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!!

Created with Padlet

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