Open House Parent Conferences

A huge thank you to all parents who were able to join us today at our school's Open House breakfast. We had so many wonderful families join us in our gym this morning. Families had the chance to enjoy a healthy breakfast together with their children. We also got to watch the dance teams led by Mrs. Vela. They blew us away with their amazing talent! After the breakfast, we went to our classrooms and invited our parents to join us.

We held mini parent conferences to show our parents some of our expertise in our room. Many students got to show off their amazing work on our Google Docs and Google Slides. There were other students who wanted to teach their parents how to scan QR Codes to read their narrative stories that we created. It was neat to see the students teach their parents how to scan a QR Code, and then how to write a comment through the link on their cover pages.

Students also wrote blog posts and comments together with their parents and taught them how to navigate the KidBlog site. It is so great to see the student's expertise in action. We also had students talk about their experiences with the Open House with their parents on our Padlet below. Please feel free to add more of your thinking! 

We are so thankful to have supportive families in our community who joined us today. Thank you to all of our thoughtful parents who came to feast with us and to learn more about their children's learning. It really brought a huge smile to our class' faces. 

To view the blog posts created by students today during the Parent conferences, please head on over to our class Kidblog accounts. 

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EQAO Homework Workbook

Dear Parents,

Today your child came home with their EQAO workbook. Inside you will find EQAO practice questions for both math and language. Students have been working on similar types of questions all year long. The EQAO assessment will take place at the end of this month beginning on May 25th. Students are strongly encouraged to practice reviewing for this test by working on 2 pages of the workbook each night between now and the start of the test. 30 minutes of nightly math and language review is recommended. The work in the duotang will not be evaluated; it is simply for you and your child to review each night prior to the start of the assessment at the end of May. PLEASE ENSURE STUDENTS BRING THE BOOK BACK TO SCHOOL EACH DAY SO WE CAN REVIEW THE WORK IN CLASS OR IF THEY HAVE QUESTIONS. For more information, please see the note inside of the workbook in your child's agenda.

Open House and Lorax Persuasive Writing

We have been working on Persuasive Writing in our room for the past few weeks. Students are learning how to convince someone to do something important to them. We need to make sure we are polite and we use kind words when we are trying to persuade. Our reasons have to be valid and have to be as convincing as possible.

We completed a Lorax persuasive task during Earth Week. We read the story and wondered as a class why the Once-ler was so determined to cut down the trees and take so much life away. We researched many reasons why trees are important to our life and to the life of other things in nature. We learned how to research and how to find reasons that made sense to our writing topic. Students used Google Slides to compile their research and then referenced the Slides while writing their persuasive letters to the Once-ler. Have a look at our research below:

 

Last week we completed another persuasive task. This time the topic was Open House. Students chose to either persuade the students of Assumption to buy books at the Book Fair or to persuade their parents to join us at our Open House breakfast. Students had to use transition words to help them compose their persuasive letters. Their good copy was typed on Google Docs where many students got to use Google Read and Write to help them edit their work. Ask your child to explain to you how it helped them with their writing. We also shared our final draft on an iPad app called Chatterpix. Students loved experimenting with this app. We posted all of their completed Chatterpix creations on their KidBlog accounts. Please visit our KidBlog accounts to leave a comment on their writing. They loved creating them and are excited to see they are available on YouTube!

Science Workshop on Soils

Shaking up the soil types with @sci_in_school @assumption_ocsb Look how much fun we are having. https://t.co/svEgMwe4hb

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 27 April 2016

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Wiggly worms that tickle https://t.co/AkzkgWff1B

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 27 April 2016

Is root growth easy or hard with sand? @sci_in_school https://t.co/4ej0UMceDp

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 27 April 2016

Labelling and discovering the parts of a worm with @sci_in_school https://t.co/It03Vj4fgz

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 27 April 2016

How much water can the topsoil hold? @sci_in_school? https://t.co/Ok8U9P2fT0

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 27 April 2016

Having fun learning about wiggly worms during our @Sci_in_School workshop today. pic.twitter.com/A0UlS4nhrz

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 27 April 2016

2 and 3 Digit Addition and Subtraction

In Math our current focus is on addition and subtraction. We are working towards adding and subtracting numbers that are 3 digits. A math review was sent home this weekend. Please use our charts below to help students review. Some students need to review how to subtract with regrouping. The chart below will help. We also came up with some strategies to help us add numbers. These strategies really help us when we add 2 and 3 digit numbers. Ask your child about these strategies and review the math work at home this weekend.

Also below are pictures of our Math Centers this week . We played a lot of fun addition and subtraction games with our friends. Ask your child about their favourite games. I will also add some math game links at the bottom to help students review key concepts. Have a great weekend!

http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/SpeedGrid/Addition/urikares.html
http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/SpeedGrid/Subtraction/urikasub1res.html

Swim to Survive Program

Starting this Monday April 11th as well as Monday April 18th and Monday April 25th, the grade 3's will be participating in the Swim to Survive Program. Thank you for sending your permission letters back to school in a timely manner. Students will head to Splash Wave pool by bus to learn basic swimming to survive lessons. We ask that you remember to send your child to school with the following items:

-appropriate bathing suit (one piece for girls)
-towel
-plastic bag

Students who do not come to school with these items will not be able to attend the swimming sessions. Students do not need to bring anything else. Items such as hair clips and eye goggles are not permitted. We will leave by bus around 12:30 and arrive at school around 2:30.

Thank You!

Coding and Forces Causing Movement

 In Science our current focus is on Forces that Cause Movement. We are exploring different types of forces found in our environment. We talked a lot about what push and pull forces are around us. Students are learning that forces in nature like wind or water have an impact on the environment. Many of our students are members of the Makerspace club at our school that meets a few times a week. They are using what they know about Forces when experimenting with different STEM projects.

This week we participated in an #HourofCode together with the grade 4/5 class. We collaborated with our friends in the class to learn how to code our very own video games. Students loved participating in this coding activity. We all received our very own certificates after completing the Hour. It's cool to see programmers in our Grade 3 class.

After the coding, students made connections between forces that cause movement and the coding activity. We talked about how altering the speed on a code or our own tapping on the keyboard impacts various push and pull forces in a video game. We also made connections between our knowledge of forces that cause changes in movement to the coding activities we did this week. We coded a few games this week like Flappy Bird, Minecraft, Frozen and Star Wars games on code.org. It was fun to put what we've learned into practice this week on our very own video games. Ask your child about their coding adventures. We will continue to talk about Forces and Coding next week. See our fun from this past week below.

Getting started on our shared learning with @assumptiongr45 We are learning how to #Code today @Assumption_ocsb pic.twitter.com/kAf7fgWRcD

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 29 March 2016

Programming the Flappy Bird game for the first time. @assumptiongr45 @Assumption_ocsb https://t.co/14x2DjNxKu

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 29 March 2016

The hints help us to change the game if we can't move to the next level. @assumptiongr45 https://t.co/024wIhEc0T

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 29 March 2016

We get certificates for completing our #hourofcode @assumptiongr45 https://t.co/L9zbdXxqNR

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 29 March 2016

We help our friends when we can't figure out the problem in our code #HourofCode @assumptiongr45 https://t.co/2zM8PiOyDS

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 29 March 2016

TO says: "#HourofCode is more like playing than working but it's still fun, because we're making games." @assumptiongr45 @Assumption_ocsb

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 29 March 2016

Our first #HourofCode today with @MrsCiampaClass #coding #collaborativelearning #HelloWorld pic.twitter.com/6ia7hVUq7x

— Amanda Salinas (@assumptiongr45) 29 March 2016

In science we are connecting forces that cause movement to coding. pic.twitter.com/IUNIyaCeaM

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 30 March 2016

Trying to figure out why Elsa isn't moving into all of the squares instead of just one. https://t.co/Splcvb8GAD

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 30 March 2016

We keep trying but can't figure out why he is turning right too much? https://t.co/QgEvBg3JZN

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 30 March 2016

Lent Project Delivery

Over the past few weeks during this season of Lent, our class has worked hard to promote kindness in our school and in our community. Our goal was to spread some kindness to our local Food Bank by collecting canned food to benefit the people who live in our community. The students planned and organized this initiative in a number of ways. We started talking about doing something nice for our school during Kindness Week. We watched videos and read stories about the boomerang effect and how spreading kindness makes our world a better place.

We decided to promote this to the school by writing daily announcements and created posters to spread our message. We read a few stories to inspire us, then we created posters on Slides to collaborate with a friend and share why kindness is cooler.

As the weeks went on, our collection of canned food slowly grew. To further inspire others, students were interested in creating their own commercials and share on YouTube. We wanted to use the Green Screen to make videos to promote our project to the school so we made a plan on Slides. 

The students did a great job of following what good speakers do while filming their first ever commercials. We posted our commercials to YouTube. To view each of our commercials, follow this link to student's KidBlog accounts. Each commercial is posted to the students' blogs. Mr. Gautreau watched each of our commercials and left us a comment. Students loved to see their principal giving them feedback!

And finally, today Sylvie from the Partage Vanier Food Bank came to visit our school to pick up the boxes of food just in time for Easter this weekend. She was so appreciative of what the students did over the past few weeks to collect so much food. She thanked us and we helped pack the boxes for her to bring to the Food Bank today. It felt great to share with her that our final total was 316! We hope this helps many families in our community over the Easter weekend. We reflected on the project today during our Talking Circle. Students shared their favourite memories and what they enjoyed most about the project. We posted some of our ideas on the Padlet below. Please feel free to add your own thinking if you think there is more to share. We also added a few photos and links to reflect on this amazing experience. Well done Grade 3!!

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Contractions Homework

Welcome back to school! I hope you all enjoyed a restful March Break holiday. 

This week our vocabulary focus is on contraction words. What are contraction words? They are words with an apostrophe that take the place of letters. Contractions are a shorter way to say two words. For instance: he is becomes:he's. Follow this quick link to see how we can change two words into a contraction word:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GvjpoNKhnZA

For Homework This Week:
1. Students can play this contractions word game:
http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/vocabulary-games/contractions/pick-the-correct-contraction.html
2. After playing this game, students will need to demonstrate their understanding of how to change two words into a contraction word on their BLOG.
3. Make a list of words that you changed into contraction words. (he is = he's)
4. Comment on a friend's blog to see what words they come up with.

Blues in the School!

We had a blast with RBC Blues in the School over the past few weeks. The students worked with Blues performances named JW-Jones and Laura Greenburg all week long to prepare for their performance in front of our school. A huge thanks to RBC Bluesfest who sponsors this program for schools in our area. They gave us the amazing opportunity to plan and write our own original songs and our school got to see our performance. We posted many Vines and links to some of the songs we sang today. A huge thank you to the parents and friends who joined us today to watch us. It was a pleasure to have you in our audience today. Also a big thank you to the artists JW Jones and and Laura Greenburg for your patience and for sharing your creativity with us. Also a thank you to Mr. Tim Walsh from our local RBC branch on Montreal road for your generous donation of $500 to our school's music program. We can't wait to use that money for more musical experiences at our school this year!

Had a blast @Assumption_ocsb - these kids were amazing! @ottawabluesfest #blues pic.twitter.com/P08WZcD7uB

— JW-Jones (@jwjonesblues) 11 March 2016

That's the power of our school! Loving this thank you @ottawabluesfest for organizing this for our class an... https://t.co/E84zoRtoGj

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 11 March 2016

OMG it's March break! An original song written by our class with @ottawabluesfest ! https://t.co/4vRzWPMKly

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 11 March 2016

Sweet home Chicago! @ottawabluesfest. https://t.co/a4Hr87jsrY

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 11 March 2016

Getting ready to rock with JW Jones and Laura Greenburg from @ottawabluesfest to begin our performance. https://t.co/R7URvXovj8

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 11 March 2016

#marchbreak @RBCBluesfest @Assumption_ocsb @Senators pic.twitter.com/syu4jhkVm2

— Ms. Howe (@GR6_ASU_HOWE) 11 March 2016

Hey everyone, sing along with us as our students perform this original blues song! @RBCBluesfest pic.twitter.com/a3wy8ue3An

— Assumption School (@Assumption_ocsb) 11 March 2016

Thank you RBC for funding for our new music program! #rbcbluesfest pic.twitter.com/v14PmzFH6D

— Assumption Kinders (@AsuKindersRock) 11 March 2016

Last day of Blues in the School! Thanks @jwjonesblues and @RBCBluesfest! pic.twitter.com/b1uqGlY6El

— Assumption Kinders (@AsuKindersRock) 11 March 2016

Area and Perimeter Review

We will have a math quiz tomorrow on Area and Perimeter. A math review is going home tonight. Please use this chart to help your child with any questions about how to measure perimeter and area.

Measurement Homework - CM KM M

Last week we talked about what we can measure in CM...M...and in KM. We created a Padlet to share what we know about the most appropriate units to measure a length. For homework, students can continue to add their ideas to the Padlet.

A sample way to start your thinking can be: You can measure _____ in CM, or I measured the length of my bed in _____, etc.

CM = centimeters

M = meters

KM = kilometers

Created with Padlet

Lent Project

For the past few weeks, students have been collaborating to promote and raise awareness about our Lent project. Our mission is to raise as much non-perishable food as we can as a school. We want to spread kindness in our school and in our Vanier community. We are collecting food to help families who are in need to benefit our community food bank the Partage Vanier Food Bank.  It is amazing to see the generosity and the kindness that our school has shown. Together, our contributions are growing steadily. A huge thanks to all families who have donated and especially to the grade 6's who are challenging us to bring more each day.

Students have been writing announcements each day.  This week we planned and filmed Green Screen videos to promote what students in our school can donate and to share the purpose of our mission. We used our school green screen and the Do Ink iPad app for the first time. We posted our videos on YouTube and now they are live and ready to view on our KidBlog accounts. We are really proud of our hard work and are eager to share them. Please follow the link to our class Kidblog account to view each of our videos and share a comment to show support.

We worked on our Lent Project Green Screen promotions today. Stay tuned to our Kidblogs for the finished videos! pic.twitter.com/zzKWeeStmh

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 4 March 2016

Bump it Up!

As a class we have been working on giving effective feedback in the comments we write on the Blogs. I took sample comments from their KidBlogs and together we created a Bump It Up Wall. The bump it up comments will serve as a guide for students to work towards adding more detail in their comments and giving students something to reply back to. This will help to encourage deeper conversations on our Blogs! We have been working on bumping up our writing in a variety of ways in class and on our Blogs. Students are reading each other's written reading responses and offering comments to help improve on their writing. 
Last week we began an exciting global writing challenge called The Five Sentence Challenge. Each week there is a writing prompt and students from around the world are welcome to create a story in 5 sentences. The focus this week was "Going shopping on a rainy day".

The exciting part of this writing challenge is that all students around the world who are participating in this project can read and comment on OUR stories!  
This week we commented on a set of Blogs written by students in a Grade 2 class that live close to us in Kanata. We collaborated with them before during the Global Read Aloud Project in the fall. Students put into practice the bump up style comments that we worked on. They also came up with their own set of Commenting Rules. They decided on what rules our comments should follow and followed them when commenting on the Five Sentence challenge stories they wrote as well as the comments on Mrs. Mason's Grade 2 blogs. Ask your child how they can bump up their comments on our class Kidblog. Also, please feel free to have your child comment on blogs for homework at any time. This will help to encourage meaningful conversations and feedback which will improve our writing. 

Time Homework

This week in Measurement we will be exploring and reviewing TIME. We will be focusing on how to tell time using both analog and digital clocks. In grade three, we are learning how to tell time to the nearest 5 minutes.

For homework this week, students can watch a time video to review how to tell time on an analog clock. After viewing the video, students can reflect what they know and what new learnings they have on their KidBlog account for homework.

1. Watch the TIME video below. 
2. Play TIME games: http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/StopTheClock/sthec3.html
http://www.oswego.org/ocsd-web/games/StopTheClock/sthec2.html
3. Go to your KidBlog and post a blog about what you know and what you have learned about TIME.

Kid President Kindness Homework

This week we are celebrating Kindness Week. Here in Ottawa, you can follow along with the hashtag: #kindottawa on Twitter to see what others in our area are doing to make our city a better place.

Our Lenten Project kicked off last week. We are collecting non-perishable food to help benefit the Partage Vanier Food Bank. We are hoping to spread kindness to our school and in our community by helping out our neighbourhood Food Bank. Thank you to those of you who have already donated food so far. We are hoping to build a mountain of food to give to our community Food Bank during the season on Lent. We are promoting our efforts at school through announcements, posters we made on Google, tweeting and blogging.

This week for homework, students have asked to view a Kid President video. Students can watch this sweet video that encourages us to say these 20 things more often. After watching the video, post on your KidBlog about kind things we can say or do more often to make our classroom, our school and our community a better place!

Compound Words Homework

This week our vocabulary and word wall focus will be on Compound Words. We will be reviewing what compound words mean and we will come up with many different compound words as a class.

For homework this week, students can watch a short video on compound words and then post on their KidBlog accounts!

1. Watch the Compound Words Video
2. Post on your KidBlog. Explain what compound words are. Make a list of some compound words you can think of.
3. You can also write some sentences with compound words!

3D Structures and Shape Experts

We are currently working on 3D shapes in our class. Students worked together to show their expertise on a 3D shape of their choice. They used Pic Collage to show what they learned about their shape. After showing what they know, they shared their Pic Collage on a shared Padlet. If you'd like to learn more about and of the 3D shapes on our list, check below at our Padlet thinking. Today we presented our learning and added to our 3D Shape Chart. If you know anymore facts about 3D shapes, please add it to our Padlet below!

We will continue working on 3D shapes and describing their properties. In Science we are working on stable structures. We had a STEM challenge last week using gumdrops and toothpicks. Students had to design a 3D shape that would be stable enough to hold a heavy textbook. It was a fun challenge and we got to experiment with various 2D and 3D shapes.   Ask your child what their learned about the shapes after completing this challenge. Ask your child what is the strongest shape is!!

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Symmetry Homework

For homework, students will be going home with some EQAO symmetry math work. We have been working to find lines of symmetry in shapes and objects. We are also using rulers and Mira's to draw the other side of a shape.  Below, students have identified the 3 types of lines (horizontal, vertical and diagonal). When we are asked to EXPLAIN or JUSTIFY, we need to talk about how many lines of symmetry and the types of lines that we used. Students can work on the symmetry math work for homework. **Please help them to see how they can justify or explain their answer using key math vocabulary such as the type of lines used. ** We have been working on this in class each day. Once finished, they can practice identifying more lines of symmetry with this online game. They can also blog about lines of symmetry on their class Kidblog accounts!
http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/mathgames/geometry/shapeshoot/SymmetryLinesShapesShoot.htm

2D Geometry

In math we are currently working on 2D Geometry. We are comparing shapes based on their properties (sides, vertices, angles, etc). We are focusing on right angles and looking at the inside of shapes to describe angles as bigger, smaller or the same size as right angles. Currently, we are congruent 2D shapes using tangrams and other objects. A shape is congruent when it is the same size and shape. We are flipping, turning, stacking or turning the direction to see if the shapes are congruent or not.

This week we completed our Shape Hunt Challenge. Students went around the school find shapes inside of objects. Students were challenged to write about the sides, vertices and angles inside of the objects they found. It was a fun task and students shared all of their learning on a 2D Shared Padlet. The link is below.

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Stable Structures in Science

Created with Padlet

Created with Padlet

Asking Questions

Our current reading focus is on Asking Questions. Students are working to recognize how questions can help us when we read. Students are using these words to stop and ask themselves questions about what they are reading. When we stop to ask questions while we read we are learning more information, adding more details and understanding how to retell what happens in the story.

Please continue to use these words for your Word Wall Homework for the week. In addition, when reading with your child this week, stop and model a question you have about the story. This will help them to use this strategy on their own when reading independently.

In class we are working on this strategy before, during and after we read. We read The Stranger by Chris Van Allsburg. We had many predictions and questions about who the stranger was and what his purpose was for visiting the farm. Below are some Book Talk tweets we shared. We used the #blktlk hashtag during this activity.

We read this story and have many questions. Grade 3, can you tell me what makes the stranger father nature? #blktlk pic.twitter.com/bumlMmqFw8

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) January 19, 2016

@MrsCiampaClass we don't think he is father nature because.... we think that he's a guy from heven .God sent hem down. BY: ds & BRM

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) January 19, 2016

@MrsCiampaClass sc cc say: he is not father nature because he is God. He chage the wather. what is the Stranrger Name?

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) January 19, 2016

@MrsCiampaClass TC and JM: We know that it is Father Nature because he changed the trees colour to green and made it warm

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) January 19, 2016

@MrsCiampaClass IB says: He made nature. He also changed colour of the trees.

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) January 19, 2016

@MrsCiampaClass EB says: That he blew on the leaf and it just made the tree turn red and yellow when he left.

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) January 19, 2016

2D Geometry Homework

In Math our current focus is on 2D Geometry. We are currently recalling how to describe the shapes in different ways. We are looking at their properties like sides and vertices. We are beginning to talk about right angles and noticing which shapes have them. Ask your child about it. We will share more of our learning soon.

In the meantime, students were VERY curious about this math talk picture today during our Brain Snack. Lots of debate and shape noticing. They asked to keep the discussion going on KidBlog. For homework, students can follow this link: https://kidblog.org/class/MrsCiampa/posts/e9mdnkt1a1712dygxi3pj0ov0 

They can post a comment with what shapes they see, they can describe them and talk about hidden shapes. We've also googled to find answers to new shapes we are discovering. This is a really exciting activity for us. Can't wait to see your comments!

Today we learned that there is a 12 sided shape called Dodecagon. It's Real!! @Assumption_ocsb pic.twitter.com/TtwNWzU4eT

— Mrs. Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) January 6, 2016