More Christmas Fun

Merry Christmas!
Enjoy a wonderful Christmas break with your family and friends.
We truly feel blessed to have such an amazing class!  See you in the New Year!
xo
Mrs. Squire & Mrs.  Wilson


Here are a few pictures of the students getting ready for the Christmas concert.  And a few from our Christmas caroling afternoon in the gym, as well as the students opening their Christmas gifts from Mrs Wilson and myself.

The dancing pictures are a little blurry.  I had the wrong camera with me in the gym.  But you can't help but smile when you see the joy on the students' faces.

Here are a few pictures of the kids' face painting.  I painted Rudolph on their cheeks.

Celebrations Around The World

December 15th, The Grade 3 classes take a trip around the world!

In Grade 3 social studies we study four countries: Tunisia, India, Ukraine and Peru.  On December 15th we had a little fun taking a trip around the world to experience a little bit about each of these countries.  Each of the grade 3 classrooms was transformed in to one of the countries. Each student received a passport and a plane ticket.  We spent the entire day travelling to each of the countries. While in each country the students were able to taste a traditional food and make a traditional craft.  As well they filled in some interesting information about the country in their passport, including a picture of the flag.

While in Ukraine students braided, decorated and baked bread.
While in Tunisia students tasted pomegranate and made lanterns.
While in India students made clay elephants decorated with jewels, and tasted naan bread.
While in Peru students tasted Paneton and made worry dolls.
Here are a few pictures.

Olaf

Olaf our Elf
On December 1st our class was lucky enough to receive an Elf from Santa.  Our Elf, which we named Olaf, watched us all day long and then reported to Santa each night.  He's a fun little guy.  Olaf is mostly nice, sometimes a little mischievous.  We loved coming in each morning to find out where he was hiding. He left many special treats for us over the few weeks in December.  Every morning we wrote in our journals about what Olaf was doing.
Here are a few of the pictures.

Christmas in 3WS

We had a great week celebrating Christmas this week!

The Polar Express

On Wednesday afternoon we read the story The Polar Express, By Chris Van Allsburg.  To add to the spirit, we dimmed the classroom lights and enjoyed hot chocolate and marshmallows while listening to the story.
Later that afternoon something truly magical happened.  Our school secretary arrived at our classroom with a package that had just arrived.  The package was addressed to our class from the North Pole, it was really cold too, so it must have come to us directly!  We were so excited to find silver bells for the whole class inside the package, just like the ones from the story! Santa really IS always watching!  The bells still rings for those who truly believe!

Click on the book cover to read a summary of the story.

Our package from the North Pole!  How exciting!

This is what we found inside the package, one for each of us!

Erosion

November 30th
Last week in science we talked about erosion.  We learned that forces on the earth such as ice, wind and water can cause erosion.  We discovered that the earth is always changing.  Forces on the earth's surface break up, wear away and move the land.  We completed a couple of notebook pages, read a story and also watched a Bill Nye video to extend our learning.  We are also in the process of doing our own erosion experiment.  We are looking forward to finding out what happens when a water soaked rock (briquette) freezes.
We were excited to hear Bill Nye explain how the hoodoos were formed.  Many of our students have seen hoodoos in Drumheller before!

http://www.traveldrumheller.com/index.php/directory/7-Drumheller-Hoodoos

For more information about erosion you can check out this really cool link from the OneGeology Website!  Earth Processes

PART TWO:  

Here is the conclusion of our rock, water and ice experiment.  We found out that water expands when it freezes.  When the rock thaws it is brittle and cracked causing sediments to break off of the rock. The water and ice, and freezing and thawing cause the rock to erode.

Rocks and Mineral Scratch Testing and Mohs Scale

November 24th
Today is science we completed Rocks and Mineral scratch testing.  We talked about Mohs hardness scale; and then we completed the scratch testing on our samples to try and figure out how hard each one was. Each group was given a collection of rocks and minerals and some scratch testing tools including:  a penny, a nail, paper clip, nail file and a magnifying glass.  They recorded their results in their notebooks.

This is Mohs hardness scale.  Students started by trying to scratch their sample with their finger nail. If their finger nail made a scratch mark then we knew that the sample was softer than 2.5.  We classified this sample as very soft.   If it did not make a mark we knew that the sample had a hardness greater than 2.5 so we moved to the next test.  Next they scratched the sample with a penny.  If the penny did not make a scratch mark they moved on to the next test, scratching with a nail.  Students completed these tests for 8 samples and recorded their results in their notebooks.

I am so proud of how engaged and excited the students were today!  They appeared to really enjoy this experiment. 

Soil Excavation

November 19th
Today we learned about SOIL!  We discovered that soil isn't simply dirt, but rather it is composed of broken down rocks, minerals, decomposed plants and animals.  We also learned that some animals help make soil, and mix it up!  Insects such as ants help mix up the soil and worms can work to churn soil and also work to compost table scraps turning them in to rich soil!
We watched two short Learn360 videos and we also examined three types of soil.  Today we examined potting soil, peat moss and sand.  We were looking at the different particles that make up each of the soil samples.  We recorded our learning in our science notebooks.

Piet Mondrian

ART

November 14th

In Art today we learned about Piet Mondrian and one of his famous works of art.  Then we created our own Mondrian compositions.

Piet Mondrian (1872-1944)

Click on the image for more information about Mondrian.

Mondrian was famous for his abstract art.  He valued simplicity.  He painted using just the primary colours and simple geometric shapes.

Here is a sample of a few of the fabulous paintings our grade three students did, Mondrian style!

 Mondrian Day Two (Nov.21)

Today we looked at some of Mondrian's famous abstract tree paintings.

Below is a picture of our bulletin board with our Mondrian style trees.  I think they look striking!  These were made with oil pastels.

The Rock Cycle

Rocks Rock!
November 12th
Today in science we talked about the Rock Cycle!  We learned many interesting facts about the rock cycle.  We watched two short 4 minute video clips and then we went to the learner.org website to use the Interactive Rock Cycle.  This is a very cool website that allows you to click on each stage in the rock cycle to learn more about that particular stage!

We then used the information that we learned to complete our own Rock Cycle pictures.  This page is part of a larger Rocks and Minerals book that we are putting together.

This is a picture from our Smart Board of the interactive Rock Cycle from the Learner.org website.  Click on the link above, or from the main page to try it out!

Remembrance Day

We Remember!

Our school's Remembrance Day committee organized an amazing Remembrance Day Assembly on Wednesday November 5th.  The grade 3 students led the rest of the school in reciting The Salute To The Flag. I salute the Flag, the emblem of my country and to her I pledge my love and loyalty.   The students were outstanding!


Take Time To Remember
In our classroom we talked about Remembrance Day while working though a booklet published by Veteran Affairs Canada. We read and discussed a passage written about the first poppy, and discussed Lt. Col. John McCrae's Poem "In Flanders Fields". We also read and discussed the story:  A Poppy Is To Remember, by Heather Patterson and Ron Lightburn.  The students had very thoughtful questions and comments. In remembrance we also made poppies for our bulletin board.

Our Poppy bulletin board.

Our poppies were made by following several steps including:  water colour paint on coffee filters, `air brushed` black background and black paper for the stems and leaves, to finish off we glued poppy seeds in the center of the flowers.  I think they look amazing!

Welcome

Welcome to my blog!  I'm excited to be able to share your student's learning in a digital space.  My purpose with this blog is to open up our classroom and share all of the exciting learning happening at school with our families. I believe there's a strong link between school and home communication and your child's success at school.

This blog will facilitate essential communication between school and home.  Have you ever asked the question "What did you learn at school today?"  only to hear the response, "Nothing!" Here you will be able to check in and see! This will allow your child to easily reflect on their learning and chat with you about it.

This blog will also serve as a newsletter.  Here you will see up to date information about what is happening in the school and in our classroom.

A blog is a great way to communicate back and forth.  You can comment to me and I will respond to you.  I hope you will sign up by email.  If you do, you will receive notification by email each time I make a new post!

Let me know what you think!

Mrs. Squire