More glogs

Last week the boys and girls began "glogging" their social studies projects on an online tool called Glogster. We have used this tool in the past and the kids love it! It really allows them to share their learning in a creative and innovative way. I am looking forward to the finished projects!

Narrative Writing

We have all become very creative writers in Portable 4! We are having a lot of fun with narrative writing. This form of writing allows kiddies to really use their imaginations to tell fictional stories.
This form of writing always tends to be a fave and all kids really look forward to sharing their finished products with each other!

What's the Probability?

Today we began a math unit in Probability.

We learned all about chance and the possibility of outcomes.

We learned the following vocabulary:

- Possible
- Impossible
- Certain
- Likely
- Unlikely
- Equally likely

Try these!

Answer With: Impossible, Certain, Likely, Unlikely or Equally Likely

1. You flip a coin. How likely is it to land on heads?

2. A kitten will sing Oh Canada.

3. You will go bowling tomorrow afternoon.

4. It is Thursday tomorrow.

5. We will do math tomorrow.

We are coming to the end of our measurement unit.
We have  had a few pop quizzes along the way and completed a mini assignment today (see my tweet on Twitter!) I feel like we do not need to have a unit test and will be ready to jump into Probability next week!

Happy Friday!

Measurement Unit

Last week we began a unit in measurement.
The boys and girls have been measuring items to the nearest centimetre and metre.
Today we learned all about the kilometre.

This week the focus will be on perimeter and area.

Prodigy has been updated with some measurement activities.


Math Problem:

If the distance from my house to the park is 500 m, will I have walked 1 km if I walk to the park and back home? Explain how you know.

Catholic Education Week

A reminder that parents are invited to join us in a few different activities this week:

Tuesday at 9:45 in the forum - science activity with Mme. Pasyk (science teacher)

Wednesday 10:00 mass at MMOG

Thursday at 2:30 in Portable 4- Poet-Tea

Friday - 9:00 RAD assembly in the gym

Transformational Geometry Test

On Tuesday we will have our unit test for Transformational Geometry.

The test will cover:

1. Moving on a map or grid

2. Translations (flips), Rotations (turns) and Reflections

3. Symmetry

Symmetry Matching

Transformational Geometry

Last week we began a new math unit called Transformational Geometry. We will cover the following expectations:

- describe movement from one location to another using a grid map

- identify translations (slides), rotations (turns) and reflections

- complete and describe designs and pictures of images that have vertical, horizontal or diagonal line of symmetry

This tends to be a quick unit and we will be moving on to fractions early next week.

We will aim to have a geometry math test on Tuesday May 3.

Come join us!

Parents are invited to come in on Thursday May 5th for some "poet-tea."

Come enjoy some poems by us and a glass of iced tea!

This fun activity will be held in our portable (4) on Thursday May 5th from 2:30-3:10.

Hope to see you there! 

Busy Bees!

We have been busy bees over the last week or so in Portable 4!

In math we have worked through a mini unit in money. Tomorrow students will bring home the various assessments that have been used throughout the unit. I strongly encourage students to continue to count coins, add money amounts and make change regularly at home.

Problems such as this one basically cover all learning expectations for money in grade three:

Mrs. Linse goes to the bake shop with a toonie, and 4 quarters.
She buys a cupcake for $0.58 and a doughnut for $1.12.
How much change does she get back?

As you can see, in this one question, students are required to put to work all of the different skills learned in the unit.

In Language we wrapped up a mini unit in idioms. We created our own classroom book titled "Idiom Tales." We sure had a lot of fun doing this!

We have begun a persuasive writing unit. Right now the boys and girls are working in small groups to create persuasive pieces to convince people to either squish an ant or save it!

We also continue to read various texts and respond to questions about them. Our responses require us to include evidence (proof) from the text to support our thinking.

These are just some of the great things taking place in Portable 4! Most days I can't believe how much we accomplish in a day! Busy busy I tell ya!

Call for Items!

We are coming down to our last box of Kleenex and bottle of wipes. Your generous donations have lasted us through a (long) winter!
We are in need of the following items in the portable:

- Kleenex
- Baby wipes or Lysol Wipes

Thank you so much!

Mini Money Unit

We have recently begun a mini math unit in money. The following are the expectations that will be covered:

- count and represent a collection of coins up to $10.
- describe the relationship of coins and bills up to $10 (example: how many quarters can make $5)
- add money amounts
- make change for amounts up to $10

I encourage students to count coins nightly at home. Counting a small pile of coins together is a great way to build confidence and reinforce the math skills in this unit.

Measurement Practice

Throughout the week I will keep posting various questions to help practice for Tuesday's math test. Keep checking back to this thread for updates!
Also, playing Prodigy will be helpful too!

1. Tyson plays basketball for 15 minutes everyday. After one week, how long has he played for?

2. Mrs. Linse is having a party. There will be 15 people altogether. How many litres of punch should she make?

3. Kids are playing outside. The temperature is 0 Degrees Celsius. What season do you think it is? Explain your thinking.

4. Write these times digitally:

a) four forty-five
b) ten minutes to 6
c) quarter after two
c) five thirty-five

5) How many days were there this year? How come?

6) Mrs. Linse just bought 3 litres of milk. How many cups can she fill?

7) Adam reads for 30 minutes each night.
   After two weeks has he read for more   
   than 6 hours?

Math Test

On Tuesday April 5th we will be having our measurement math test. It will cover time, temperature, calendar, mass and capacity. Keep checking back for practice problems posted to the blog!

Fact or Opinion

Our reading and writing focus this week has been on facts and opinions. A fact is something that is true. You can prove a fact. An opinion, on the other hand, is a personal feeling or belief.

Here is a fun activity...have your child write 3 facts and 3 opinions about the picture below!

Mass and Capacity

This week we began the second part of our measurement unit: mass and capacity. We have learned that mass is how heavy something is. In grade three we use kilograms (kg) as a unit of measure. We have learned that capacity is how much a container holds. In grade three we use litres (L) as a unit to measure. Today we discovered that 1L is about the same as 4 cups or mugs!

Number Talks

We have recently begun engaging in something called "Number Talks" in the classroom. These are classroom conversations around math problems that are solved mentally. These conversations last about 5-15 minutes. During a number talk, the teacher poses a problem and charts the strategies that students share. All students have a chance to share his or her way of thinking about and solving the problem. As a result of number talks, students develop efficiency, accuracy and fluency with mathematical thinking using mental math. Students move away from strict memorization and move into sense-making and reasoning around the mathematics (Instructional Toolkit for Mathematics, 2013-14). 

We are finding these conversations extremely effective and engaging. Students look forward to our number talk each day. I love seeing the excitement in my kiddies around math... it is absolutely magical!

We have started off simple with out number talks by using dots... here is an example from the other day!

Friday Fun

Today was a busy yet fun day!

We started off with writing our POTW quiz and catching up a bit on incomplete work from the week. We ended the morning with a "number talk" which I will do a separate post on later. The rest of the day consisted of comparative writing in small groups, some telling time bingo and Prodigy in the computer lab. We were productive that's for sure!!

Happy weekend!

Comparative Writing

We have begun a writing unit in Comparative Writing. When we comparative write we discuss how two things are the same and how they are different. Today we brainstormed a list of comparative language to use when writing these paragraphs. We also came up with some ideas of things that could be compared (examples are: cars, friends, book characters, foods, animals and seasons... just to name a few). For home practice students could write a comparative paragraph if they wish comparing themselves to a sibling, comparing mom to dad or maybe they have two pets to compare... the ideas are endless!

Time to the Five Minutes

We are working on telling time to the five minutes. The boys and girls are expected to be able to read the time on the clock and be able to say the time another way too. So for example: 3:15 can also be said as quarter after three.
We are also learning how to write time when posed as a problem. For example: What time will it be twenty minutes before three o'clock? (2:40)
Providing your child with lots of opportunities to tell time (there are interactive online clocks) and problems similar to the one above would be beneficial.
I have updated Prodigy with some time activities. Also here is a link to some other time activities too.

Time

More Time

Even More Time

Time Review

Today we took a look at the clock to review our skills from Grade One and Grade Two.
Today we specifically practiced telling time and showing time (using our own mini clocks) to the hour and half hour. Tomorrow we will review quarter past and quarter to the hour.
On Monday we will begin with the Grade Three expectation: read time to the nearest five minutes.
Telling time is a life skill! I strongly encourage kiddies to practice regularly at home.
Below is a link to a telling time activity that will help review our Grade One and Grade Two skills.

Time

It's About Time!

Today we began Unit 6 in math. The first few lessons are all about time. Today we started with the calendar. We will move this week into telling time using both digital and analog clocks. Practicing these skills regularly at home will be helpful!

Look at the calendar below...

1. What will the date be in two weeks from February 2nd?

2. How many Fridays were there in February?

3, What day of the week will March start on?

4. What day of the week did January end on?

Pigeon Filled Day

The theme of today was .... The Pigeon!

 

We have been learning all about writing with quotation marks over the last two weeks. Today we put our learning to practice in a really fun way! We spent the morning reading "Pigeon" books by Mo Williams. These books are hilarious and FULL of expression and voice. The kiddies then picked their favourite pigeon quote to write in quotation marks (in the books Mo Williams uses speech bubbles). The kiddies were challenged to use a better word than "said" and even try to use an adverb in their sentence.

The afternoon consisted of a drawing lesson. We learned how to draw our very own pigeon... how cool is that?! We followed the steps(which links back to our learning about procedures)that are posted online by Mr. Mo Williams himself.

Below is the link if the boys and girls would look to practice at home.

 

Draw The Pigeon

 

Also are some pictures of our super fun day! Once we are all done and the bulletin board is complete I will post a picture of the finished products!

 

Happy Weekend everyone!!

 

Mode

Today is math we learned all about mode. Mode is what shows up the most in a data set. We played a game with dice to explore what mode is all about. Have your kiddo show you at home tonight if there is time! 

Writer's Notebook

Writer's Notebook's are coming home tonight to be shared with moms and dads. This is just a snapshot into some of the writing that we do each day. We also do lots of whole group, small group and guided writing that we don't record in these books. Our Writer's Notebooks are saved for some of our best pieces.
Happy Reading!

Wrapping Up Data Management

We have pretty much come to the end of our data management unit. Instead of a unit test we have had a few small assessments along the way. This has consisted of  a few small quizzes, graphing activities and teacher check-ins and observations. I like to do this every now and then instead of one giant test. The kiddies seemed to do well with this format too!
We will continue to wrap up the unit this week and be ready to jump into time and temperature next week.

Language Update

We are busy bees during our language block!

Writing: We continue to focus on procedural writing. Today we were also introduced to quotation writing.

Reading: Today we were introduced to the strategy of asking questions. We are wrapping up a mini unit in non fiction too.

Media / Oral Communication: We will be presenting our Glogster posters this week.

Drawing Pictographs

Today we practiced drawing our own pictograph.

When drawing a pictograph we must include:
- a title
- labels
- a key
- symbols
- we must be neat and our symbols must be evenly spaced

Below is some data of Grade Three's Favourite Recess Activities. Can you draw a pictograph at home?

Interpretting Bar Graphs

We have really kicked up our math thinking a notch. Instead of just "reading the data" in a graph. We are answering higher order questions that often require us to solve multi step math problems.

Take a look at the following graph:

Try These:

1. What might the question be if the answer is nineteen?


2. Which type of leaves combined were collected more: Hickory and Maple or Poplar and Chestnut?


3. How many leaves were collected altogether?

Valentine's Day

On Friday the boys and girls are welcome to bring in cards for their classmates.
Here is a list of names of all kids in portable 4

Rania
Ryan
Owen
Lindsay
Maren
Cassie
Adam
Brennan
Tyson
Creighton
Luke
Olivia
Sydney
Rachel
Nyah
Liam
Erica
Olivia
Lorenzo
Gabriella

How To Blow A Bubble

Today during our writing block I gave each of the kiddies a piece of bubble gum and told them to practice blowing bubbles. They were quite excited to participate in such an activity! Afterwards they  were given their task:
to write instructions on "how to blow a bubble." Everyone was extremely thrilled to be practicing their procedural writing skills with such an authentic learning task! Tomorrow we will edit up our writing and begin sharing as a class!

Data Management

Today we began a math unit called Data Management. In this unit students will collect, organize and display data into graphs and charts. They will also interpret data that is presented in graphs and charts. The main types used throughout this unit will be Venn diagrams, pictographs, bar graphs and tally charts.
This is one of my favourite math units and is usually the students too! We have a lot of fun with many different hands on problems and activities. Before going into teaching I actually was headed down the road of research (specifically health sciences), so I am kinda a "data nerd" as Mr. Linse would say!

Practice Problems!

1. Emma has 24 crayons to put on six boxes. She wants to put the same number of crayons in each box. How many crayons should she put in each box?

2. Ashleigh has 4 pairs of mittens. How many mittens does she have?

3. There are 7 days in a week.

How many days are there in 6 weeks?

4. Erica wants to share her 18 marbles with two other friends. Including Erica, how many marbles will each of them receive? 

Math Test

We have been very busy preparing for Tuesday's math test. This test will cover both multiplication and division. 

Some key ideas to review are:

- Multiplication is repeated addition.

- Students must be able to make addition sentences from multiplication ones and vice versa.

- To multiply you must have equal groups.

- Practice songs and facts (0-7 times table and 10 times table).

- An array is equal rows.

- Division using both groups and arrays.

- Fact families.

- Solving different word problems for both multiplication and division.

I have posted some problems to practice too.

 

Procedural Writing

Today we started learning about a writing form called procedural writing. I kicked off the unit this morning with a really cute activity. I tell the kiddies that I am going to give them instructions that they need to follow carefully.
Here are my instructions:
Draw a square, next draw a triangle, then draw a rectangle and finally draw a circle.
I then ask all kids to reveal the house that they made. Twenty kiddies look at me very confused since they all just had some shapes drawn randomly beside each other on a piece of paper.
Lesson learned... instructions (or procedures) need to be very clear and detailed!

 

Division

This afternoon we began learning about division. Just like many of our math concepts, I teach the boys and girls a number of different strategies for them to put inside their imaginary tool belts. This way, when they are problem solving, they can dig out the strategy that they like to use best. I strongly urge the kiddies to continue to practice their multiplication songs and facts. Being able to recall multiplication facts quickly, helps make division seem that much easier!

Practice Practice!

This week we are wrapping up multiplication and are just about ready to jump into division. I strongly encourage that the boys and girls practice their songs and strategies regularly at home. It is only through lots of review and practice that multiplying (and then dividing) will become quick and easy. Yesterday we learned the 7 times table song and briefly practiced the six song today. We should have the three and four song down pat by now as well as quick strategies for multiplying by 0, 1, 2, 5 and 10!

Glogster

In Social Studies the boys and girls have been researching a different First Nation tribe with a partner. Now that all their research is collected, I wanted them to share their great learning with their peers. In the past I would have used "old fashioned" Bristol Boards to present their written information and pictures. In keeping up with the times, I realize that these type of presentations are not so popular and will probably never be used once the kiddies get to high school (which is crazy to think is in only 5 years!)I have turned to an online resource called "Glogster." This website allows users to create interactive posters (sorta like a Bristol Board). It looks like a poster, but readers can interact with the content. We can insert text, images, photos, audio, and videos into their glogs (a.k.a. posters) to generate a multimedia online creation! We began to explore the site on the Smartboard today and fiddled around with how it works. This week we will begin to create our posters with our partners... I can't wait to get "glogging!"

What's An Array?

This week in math we learned all about arrays.

An array shows objects that are arranged in equal rows.
We can use an array to multiply.

 Use an array to solve the following problem:

Mrs. Linse planted bulbs in her garden.
She planted 4 rows of 6 bulbs.
How many bulbs did Mrs. Linse plant in all?
Show your work and write the multiplication sentence.

Research

On Friday we began a mini research project in social studies. This activity will be completed only at school. I am very excited as this project is going to be one of those "hit many birds with one stone" sorta activities. We will cover curriculum expectations in the areas of:

- reading
- writing
- social studies
- media
- oral visual

I anticipate a lot of great learning to take place. I can't wait to share the finished projects with everyone!

This is what our Friday afternoon looked like:

New Novel

Our new end of the day read aloud is called "Jeremy Thatcher, Dragon Hatcher." It is one of my faves and tends to captivate the attention of all the kiddies! I look forward to enjoying this book together!

Language Learning

In Writing we are still focusing on letter writing. We will hopefully wrap this up next week and move on to procedural writing (which is a fancy word for instructions).

In Reading we will jump into a mini unit in non fiction text features. These are things like table of contents, glossary, index, different types of print, diagrams and labels, headings and subheadings and photographs. Reading non fiction now and then at home and drawing attention to the different text features would be a great way to facilitate learning at home!

In Word Study we have been learning about adverbs while reviewing the other parts of speech.

We will start up some new winter themed centres to help facilitate our language learning as well!

Multiplication Learning

In just one week we have learned so many great things in math!

Here are some things we have learned about multiplication:


- to multiply you MUST have equal groups
- multiplication is repeated addition
- anything times 0 will always be 0
- anything times 1 will always  be the other factor (number)
- when you multiply by 2 you double the other factor
- when you multiply by 5 you can count by 5s
- we have really cool songs to help us with the 3 and 4 times tables

I think that this is a pretty good list for just four days into it!


Here is a problem:

Mrs. Linse bought 4 boxes of yummy gluten free cookies.
Each box had 6 cookies inside.
How many cookies did Mrs. Linse buy in all?

Multiplication Madness

It is the time in math that all kiddies have been waiting for... our unit in multiplication!
I don't know what it is or why it is, but all grade three kids LOVE when we begin this unit. The smiles on their faces is priceless. It is absolutely adorable!

We learn cutesy songs throughout the unit to help us memorize our times tables. In fact, have your chickadee sing the 0 or 3 times table song to you tonight at the dinner table! It makes for some good entertainment ;)

Throughout the unit, we learn that  multiplication really is just a quick way to add (we call multiplication and addition very close cousins), we learn other neat strategies to multiply (ask tonight about "plates and cookies") and then we jump into division.

It is a great unit with lots of opportunity for problem solving.

Here is one to try:

Mrs. Linse has 3 strips of stickers. On each strip are 5 stickers. How many stickers does Mrs. Linse have altogether?
Write both the multiplication and addition sentence to go with this question.

Happy New Year and Welcome Back!

Yesterday we got right back into the swing of things! We began our morning by sharing our favourite memory from Christmas break. It sounds like we all had a very special time off with family and friends. We spent the rest of the day working on some New Years activities, letter writing about our favourite Christmas gift and began our new math unit: multiplication and division! It was a busy and productive day!