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

See You Soon!

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. 

Created with Padlet

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

Created with Padlet

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!