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!!

Created with Padlet

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