Happy New Year

Our inspiration for our New Year project is New Year Fireworks!
January 10th

Hearing and Sound

January 10th

This week we started our new Science unit: Hearing and Sound.

We're off to a good start!  We're excited about this new unit.

We have been playing "What's that Sound?" We have been listening to sound effects and trying to figure out what the sounds are.  It's been fun!

We have been discussing and investigating the fact: Sound is the result of vibration!

We watched the video Magic School Bus video:  Inside the Haunted House. (found on Youtube) This is a great story.  We also have the book in our classroom.

Here are a few of the things that we learned from this story:

• sound comes from vibrations
• vibrations move through the air
• an echo is sound bouncing off of something
• we saw what sound waves look like
• we learned how instruments make sound
• and learned that high sounds are from fast vibrations and low sounds are from slow vibrations.

Click on the book to read a Goodreads Summary.

Connecting with the World

January 10th

In Social Studies we are studying four countries:  India, Ukraine, Peru and Tunisia.  We have been using our mapping skills to locate these countries on the world map.  We have labeled the countries, discussed the continents that they are on and talked about the capital cities.  We are also working on a project on the Chromebooks finding each of the flags for the four countries.

One Geology World MapThis great interactive map helped us find the answers to our questions about location and capital cities.  If you click on the country you are taken to another page with a closer view. We were able to use our mapping skills to look at the legends and find the capital cities. Click on the link if you'd like to give it a try!

Here's what we have found out so far:

India- is a country in Asia.  The capital city is New Delhi. 

Ukraine- is a country in Europe.  The capital city is Kiev. 

Peru- is a country in South America.  The capital city is Lima. 

Tunisia- is a country in Africa.  The capital city is Tunis. 

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!