Thursday, April 29, 2010.

HANDWRITING
The students brainstormed "aw" words that say "ah" such as awful and fawn. They chose three to write three times and wrote the date once.

MATH
The students continued work on division and repeated subtraction. They are still working on writing good story problems, which require division.



SCIENCE
The students did a discovery activity about solids that do or do not dissolve in water. They discovered that salt, sugar, instant coffee, and hot cholocate powder dissolved while sand, coffee beans, and rice did not dissolve. A few students have homework to finish up the questions. The questions need to be answered in complete sentences, which include capitals, punctuation, and correct spelling.

SHOW & SHARE
We heard about orioles and some bugs. We also saw a shell collection. This theme is bugs or birds.

* Tomorrow is school colour day so wear your red and black.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010.

FRENCH
The students worked on recording the sentences for their PhotoStories.

MATH
The students learned how division is like repeated subtraction.

15 ÷ 3 = 5 is similar to 15 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 - 3 = 0

or

10 ÷ 5 = 2 is similar to 10 - 5 - 5 = 0

The students did a partner activity and worked on page 291.

ICE CREAM SUNDAES
The class enjoyed ice cream sundaes with chocolate whip cream, chocolate sauce, caramel sauce, and sprinkles (or some combination of the above). While they enjoyed their treat we read two more chapters of the next "39 Clues" book.
Image from Flickr by CDaisyM

LIBRARY
Ms. Hatzel read us a story called "Pollution! No Problem!" The students then took out two AR books in their ZPD range. Almost everyone needs 10 points to qualify for a Tier I prize.

*Tomorrow is the last day for book orders to be handed in.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010.

HANDWRITING
The students brainstormed "au" words that say "ah" such as autumn and haul. The students chose three words to copy three times and wrote the date once.

MATH
Students continued work on page 288. We reviewed the steps for writing a good division story problem because for question number six the students wrote four story problems and solved them.

A good division story problem includes the following:

Statement #1

- Must have a noun and a verb.
- Should tell the total number of things in the problem. (You must be able to divide this number!)


Statement #2

- Must have a noun and a verb.
- Should tell the number of things in each group.

Question

- Must have a noun and a verb.
- How many groups of things are there?

C.O.P.S.


Example: 20 ÷ 4

There are twenty puppies altogether. There are 4 kennels. How many puppies can be put into each kennel?

COMMUNICATING SKILLS
The students completed page 93 on homonyms.

SOCIAL
The students completed a couple of pages on mapping. (Janice you can pick up Jessica's book tonight or wait until tomorrow.)

COMPUTERS
The students continued work on their Zoo PhotoStories by adding in the words they will record.

*Remember your bowl and spoon for ice cream sundaes tomorrow!

Monday, April 26, 2010.

HANDWRITING
The students brainstormed "wa" words that say "wah" such as waltz and water. They chose three words to write three times and wrote the date once.

FRENCH
We finished crediting our pictures with the photographers' names and added transitions to our slides.

MATH
We continued work on division be making equal groups.
For example:

10 divided into 2 equal groups

XXXXX
XXXXX

equals 5 in each group.

SCIENCE
We did an experiment about how two liquids either mix together or stay separate. When liquids don't combine it is usually because they have different thicknesses or are oily.

SHOW & SHARE
We heard about the hobbies of rock collecting, collecting car cards, and model cars.

* Remember tomorrow is this week's spelling test.

Friday, April 23, 2010.

HANDWRITING
The student brainstormed "al" words that say "ah" such as baseball and fall. They chose three to write three times and wrote the date once.

MATH
We discussed how to write a division story problem using the steps below and then finished up page 285.

DIVISION STORY PROBLEMS

Statement #1

- Must have a noun and a verb.
- Should tell the total number of things in the problem. (You must be able to divide this number!)


Statement #2

- Must have a noun and a verb.
- Should tell the number of things in each group.

Question

- Must have a noun and a verb.
- How many groups of things are there?

C.O.P.S.

Example:

There were 16 legs. Each dog had 4 legs. How many dogs were there?

SCIENCE
We did an experiment where we heated an icecube in a pan on the stove and observed it change into water (melt into a liquid) and then change into steam (evaporate into a gas.) The class also finished their Earth Day posters.

SHOW & SHARE
We heard about hobbies today including: singing, playing the piano, playing hockey, playing baseball, drawing, and collecting gems and rocks. We also read most of chapter three in our new 39 Clues book.

Have a great weekend! I'll see the choir members at 2:00 pm at UCHS on Sunday.

Thursday, April 22, 2010.

HAPPY EARTH DAY!

COMPUTERS & FRENCH
Today the students continued to work on their Zoo PhotStories. They titled their presentations and labeled each picture with the name of the photographer.

MATH
We continued work on division by making groups out of larger numbers. The students need to remember in a division question that the biggest number goes first.

So 4 ÷ 16 = 4 would not be correct,

instead it should be written as 16 ÷ 4 = 4.

FINE ARTS
The students worked on posters that advertise something we can do to save our Earth.

CLEAN-UP
The grade three class cleaned up down 3rd Ave. E. to the Anglican and United Churches, around the churches, and down the alley behind the United Church. We got one big green garbage bag of garbage and a few recyclables. It was a beautiful sunny afternoon to be out enjoying the fresh air.

*The grade 3-6 choir had been asked to sing "Imagine" at the Music Festival's Final Performance, at UCHS, on Sunday, April 25th at 2:00 pm. Please return your note if you are able to attend.

Wednesday, April 21, 2010.

HANDWRITING
The students brainstormed "at" words that say "ah" such as father and grandfather. They then chose three words to write three times and they wrote today's date once. We finished up with some silent reading and stickers.

MATH
Today we looked at division for the first time. The students explored taking a number and dividing it into equal groups.

For example:

8 divided into 4 groups would look like this:

XX

XX

XX

XX

Which means 8 ÷ 4 = 2

where 8 is the total number of items,

4 is the number of groups, and

2 is the number in each group.

SCIENCE
We watched a BrainPop on Humans and the Environment. It talked about CONSERVING, CLEANING UP, and CHIMING IN. We need to convserve energy and non-renewable resources by turning off lights, turning down the heat a few degrees, reusing things, and buying less. We need to clean-up our Earth by putting garbage in the garbage as well as recycling whenever possible. We need to chime in and tell our family and friends about things they can do to save our Earth.

Tomorrow is Earth Day so remember to pack a garbage-free lunch if possible. Also, bring work, gardening or dish gloves for our In-Motion garbage pick-up. We are starting our garbage pick-up at 2:40 if any parents would like to join us.

Photo from Flickr by morgantj.

SHOW & SHARE
The new theme is a favourite book or hobby. Today we heard that our classmates enjoy building models and collecting hockey cards. We also heard about the books "Charlie and the Chocolate Factory" and "Adventure Quest."

** Today's chicken lunch was not as yummy as hoped for, some of the chicken was a little pale, so as a result on Wednesday, May 5th all the students in the school will receive 2 pieces of pizza (from the Co-op) and a milk (from the School Community Council) at no cost. There will be no choice in the type of pizza the students receive, so if your child is a fussy eater then they will need to bring a lunch that day.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010.

MUSIC FESTIVAL DAY!
This morning the Choir members went to the gym and performed their two songs. They got 87% for "Imagine" and 85% for "My Favourite Things" plus lots of nice compliments from the ajudicator.

Mrs. Cooper spent the morning with the non-choir members of the class and they worked on Math, finished their good-bye cards for Keagan, and read silently.

Our poems went well. The students received an 83% for "Jeremy's Room" and an 84% for "Rock 'N' Roll Band." The ajudicator thought we were shy (She obviously doesn't see us in class)but that we did a great job.

SCIENCE
We watched a BrainPop on States of Matter and took a quiz. We learned that besides solids, liquids, and gases matter can exist as plasma (electrically charged gas found in stars, fluorescent lights, and lightning) and colloids (a mixture of two states like Jello).

LIBRARY
Ms. Hatzel read us a funny book about a poor hippo and his friends. The hippo had a toothache and I don't think many of us would like to have the hippo's friends.

Remember tomorrow is the chicken strip lunch.

Monday, April 19, 2010.

POEM PRACTICE
The students practiced their poems for Music Festival and did a good job. They are ready for tomorrow. Remember to wear white tops and black bottoms.

READING
The students also silent read. The Accelerated Reading Program is now going to award prizes to students who have accumulated points, based on their ZPD Reading Levels. Students will receive points for every AR test they complete. The Accelerated Reading Program strongly reccommends that students read for at least an hour each day. Some of that time is alloted for during school hours but some needs to be done at home for students to be successful readers.

MATH
The students created array posters today and then practiced using arrays to solve multiplication and addition questions.

For example:

XXXXXX
XXXXXX
XXXXXX

can be represented in the following ways:

3 x 6 = 18 or 6 x 3 = 18

6 + 6 + 6 = 18 or 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 + 3 = 18

COMPUTERS
The students started creating a zoo PhotoStory for French. Today we inserted pictures of ten different zoo animals and a beginning and ending slide

GOOD LUCK TO EVERYONE COMPETING IN THE MUSIC FESTIVAL THIS WEEK!

Friday, April 16, 2010.

POEMS
We practiced our poems and read silently.

MATH
We had extra Math time today and everyone got through their assignment. It dealt more with arrays.

SCIENCE
We did a word unscramble activity using words from yesterday's BrianPop on States of Matter. We also cut out our fishtanks from Art.

SHOW & SHARE
We heard about more Easter adventures and Ramani explained that she didn't celebrate Easter because in the Hindu religion they have other holidays.

Have a great weekend! Enjoy the sunshine!

Thursday, April 16, 2010.

POEM PRACTICE
We practiced our poems for Music festival and then silent read.

MATH
We discussed how arrays can help in multiplication.

For example:

X X X X
X X X X
X X X X

This array has 3 rows of 4 items. The corresponding multiplication sentence would be:

3 x 4 = 12 or the repeated addition sentence would be 4 + 4 + 4 = 12

* Arrays always need to be written with the number of rows first and the number of items in each row second.

A story problem for the above array might be:

There are three dogs. Each dog has four legs. How many dog's legs are there altogether?

ASSEMBLY
We had our second assembly this week and the grade three students did a wonderful job of reciting their poems. The grade three students in the grade 3-6 Choir also sang "Imagine" and "My Favourite Things". We also got to hear the K-2 Choir sing two songs, and the grade five and six classes did their poem recitations.

SCIENCE
We watched a BrainPop on States of Matter. It discussed how the boiling point at which liquid turns to a gas is also called the point of vaporization. The melting point where a solid turns to a liquid is called the point of fusion. In a gas the molecules are spread out and randomly bounce around. In a liquid the molecules clump together and move more slowly. In a solid the molecules form a lattice structure, similar to an array, and move so slowly that they only vibrate. Some solids change directly to gases, which is called sublimation. An example of the this is solid carbon-dioxide or dry ice, which changes directly into a misty vapour with no liquid state.

SHOW & SHARE
We heard that the Easter Bunny brought lots of chocolate to the grade three students most of which has already been eaten. Other Easter treasures included keychains, a RoughRider baseball cap, and a special set of hockey nets and sticks.

Remember the playground is still quite wet and rubber boots and splash pants are a good idea for recess times.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010.

SILENT READING
We practiced our poems for Music Festival. They are sounding quite nice. Then the students read and got their stickers for their sticker charts.

JUNIOR GENIUS
The grade three class then spent the next hour exploring the grade six student's Junior Genius projects. We were only going to stay twenty minutes but they were so well done we ended up staying longer. Projects ranged from dog sledding to R.C.M.P. dog training, honey bees to ants to mosquitoes, drum making to drawing, Ancient Egypt to the Dubai Towers, the Bird's Nest Stadium to the New Dallas Stadium to the Great Wall of China, Ancient Greek Myths to the Canada Line, hockey helmets to motor cross, and hummingbirds to curling.

FINE ARTS
The students read a story called "The Catfish Palace" in Language Arts and we re-read the story and the students created their own fish tanks.



Due to the snowy weather all recesses were inside today and some of the buses didn't run. Please make sure you wear appropriate outdoor clothing tomorrow. Also, please wear white tops and black bottoms for our Assembly performance of our Music Festival poems. Assembly will start at 12:45 pm in the gym.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010.

ASSEMBLY
We had a special assembly this morning as the Shriners visited and shared information about Fire Safety and Burn Prevention. This event was co-sponsored by Mr. Scott Gilbert of SGI. After the presentation the grade four class performed their two songs for Music Festival. They did a wonderful job.

SCIENCE
We discussed some corrections needed to questions from yesterday's experiment and then we watched a BrainPop video on Changing States of Matter. It discussed freezing, melting, evaporating, and condensation and how these changes occurred in water turning them to water vapour (a gas), water (a liquid), or ice (a solid). Afterwards the students took a five question quiz.

SHOW & SHARE
This week's theme is Easter. The students today shared stories about what the Easter Bunny left at their houses. Some gifts they received included a Wii game, a baseball bat, a dancing and singing chick, a Ripstick Wiggle Board, and NHL KinderSurprises.

Then we enjoyed cupcakes for Jessica's birthday. Thanks to her Mom for the yummy treat!

Monday, April 12, 2010.

HANDWRITING
We actually had poem practice for Music Festival and then did some silent reading.

FRENCH
The students discussed animal body part's names in French and then they looked at some mixed up animals. They finished with a listening activity.

MATH
The students did page 276 where they looked at how many pom-pom people they could fit in a box if they could only use rows with the same number of people in each.

For example:

3 rows of 5 pom-pom people would fit 15 in a box

XXXXX
XXXXX
XXXXX

This can be shown as 3 x 5 = 15 or 5 + 5 + 5 = 15

SCIENCE
The students predicted what would happen to water, cooking oil, shampoo, orange juice, and honey if they were left in a freezer for 5 hours. Then they discovered that water, shampoo, and orange juice froze solid and cooking oil and honey became slushy (part liquid and part solid.)

LIBRARY
The students heard "Alligator Baby" by Robert Munsch. Mrs. Greenwald chose this book as Friday is her last day at U.P.S. before she has her baby. We hope it isn't an alligator baby! Ms. Hatzel will be subbing for Mrs. Greenwald until the end of June and someone new will be hired in the autumn. We ran out of time during library as the clocks were wonky after all the power outages on the weekend. So we plan to return tomorrow for a few minutes.

Thursday, April 1, 2010.

COMPUTERS
The students all took a STAR Reading quiz so that we know their ZPD range for the Accelerated Reading program.

MATH
The class continued work on page 274. Most students finished and had time for their Extra Practice booklets but some students will have homework the first day back.

BRENDA BAKER CONCERT
The grade three's walked to St.Peter's School and enjoyed a concert by Canadian Singer/Songwriter/Author Brenda Baker. If you click on the link you can hear part of a crowd pleasing song called "Megamunch."

HAVE A SUPER EASTER!