Hour of Code

This week students participated in the #HourofCode. Students had the chance to participate in a variety of computer science activities online and using robots in our school. Students are expert programmers with the robot Dash. They had so much fun applying their knowledge of forces in science and coded Dash to move in a variety of positions and locations. We also had the chance to plan purposeful activities with Dash when we were challenged to design a maze for Dash to navigate through. Students used a variety of tools in their attempt to get Dash to move in the correct direction. They learned through much trial and error how to slow Dash down, pick up speed at the right time and change location to be successful. It was a tough challenge, but many students persevered to accomplish their goal.

Students also programmed their own games on the Coding website code.org. Students loved programming on many of the sites including Minecraft, Google logo, Flappy Game, Star Wars, Box Island so so much more. Students were challenged to apply their knowledge of forces in science as well as their math skills in movement. It was a great week of collaboration, critical thinking and communication. We reflected on this engaging week by writing a retell paragraph using details from the struggles and the exciting adventures we had with coding. Ask your child to share what they wrote about and what they liked best.


Students are encouraged to keep coding at home and use our KidBlog platform to continue to share what they are learning, what obstacles they face and what new discovery they are making while coding on their platform of choice.

We wrapped up our week of #hourofcode by reflecting on our code learning. We wrote about what we learned and what we liked best. Ask your child about what they wrote. #FridayFeeling pic.twitter.com/dHRyDeZHYI

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 8 December 2017

Our elf Tallulah challenged our class to design a maze for Dash to go through. Students creativily designed mazes with tools in our room. A fun #hourofcode today. #ontariocodes pic.twitter.com/yftBqUSoby

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 6 December 2017

More examples of hour of code in grade 3. pic.twitter.com/gTjORa2U5H

— St Emily School (@StEmilySchool) 5 December 2017

Even with internet issues we persevered and completed an #hourofcode. Students worked through a few coding stations today and LEGO challenges too. #ontariocodes #stem #ocsbdl pic.twitter.com/l229xj2g9P

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 5 December 2017

Happy coding week! We got distracted from our math lesson by this awesome #Google coding game. #hourofcode #OntarioCodes pic.twitter.com/6lJc4KKvuF

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 5 December 2017

Problem solving when Dash won't follow the code. pic.twitter.com/JUScj68wWM

— St Emily School (@StEmilySchool) 1 December 2017

Students put their Forces in science learning into practice today. We programmed Dash using @WonderWorkshop apps. Ask your child what they had Dash do and what they learned. #stem #ocsbdl #ontariocodes pic.twitter.com/98Ps4DLgCq

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 1 December 2017

Grade 3 Ciampa codes Dash to move pic.twitter.com/XAvKGtriOD

— St Emily School (@StEmilySchool) 1 December 2017

We continue to experiment with the @WonderWorkshop apps to program and code our little Dashes. #stem #ocsbdl Ask your child what they learned on the Blockly app today. pic.twitter.com/ooimzXySci

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 29 November 2017

Students experimented with @WonderWorkshop today. We had fun teaching Dot how to move in different directions. #stem #ocsbDL pic.twitter.com/Myxe2mzm4V

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 23 November 2017

Christmas Play Songs

Below are the songs we are practicing for the Christmas play performance on Wednesday December 20th. Please refer to these songs for students to practice at home. We are practicing in class each day, and students requested that lyrics so they can practice from home too. Thank you for your help!

 

Which One Doesn't Belong?

Our collaborative math task today had us thinking about Which One Doesn't Belong? Students worked in partners and had to come up with reasons why the clocks didn't belong. Click through our Slide Deck to see all of our math thinking today. For homework, students can continue to share their thinking on their KidBlog accounts!

 

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 play this TIME game that we play in class to review how to tell time on an analog clock. After viewing the video and playing the game, students can reflect what they know and what new learnings they have on their KidBlog account for homework. 

http://mrnussbaum.com/clockworks/

Kidblog Available for Student Blogging

We are excited and eager to begin our student blogging journey! For the past week students have been setting up their Kidblog accounts and using the platform to blog about their interests, experiences and participate in discussions. Now that all students have had the chance to create their accounts and navigate the site, we invite them to use the Blog for their creative writing endeavors. Remember to follow the Blogging Etiquette guidelines found HERE. A blogging contract was sent home with your child today. Please read, sign and send back the bottom of the form to ensure that all students and families understand our blogging rules and guidelines. Our goal is to promote thoughtful discussions and provide a platform for students to safely write for pleasure and for a global audience. Digital citizenship is important to us and students understand the 5 P's for a positive digital footprint.
Remember: the purpose for blogging is to read, write and respond. We encourage students to respond positively and appropriately. We are also promoting thoughtful discussions and dialogue.

Happy Blogging! 

kidblog.org/class/MrsCiampa/posts

Twitter Survey Results and Data Collecting

This week we spent a lot of time collecting data by coming up with our own survey questions. We collaborated with friends to come up with our own surveys that we posted on our class Twitter page. When we received the results, we worked in groups to try to explain the data using comparative language (example: altogether, fewer than, more than, most, least, etc).  We will continue to work on comparing data from our Twitter surveys next week. Below, you can see our results. Ask your child about it!
We also completed our own personal survey questions with a target audience of Grade 1/2 students. We are learning that we need to keep our audience in mind when designing a survey question so that the options are relatable to the people we ask. We had a lot of fun designing survey questions and using our tally chart information to build a bar graph. Ask your child what a bar graph and tally chart must have. Next week, we will continue to work with data and talk about pictographs.

What is your favourite kind of flexible seating option in your classroom? By: Mrs. Ciampa #ocsb_math

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 15 November 2017

What is your favourite type of potato chip? By: Johanna, Diya, Maria, Moyo and Kayla #ocsb_math

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 15 November 2017

What trip do you want to go on? By: Jake, Joel, Tristan and Sophie #ocsb_math

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 15 November 2017

What is your favourite video game? By: Rory, Zach, Braeden, Reid and Khoa #ocsb_math

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 15 November 2017

What is your favourite ice cream flavour? By: Lachlan, Peyton, Megan,Maya and Aubrey #ocsb_math

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 15 November 2017

Results of Principal Mason answering the grade 3 survey on twitter. pic.twitter.com/Fj5H35vaFO

— St Emily School (@StEmilySchool) 17 November 2017

Twitter Surveys

In our class, we are working on collecting Data and writing about the information we collect. We created polls (survey questions) on our class Twitter page. Below are each of our Twitter polls. Have your say and vote on each of our 5 survey questions. We will collect the results and analyze our information on Friday.

What is your favourite kind of flexible seating option in your classroom? By: Mrs. Ciampa #ocsb_math

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 15 November 2017

What is your favourite type of potato chip? By: Johanna, Diya, Maria, Moyo and Kayla #ocsb_math

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 15 November 2017

What trip do you want to go on? By: Jake, Joel, Tristan and Sophie #ocsb_math

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 15 November 2017

What is your favourite video game? By: Rory, Zach, Braeden, Reid and Khoa #ocsb_math

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 15 November 2017

What is your favourite ice cream flavour? By: Lachlan, Peyton, Megan,Maya and Aubrey #ocsb_math

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 15 November 2017

Push Pull Padlet

We completed our first collaborative @hapara_team Workspace task. Students successfully read new facts about forces in motion on @EpicKidsBooks and shared their learning on https://t.co/1yoX29tRW0. Ask your child about it! #ocsb_dl pic.twitter.com/TQHxQwDFag

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 14 November 2017

Visualizing Peace

In class we are using visualizing and our 5 senses to help us determine what peace means. We are reading books and collaborating on this padlet below. For homework, students can continue to add their own ideas. They may had juicy describing words or words that they think of that remind them of Peace.

Global Read Aloud Week 4

This week during the Global Read Aloud project, we read the story Tough Boris. We talked about character traits and came up with a list of juicy words to describe the character of Boris the pirate. We imagined why Boris grew up to be such a tough pirate by writing our own stories about what could have happened to him when he was younger.

To share our thinking, we collaborated with Mrs. Johnson's class from Dallas Texas. We wrote many reading responses to questions her class posted about the story Tough Boris. I posted a few of them below. You can see more on our Twitter profile page or by following the hashtag: #GRAMem

When my big brother that is 14 tries to trip me I sometimes think I need to be tough

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 2 November 2017

Mem fox wants us to learn we all have feelings!!

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 2 November 2017

Tough Boris and his crew went to put his bird because he died.#gramem

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 3 November 2017

Because his parrate died and everyone has feeling#gramem

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 3 November 2017

I liked how they were coloured neatly and they were like in the olden times when they looked so fashioned

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 3 November 2017

She wanted to teach us to be nice and don't always think you need to be tough

— Mrs.Ciampa (@MrsCiampaClass) 2 November 2017

Parent Interviews Sign-up

Progress Reports are in your child's agenda today. Please have a read and ensure to send the envelope back to school as soon as possible.
Parents who would like to request an interview with me are asked to follow this link to sign up for a 10 minute time slot. If you would prefer a phone interview instead, please indicate that on the link itself.

Global Maker Day - Cardboard Challenge

Today students put their plan into action and brought their ideas to life during the cardboard challenge. Students were only aloud to use cardboard, scissors, tape and crayons or markers to design  and create. They were also told they needed to create something that could either be pushed or pulled.

Planning in groups for the challenge

They followed the Design Process to solve problems, brainstorm ideas, make a plan, follow and test our their plan, alter or change their ideas and finally reflect on what worked and what didn't. They worked extremely well in their groups today. No one gave up or become frustrated. Everyone was encouraging and helpful. They were on task and had so much fun  while playing and creating. It was also great to see them help out their friends when they needed extra hands to help solve a problem or to finish up their project.

Cardboard Challenge in action!

Students all got a chance to present their inventions and test it out in front of the group. They reflected on what worked and what didn't. They answered questions from their friends and asked a few friends to come up and try their games. Have a look below at our finished products! They are very proud. We will be writing a retell paragraph and a reflection on how the challenge went tomorrow. For homework, please have your child prepare for this by retelling what they did today. Have them use the keep on track words (first, next, then, after that, also, finally, etc) to share the steps they took to create today. It will be helpful for them to practice retelling for their writing work tomorrow in class.

A Vending Machine

A Photocopier Game

A tractor and a wagon with a game inside the wagon!

Maze Machine

Lucky Shoot Flicking Game

Pet Carrier and a Flicking Game

Flick Game

Cardboard Challenge - #GlobalMakerDay

Our class is participating in #GlobalMakerDay. We are going to use cardboard to challenge us to make, design and play something that will allow us to either push or pull. Students are only allowed to use scissors, tape and cardboard. They've collaborated in their group of 3 to come up with what problem they want to solve, or what neat idea they want to explore. Tomorrow we will play!

To get students thinking about the design process and how the cardboard challenge will look, we watched two videos about Caine's Arcade to inspire us.

What is Caine's Arcade, and how did pieces of cardboard inspire this wonderful boy's imagination?  Watch below to find out!


Here is Part 2 of Caine's story. Have a look at the inspiring creations that students from around the world have created after watching his story. We will be playing and creating tomorrow. Ask your child about their ideas!

 

Whoever You Are Shared Writing

This week we participated in week 3 of the Global Read Aloud Project. We read the story Whoever You Are by Mem Fox and talked about the text-to-text and text-to-world connections. We collaborated with a partner and shared our connections and our thinking on a shared writing activity using Google Slides. Students are becoming very familiar with how to use a Slidedeck to collaborate with their peers and help them navigate the site to post our learning. Have a look below at our finished product. Additionally, students can read and share their ideas on a shared-padlet created by a teacher from the Caymen Islands. This week, the book had us think about the great things in our community and in the city we live. A few students had the chance to post their ideas to the shared padlet. Students may continue to add for homework this weekend!

Push and Pull Forces Padlet

Today in class we talked about push and pull forces. We learned the following vocabulary terms:

Force, Motion, Push, Pull, Friction, Position and Location. 

Students can continue to add more of their learning or a wondering about Forces that push and pull.

Wanted: Cardboard!

Next week we will be participating in a Global Maker Challenge. We are in need of cardboard boxes or cardboard of any kind to prepare for a future challenge. (Examples: cereal boxes, gift boxes, kleenex boxes, paper towel rolls, etc..) If you have any cardboard boxes or materials that you can donate to our class, please send them with your child!

Many Thanks!

United Way Dress Up Days

The following is a message posted about United Way theme days on our school's website from Mrs. Mertz.

Our United Way Campaign begins Wednesday with student dress up days in support of United Way.  This is a great way to live out our spiritual theme, Sent to be the Good News.  We are welcoming a cash donation on each of our dress up days to go towards our United Way Campaign.  Here are our Dress up days each Wednesday during the campaign. Mark your calendars!

Oct 18 -    Jersey day 

Oct  25 -   PJ Day

Nov 1  -    Crazy hair

                              Nov 8 -     School Colours (blue and gold) 

Nov 22  -  Hat day

Global Read Aloud Project Week 1 and Week 2

Feel free to continue to add more of your ideas on the shared padlets that Mrs. Del Risco created with her students from the Caribbean. Have a read at what students from around the world are writing about foods and animals where they live.

Week 1: Koala Lou.
Animals Where We Live Shared Padlet:

Week 2: Possum Magic
Food Where We Live Shared Padlet

Dreambox Accounts Ready!

Our Dreambox accounts are finally up and ready to go! In your child's agenda you will find login and password information. The note also outlines how to set-up parent access if you wish to track how your child is doing this year. Coming soon, I will assign tasks for your child to complete based on the math work we are doing in class. Dreambox is available to use on any device including for download on a tablet. Please ensure to follow the school code to access Dreambox on the tablet.

STEM Task: Paper Chain Challenge

Today's STEM Challenge had the students work in groups of 3 to create the longest paper chain they could using only 3 materials: one sheet of construction paper, one pair of scissors and one glue stick.

It was a lively challenge and students were given 20 minutes to make a plan and execute it. Students are reflecting and learning that the planning portion of the task is important since they are not given replacement materials if they make a mistake. The students also collaborated at the start of the task to come up with a set of class rules and guidelines to follow when completing teamwork. Please see our rules below and talk about them with your child. Students had juicy ideas and mentioned some new vocabulary words some of us hadn't heard of before.

We ran out of time to measure our paper chains, but students lined them up on the carpet and decided which one looked the longest. Tomorrow we will reflect what we would do differently, and what we would do the same if we did the challenge again. Ask your child about their amazing teamwork and collaboration today to complete this fun STEM task.

Class created list of teamwork guidelines during STEM tasks

STEM Challenge in action

Orange Shirt Day

Today students learned about Orange Shirt Day. We learned about Phyllis' story and how the colour orange is a symbol to recall the feelings and the treatments she and others endured while attending residential schools in the 1970's. Read more about Phyllis' story here: http://www.orangeshirtday.org/phyllis-story.html

We discussed why Every Child Matters and wrote about it to reflect how important it is for all kids to live in a comfortable, loving and caring place. This story calls upon us to reflect on the Gospel Values especially to respect the dignity of others. Please review with your child why every child matters. Below are some of the tweets and reflections that our class came up with after learning Phyllis' story, and reading the powerful book: When I Was Eight. Ask your child about it! 

STEM Task: Red Cup Challenge

Today students completed their first STEM challenge of the year. (STEM = Science + Technology + Engineering + Math).We collaborated with our group to stack 10 cups into a tower without touching the cups. We had to use only the materials provided in our baskets. An extra challenge at the end: we had to put our Lego figure at the top of our tower without touching it with our hands. It was great to see the students use their critical thinking and communication skills to solve this problem. We learned as a group the importance of following direction and listening to our group to finish the task. We will do many more STEM challenges and as a class we will need to review how to work effectively in a group when solving challenges or tasks. 

Ask your child about this fun activity. What strategy worked best for their group? What strategy didn't work at all? What would your child do differently next time? What would your child do the same next time?

Our Positive Digital Footprints

As part of our current religion focus into digital citizenship, we continue to have conversations on the importance of being positive digital citizens. Last week we had a conversation about the many different digital platforms we use at home and at school. We made a list and discovered that there are many platforms that students use in common and some that only a few of us use. The most important message we agreed upon was the importance of making a positive digital footprint. Students wrote about how they will make sure they are making positive and safe choices on the digital platforms they use most. This was our first time using the green screen this year and our first time practicing our reading fluency. Students have an important message to share about their social media use. We hope they inspire others to make better choices when they post, share or connect with others online.

 

Students watched the video today and reflected on their writing and their reading fluency. They had a lot of great suggestions for what they want to change for next time. Have a read at our goals for next time we made on Twitter:

Adjective List

Here is our list of "juicy" adjectives. We are adding as many describing words as we can so we can help make our sentences extra juicy this year. We will use this list all year when writing. Please feel free to add more if your child would like to complete this for homework.

Students played this game in class to help them review how to find describing words.

 http://www.sheppardsoftware.com/grammar/adjectives.htm

Raz Kids Ready to Go!

Raz Kids account access is ready to go. In your child's agenda you will find your child's username and password. Your child's reading level on Raz Kids reflects what their current reading level is or what their level was at the end of Grade 2. As I complete further reading assessments I may alter the level on your child's Raz Kids account over the next while.
Raz Kids is easily accessible through the Student Portal. Students can also download the app on any iOS device or simply click on the Raz Login Page. My username is: mrsmciampa

Remember: if students are reading on Raz Kids for homework, please limit their reading or comprehension practice to no more than 30 minutes a day!

Happy Reading :-)

Dot Day

September 15th is International Dot Day. An interactive initiative hosted by Peter H. Reynolds the author of many famous books including The Dot. The author invites readers to celebrate their Dot Day by collaborating, creating, connecting and celebrating the power of a simple dot. Students make their mark by starting with a dot and finding out where it might take them.

In our class we began the day by brainstorming with friends how we might demonstrate our growth mindset. Students chatted about what the words meant to them and came up with phrases, words or advice to share. Some key words that we came up with the most: Try, GRIT, believe, guess and more! The best part, one of the messages they said over and over was: "It's OK to make mistakes, because that's how we learn". Our class works so well together and I was so impressed with how invested they were in this activity. Ask your child about it! We completed our day with dot art using q-tips. Once the photos are dry we will put them up to remind ourselves to try our best and believe in what we can accomplish together as a class!




 

Program Night Slide Deck

Thank you to all families who joined us this evening at our school's Program Night. It was a pleasure meeting all of you and I look forward to growing and learning with each of your children. Please view below the slide deck from this evening's class visit. Feel free to add more of your comments or what you or your child are looking forward to in our class this year on our Padlet below!

   

Being Safe Online

Our current focus in Religion is learning about how to be a good digital citizen. We are watching videos and having discussions about internet safety. Students collaborated in groups and came up with a great list of ways they will be safe while on a digital platform. Have a look at what we came up with! Did we miss something? If so, please feel free to add more ideas at home for homework!

Wanted: Newspapers

Our class is in need of unwanted newspapers. We will be using them all year to line our compost bin in our classroom. If you have any newspapers that you are looking to discard, send them to school with your child and we will recycle them in our class  compost bin!

Many thanks!

Program Night This Thursday!

Welcome to Grade 3A

Lake George, New York. July 2017

Hello and welcome! My name is Maria Ciampa and I am very excited to be your child's Grade 3 teacher for this academic year. This is my first year teaching at St. Emily School and I look forward to growing and learning with our class and with the school community. I am coming back from over a year off on maternity leave and am blessed with a busy 14 month old boy named Michael. 

With my husband Joey and son Michael

I have a passion for educational technology and collaborating with others for shared learning opportunities. This year our class will participate in a variety of global projects that will allow us to connect with different classrooms on a global scale. My goal is to encourage them to think critically while communicating and collaborating with their classmates and with other classes globally. We are fortunate to have some flexible learning spaces in our room. Remember, flexible learning happens not just in their physical classroom space, but beyond our classroom walls too!

We are fortunate this year to have Mme. Borger as our French Teacher. 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 by modeling how to read silently (DEAR time), answering some would you rather scenarios and completing brain snack math problems daily. Students will be encouraged to use their agenda to stay organized. Nightly homework will not always be mandatory. Students will be encouraged to demonstrate their responsibility by choosing to either review their word wall words, write on their blog, read on Raz Kids or complete the occasional math review. Please check the agenda daily for important notes or information. Class updates will be shared daily on our class Twitter (@MrsCiampaClass) written by myself and your children!

Your child will get the opportunity to share their learning on a variety of online tools including our class Twitter (@MrsCiampaClass) and their individual student blogging accounts (to be introduced later in the fall). Please read and sign the Blog/Twitter permission form for more information on how we will use blogging to enhance our learning. 

This year our Grade 3 class will be learning in Portable 2 outside. Please ensure that your child has a pair of indoor gym shoes with non-marking soles and earphones to use while working on our various tech devices. Below are some suggested, optional items that you can chose to donate to our classroom to help keep it clean and organized:

-Kleenex

-hand sanitizer

-baby wipes

-Ziploc bags (large and small)

There are several notes in your child's new agenda this evening. Please take the time to read them over, sign each form,  and return them to school at your earliest convenience. If you have any questions, please write me a note in the agenda and remind your child to show me! Scholastic Book Orders for September will be sent home next week. Scholastic Parent Pay is available for payments online. More information to come next week.

I am excited to meet you at St. Emily's Open House next week on Thursday September 14th at 6:30pm. I have a class magnet that I'd like to share with each of you when we meet in person in Portable #2. 

Yours in Education,

Mrs. Ciampa