Week 4: Exclamation Mark

During Week 4 of the Global Read Aloud project we read the story Exclamation Mark. All week we've had a lot of fun with the story. One aspect of the story that the students enjoyed was seeing the different facial expressions of the exclamation mark. We had many discussions on how we could describe how it was feeling or the way it looked. We then talked about how we could describe ourselves using innovative adjectives.

Students brainstormed a big list of words that described themselves. We started with a small bank of words and soon it quickly grew to include many awesome describing words. Have a look below at the words we came up with. We used the Tagul website to showcase the adjectives that describe us.

GRA Week 3: It's Not Fair

This week during the 3rd week of the Global Read Aloud project, we read a book called It's Not Fair. The story talks about a series of unfortunate events that are just not fair. We made many personal connections to the story as we read through the events that were not fair. The book taught us that sometimes things in life are just not fair, and that it's ok not to get what you want sometimes.

We made text-to-text connections to the story as well as text-to-self connections and talked a lot about what kind of things we feel aren't fair. We wrote about something that isn't fair to us. Some students were reluctant to share what isn't fair, but we reminded ourselves that we are allowed to feel like something isn't fair. As long as we know that everyone feels that way sometimes, we just need to accept it and not let it bother us.

We posted and shared some of our connections to the story on a shared-Padlet again. It is so great that the students have opportunities to post their learning on Padlet with other students from around the world. The students are using Padlet weekly and are becoming experts on how to post. They are also becoming safe and responsible digital citizens who make sure they use their online presence for safe learning.

Created with Padlet

Some students got to read with a friend on the AudioBoom app. Some students are becoming experts at using this awesome iPad app. We are using it to help our reading fluency and to see if there is anything that we are missing before completing our writing task. AudioBoom is a free app. Your child can use it at home to practice reading their favourite book. When you play it back, it is neat to see how we read since we don't get to hear ourselves read very often.

Finally, we attempted to do a Google Hangout with another Grade 3 class in our city this week. We wanted to meet some other students who were participating in the Global Project like us. Students were really excited and had some questions prepared. Unfortunately we weren't able to make the facetime opportunity work. We hope to be able to do our first Hangout this week...stay tuned!

Math Review

Over the past few weeks we have been working on representing, comparing and ordering numbers to 1000. We have played a variety of games and solved problems in fun and engaging ways. Students will have a Math Review Quiz this Monday October 26th. A math review was sent home in your child's agenda today. They can work on this over the next few days to review what we've been doing in math since the start of the year. Please have students practice skip counting by 2's, 5's, 10's, 25's and 100's (forwards and backwards).

 We used money this week to skip count in fun ways. Try that at home with your child to review how to skip count. Students also created their own skip counting book to help them review how to skip count. They will be bringing this home next week to keep practicing. Ask your child what the skip counting rules are!

Student can also review the greater than and less than symbols to determine the bigger or smaller number. Remember, the alligator always eats the BIGGER (Greater) number.

Finally, we will be reviewing rounding numbers to the nearest ten. Please refer to the videos we learned in class to recall benchmark numbers and how to round to the nearest ten.

GRA Week 2 Duck Rabbit

This week we participated in the 2nd week of The Global Read Aloud Project. This time we read the book Duck Rabbit by Amy Krouse Rosenthal. The students really enjoyed reading and laughing along with this story.

While reading the book, we made many great connections to the story. As a class, we talked about the Making Connections reading strategy and recalled the 3 types of connections you can make when reading a book: Text-to-Self, Text-to-Text and Text-to-World. After reading Duck Rabbit, we talked about what other books or personal connections we can make to the story. We had many great discussions and ideas to share. We wrote about our connections and shared them with our partners.
This project is helping us to work on our reading strategies. While reading a story, good readers make connections to better understand the books that we read. Ask your child to make some connections while reading with them at home!

While reading the story, the students had many opinions to share on whether they thought it was a Duck or a Rabbit. We had many great discussions and students and to prove why they thought it was a duck or a rabbit. We still don't know for sure what the answer is. We took the official Duck Rabbit poll. We can't wait to the the results!

Is It a Duck Or A Rabbit? – Take the Official Poll #GRA15 #GRAAmy http://t.co/87D1qUG4Wf

— Pernille Ripp (@pernilleripp) October 14, 2015

A great thing about the Global Read Aloud Project is the opportunity to make global connections with other students who are also reading this story. This week we collaborated with friends in our class to share on a Padlet created by a teacher in the Ottawa area. Students are learning to share and collaborate with friends by sharing ideas together when posting online. This Padlet was used by other classes from around the world to write about what they liked, their favourite parts and their connections to the funny story Duck Rabbit. What a fabulous opportunity to connect and share with other students globally. Big thanks to Mrs. Martel for inviting us to share our learning with her class and others from around the world. Have a look below at the great learning our class got to share. Students loved that they could read the learning of students that they haven't met too!

Created with Padlet

Additionally, we continue to use the AudioBoom app to read with a friend. Students are using the app to read their work orally. This helps them to practice their reading fluency with a partner. When reading with a friend, we are practicing how to read clearly and with expression. Our partners also help us to make corrections to our writing too. Have a listen below to some of our great connections to the story Duck Rabbit.



Finally, after reading the story it reminded some of us of optical illusions. We looked for many great examples and were really excited about this one. What do you see in the picture?

While talking about DuckRabbit it reminded us of illusions. What do U see? @lcaluori @Gr1MrsMartel #GRA15 @missamykr pic.twitter.com/VfodJMCtP0

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) October 16, 2015

Venus Flytrap Inquiries

In science we continue on our inquiry journey exploring our new favourite plant - the venus flytrap!

Over the past few weeks we've shared many questions and wonders about the plant. We are reading books, talking with friends, watching videos, consulting Twitter and observing our class plants. Each of these helpful resources are guiding our learning and our fun wonders!

Over the past week, students got to solve many of their wonders. We added our wonders to our class wonder wall, and as we answer a popular question, we post the answer as well. This inquiry has been amazing so far. Students are very engaged in their science learning and are using their spare time to learn more information about the plant. Some students are writing plant stories for homework and posting their plant creations on our Wonder Wall. I even hear students talk about how they are researching the plant when they go home - amazing scientists in action in Grade 3!

Today Mr. Gautreau gave our 3 plant friends a friendly shout-out over the announcements. He welcomed the 3 new "students" to Grade 3....Mario, Thornhead and Spike. We had many curious student visitors to our classroom today who wanted to take a peak at our new class friends. Inquiring in Grade 3 is pretty popular!

Global Read Aloud Project Week 1

This week we began working on another Global Project. The Global Read Aloud project is a 6 week author study project focusing on books by the author Amy Krouse Rosenthal.This project will take us on an interesting adventure. We will read a book by the author each week then share, post and collaborate with it online with people from around the world.

The first book in the project was called Chopsticks. After reading the story, we wrote about what we thought the author's message was. Students worked with a partner to come up with the moral or message in the story that they author wanted us to learn. A few students read their author's message on the AudioBoom app. Have a listen below at some of our great learning.
Additionally, we used Twitter to share our learning with the author of the story herself. In the first week of the project, we've already heard back from her. The students were so excited to hear from her and to see that she pays attention to Twitter messages that we send out. It is great to see the positive interactions we can make with Twitter. Not only are we using it to share our learning on the Global Read Aloud project, but we are interacting with the author of the book too. We are using the hashtag #GRA15 and #GRAAmy to share our learning with students from around the world.  Ask your child about it!

@MrsCiampaClass Well said, each and every one. :)

— Amy Krouse Rosenthal (@missamykr) October 7, 2015

The students were curious about chopsticks after reading the story. They often used pencils to try to imitate how to use chopsticks to  pick up objects. We played a Chopstick Challenge on Thursday to end the first week of the #GRA15. It was so much fun to see who could pick up and place marshmallows in a bin the quickest in 1 minute. The winning student got 26 in 1 minute! It was a great way to end our first week in the project. Next week we will continue with the project and read the story Duck Rabbit.

Showing grit in the Minute-to-Win-it Chopstick Challenge! #gra15 #globalreadaloud pic.twitter.com/wieQGFm5rA

— Paul Gautreau (@paugaut) October 8, 2015

Hi @missamykr Thanks for the message and the amazing book Chopsticks. We think it's really fantastic! #GRA15 #GRAAmy https://t.co/OaABlqhpEL

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) October 8, 2015

Venus Flytraps

Our current focus in science is on plant life systems. Last week in our discussions, students had many questions about Venus Flytrap plants. We consulted Wonderopolis for some answers and watched some videos to learn more. I searched all over the city and was finally able to find some Venus Flytrap plants to bring into our classroom! These plants will be so helpful for our science wondering and our inquiry into Venus Flytraps. Having a real life plant will allow students to watch how it grows. We are hoping to watch it eat a real bug too!

We tested out what happens when an object gets too close today. It was really neat to see the trap close! Ask your child about it. We are building on what we know and adding wonders to our list. We hope to answer these questions during this inquiry. We voted to give the plants names: Spike, Thornhead and Mario. This will be helpful for when we observe the changes and talk about their differences. We can't wait to find out more information!

IG: The venus flytraps are like our class pets!

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) October 6, 2015

ED: I was surprised to see the venus flytraps. I think they're cool because they trap bugs.

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) October 6, 2015

AG: I'm surprised that venus flytraps have really good reflexes.

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) October 6, 2015

Rounding to the Nearest Ten

This past week in Math we focused on Rounding Numbers to the Nearest Ten. Students practiced this concept by playing math games and completing rounding activities. We created a chart to help keep us on track and help us to determine the benchmark numbers to help us round numbers to the nearest ten. To help us understand how to round 2-digit numbers, students found that a number line helps them to locate the benchmark numbers. To review, have your child locate the benchmark numbers and round various numbers to the nearest ten on a number line.

Students are reminded of the rounding rules. Have a look at our rounding chart that helps us to recall how to round numbers to the nearest ten. For homework this weekend, students can review how to round using the math review sheet sent home in their agendas. For more help, here is a fantastic video that will help students who need clarification on how to round numbers to the nearest ten. Practice this skill with your child at home.