Dear Room 5 families:
What a wonderful week we have had.
The students are working hard in math on place value. We are using base 10 blocks (flat, rod, cube) and coins (nickel, dime, quarter, loonie, toonie) to understand the value within numbers (i.e. 243 - the 2 is 2 flats and worth 200, 4 is 4 rods and worth 40, 3 is 3 ones and worth 3). We have been practicing skip counting with money as well (2, 5, 10, 25). I have suggested to the kids to practice making change to practice their skip counting skills, or to have a skip counting number battle with you (counting back and forth).
In Language Arts we have started reading the book called A boy Called Bat by Elana K. Arnold. We are working on character traits for the characters and exploring new words within the book, along with responding to the chapters read in our writing journal.
In science we are finishing up animal life cycles. We are working at becoming geologists by looking into rocks and minerals. The students were impressed to learn that rocks have life cycles too, and that some common every day items such as salt and some ingredients in toothpaste are minerals.
In social studies we are continuing to look at all kinds of maps and develop our mapping skills. We learned about cardinal directions along with map legends or keys, and what the symbols on them mean.
The students have enjoyed learning and remembering how to access and maneuver around in our grade 3 google classroom. Feel free to explore our google classroom and get a peak into what we are doing in our in-person classroom. Most weeks, I post slides that outline what we are learning about and doing in class. If students are absent from in-person learning, they may access our google classroom to complete missed assignments (but only when they are feeling well enough). I sent out students email's and passwords earlier this week, so please let me know if you didn't get them or if your having trouble accessing google classroom. Please take the opportunity to explore it when you have a moment, so that you become comfortable if or when we need to use it.
We are also using computers to complete research tasks in science and social, along with using prodigy and epic for language arts and math. Students benefit tremendously from headphones for these activities. Due to various health concerns schools do not provide students with these, so if its possible to send some to school I will ensure they are kept in their desks and that they are not to be shared.
We are learning that having extra masks at school is very important for a few reasons. Masks malfunction and/or break, so it is nice to have a backup. Wearing our masks outside on the playground in winter weather creates moisture, and our masks become somewhat uncomfortable to wear when we get back inside. This holds true for phys. ed. as well, due to increased breathing while we are running around. Having a separate mask for these activities makes for more comfortable students, so if it is possible students should have at least 2 masks for the school day.
Stay healthy and have a great weekend.
Jodie Cheveldeoff
