Friday Blog!

Students completed their persuasive paragraph in response to the question, "Should we, as Canadian citizens, help people in other parts of the world?" Using the hamburger structure and key vocabulary, they were able to form effective paragraphs. 

Using a rubric, students evaluated their own writing and created goals for future persuasive writing work.

Students completed their work on earthquakes as they affect our focus countries, India and Peru. They developed an understanding of the role environmental geologists can play to support these areas.

After reading Go Show the World, a story about indigenous heroes, students thought about the qualities they have, similar to those people in the story, to share with the world.

Students have continued their work in mathematics. They have been sharing their multiplication strategies, using repeated addition, skip counting and 'groups of' to find the product for a number of stamps. Students have played math games to reinforce their understanding.

Weekly Blog

Students began their dance residency this week and will continue throughout the next 2 weeks. Each lesson ends with everyone shouting "I am awesome!" You can feel the positive energy throughout their dancing as kids let go of inhibitions and move to the music.

We have been working on organizing our ideas into persuasive paragraphs in writing. Students use a 'hamburger' template, as well as persuasive language such as, "I am sure you will have to agree..." Using Google Docs talk-to-text, they are completing their final draft.

In mathematics, students are continuing to build on their multiplication skills using arrays, grids and skip counting. They have begun work with shapes and are honing their skills with a variety of polygon games.  

Using a variety of earthquake simulators and a seismograph model, students have been conducting experiments, researching and investigating through the lens of an Environmental Geologist. They look forward to sharing this work with parents next week during conferences.

The grade 3 choir is getting underway in preparation for the winter festivities. Please see Mrs. Mann's blog for further details. 

Friday Blog!

Math
This week we worked on a multistep problem where students use skip counting, repeat addition, doubling and multiplication to determine how many of each grocery item was in the store. Students are being introduced to the distributive and properties of multiplication. For example, when counting plums many students split each box in half and counted each half as 3 groups of 3 (3 X3). They then doubled the answer to determine the number of plums in the entire box.  They are also starting to learn the commutative property of multiplication through creating and looking at arrays. For example a x b = b x a.

Inquiry and Writing

Most students have now completed writing their mystery rock conclusions. 

We also have being discussing the Rights and Responsibilities of Canadians. After learning about the many geological disasters and reading several books, students have been debating whether or not Canadians have the responsibility to help people in other countries. Students are currently working on a persuasive writing piece related to this topic. 

Remembrance Day

Students did an outstanding job singing " A Peaceful River" during the Remembrance Day Assembly. In class we read a story book called A Bear In War that is about a father who goes to war in 2016. The discussion afterwards included many connections to students families. Thank you to all the parents who were able to attend the assembly. 

Friday Blog!

Halloween is just around the corner. Students can dress up on the 31st and take part in a whole school parade at 9:30am that morning. Please ensure your child's costume is appropriate for a young children.

Ms. Bennett will be putting together a Remembrance Day slideshow and is inviting school families to send her photographs of family members who are veterans or current members of the Canadian Arm Forces. Please send in all photographs by the deadline of Friday November 1st. With the photographs please include the Canadian Arm Forces veteran or current member’s name, the war or peace keeping mission they participated in, if possible, where the photo was taken, and their relationship to you (for example great grandfather, aunt, uncle, etc.). Ms. Bennett’s email address is mebennett@cbe.ab.ca

Students will be collecting food donations for the Veteran's Food Bank throughout the next 2 weeks. The donation box is located in the office.

Students have completed their artistic representation of carpet weaving during their Artist-in-residence work. They applied a weave and tied knots strategically. During this activity, students thought about young children who spend hours each day doing this work, rather than going to school. Thank you so much to the parents who were able to volunteer their help!

Students continued to analyze their rock tests. They are coming to a better understanding of the type of rocks they have. We are in the initial stages of writing a hypothesis. 

This week students learned about arrays and how this relates to multiplication.  

Students built their own arrays using manipulatives and then graphed the results.They included  repeat addition sentences and multiplication sentences.

Students continue to connect with the land. We ventured outside to the top of the hill behind our school where they now have a special sitting spot. After discussing the Rights and Responsibilities of all Canadian citizens, we read Malala outside and using clip boards, students reflected on the rights they have and the responsibilities this holds them to. 

Friday Blog!

Thank you to all the families who attended our Disciplinary Literacy Night. It was a great opportunity for students to share their learning and have a look at other activities happening in other classrooms in our school. 

If you would like to see more of what your child is doing, have a look in IRIS. Your child has uploaded their Rock Cycle projects there. Students can sign in with their ID number and password at:
iris.cbe.ab.ca 

Students have been discussing and learning about the basic rights of children, vs. wants. One of the activities they took part in was organizing a selection of cards into two piles: rights & needs. They had to decide together in small groups and then had the opportunity to see how others sorted their cards. Students demonstrated a clearer picture of what the rights of a child are. 

We read a book, Iqbal; A Brave Boy From Pakistan, based on a true story of Iqbal, a boy sold into a carpet making factory at the age of 4, who later helped free thousands of children from slavery. This made a big impact on many students. 

For our Artist-in-residence work, students looked at carpets in different areas of the world. They then began to create an artistic version of a rug using a variety of paint colours, pattern designs and masking tape. Students are in the first stages of this project.

Friday blog!

Royal Oak School Disciplinary Literacy Night Thursday October 17th 6pm – 7pm
Students and their families are invited to our Disciplinary Literacy Night on October 17th from 6 pm - 7 pm. Come see how literacy lives in the disciplines as your child takes you through hands-on activities in the role of a scientist, author, illustrator, entomologist, environmental geologist, and musician. All family members are welcome!

Artist in Residence Schedule:

A schedule has been sent out to all parents who filled out their blue volunteer forms. If you did not receive the email and would like to volunteer, please see the schedule below and email me at mldevereux@cbe.ab.ca

Students have been putting on the hat of a geologist (or protective goggles :) while testing rocks with different grade 3 teachers throughout the week.  They are excited to be able to share these experiments with you during our disciplinary literacy night!

We have been looking closely at what people need to have a good quality of life. There have been many discussions about what we need, as opposed to what we want. With a focus on India, students have considered the quality of life not only in different parts of Canada, but also in different parts of the world.

Students have continued to participate in guided reading circles, responding to literature and playing phonics games to help with spelling, as well as their reading.

Students have been solidifying their understanding of pull apart numbers and stacking, while some were tasked with solving word problems. These problems required testing different combinations, looking for the patterns and figuring out if there was a formula that could be applied to more complex problems of the same kind. We will continue to look at strategies for problem solving throughout the year.

Students shared all the things that they were thankful for to finish off our week. Happy Thanksgiving!

Friday Blog!

Terry Fox Run

Congratulations Royal Oak students and staff! Together we ran over 1180 km and raised $674 to be donated to the Terry Fox Foundation!!!!! We are awesome!!!!

I would also like to send out a HUGE THANK YOU to our amazing parent volunteers! We appreciate everything that you do to help us run school events like this one. THANK YOU!!

Another HUGE THANK YOU to Royal Oak Sobeys for donating Oranges so that every student could enjoy a healthy snack after their run.

Math
Students continued to pull apart, read and order numbers in the thousands. They used expanded notation to show the place value. For example:
2,345 = 2,000 + 300 + 40 + 5
With a better understanding of place value, they put the thousands, hundreds, tens and ones together to find the sum of several numbers. Lessons have also included quick fact exercises such as number bonds, odds & evens and skip counting forwards and backwards and from any given number. Students have been reviewing the traditional stacking method for addition, both with and without regrouping.

Literacy
Students have been organized into reading groups this week. These groups are led by myself, Ms.Bennett and Ms. Hennick. We have done some reading and spelling assessments throughout the week as we begin to work in these groups.

Students have continued to write short stories using prompts. They have enjoyed sharing these very creative endings. Using the editing checklist, they have been fixing capital letters, punctuation and spelling both for themselves and for a peer. Students had fun creating sentences using personification and some implemented their work into their stories.

Inquiry
Students have been working on a variety of projects throughout the week that show their understanding of the rock cycle. Some of these projects include: Google Slides, Notes for presentations, Green Screen videos and poems and books.