Feb 29th Blog

We participated in a world blogging activity today! Feb29th.net was created by some amazing people to join bloggers globally on this leap day. Many people posted what they did on leap day, wrote lists of 29 items, created 29 word blog posts, and much more.

Feb29th.net

Here is our post:

What We Know About Reading

Today students blogged about what they know about reading.

Check out how much we know: http://kidblog.org/mssimonsensclass32/

Sorting Polygons

Students used polygons with 3, 4, 5, 6, and 8 sides to create sorting rules. Each student was asked to create two groups with their shapes and state the sorting rule.

Can you guess the sorting rule for this student's work?

Questioning

Students are currently practising the reading strategy questioning in ELA. We have read and re-read Eve Bunting's "The Wednesday Surprise" (a terrific book). As a class we made questions during our first time reading and now we are coding our questions in 2 ways:

1) Do our questions help us to better understand the characters/story (U) or not (N), and

2) Were our questions answered in the text (A), do we have to infer (I) or find answers from an outside source (OS) (Codes from Debbie Miller's "Reading with Meaning").

We have quite the class of questioning readers!! Students have discussed how questioning helps us better understand the story, makes us want to read on and allows us to share with peers.

Next, students will apply what they know about questioning to Pauline Cartwright's "A Special Occasion."

Science Jeopardy

Students have been studying forces, magnetism and static electricity in our current science unit. Today we had some fun reviewing information we learned by playing Jeopardy. It was a great way to review the unit and so much fun!! I was very impressed by the knowledge my students showed during the game. Great work 3.2!!

Welcome Back!!

Welcome back Class 3.2!!

I hope everyone had a great February break, read a good book or two, got rested up and are ready for the next few busy weeks of school. I look forward to seeing all of you again and hearing how you spent your few days off from school.

Picture It!

Our international project we're currently involved in, "Picture It!", is really starting to come together. We have received 3 more pieces for our art work this week. It's fun to see how our collaborative project is evolving.

Buddy Scavenger Hunt

Yesterday with our grade 1 buddies we did a math scavenger hunt. There were math addition facts around the school which students had to find, copy down and solve. They did an excellent job at correctly using their addition strategies and finding accurate solutions.

"How To...."

Students recorded their selves explaining their "How Tos" Today. We hope you learn something new from our knowledge. :)

How to...

We started our procedural writing this week. Students have chosen something they wish to tell others how to do. We are typing these instructions up and making a class book so we can share our knowledge with others.

Bowling

To celebrate the nature of Valentines Day, both grade 3 classes at YCS had a friendship bowling afternoon. We headed to the Yorkton Bowl Arena and got our bowling groove on. We had a fabulous time!!

Valentine Mailboxes

Today students made their mailboxes to house the Valentines they'll receive tomorrow. This is a very creative group of students who can take an ordinary item (i.e. construction paper) and make it extraordinary.

Division Strategies

Today students worked hard at using their division strategies. These strategies include: repeated subtraction, related multiplication, arrays, pictures (grouping and sharing), and skip counting. They did a great job of making strategies for equations and vice versa.

Math Pods

Our math pods today were based on our division strategies. We have been using pictures, equations, arrays and repeated subtraction to show division. Today we practice these concepts and our facts on the smartboard, using Destination Math and through a paper-and-pencil activity. The more we practice, the better we get!! :)

Spelling Rules

Today we practiced the various spelling rules for pluralizing nouns. We know six and will be assessed on using them next Day 6. Which plural rules do you know?

Free Write

Today students blogged and they had a free write day. They wrote on a topic of their choice and shared some wonderful thoughts with us. :) Great job class 3.2!!

Free Write Blogging

Reading with Peers

We enjoy reading with our peers during language arts. Not only do we have peer support for words we don't know and to help us check our understanding, but we get to practice our reading fluency too!

Repeated Subtraction

In math we are in the process of learning different strategies to solve division equations. Today we worked on repeated subtraction. We had a blast using counters (concrete learning) and writing equations on our desks using whiteboard markers.

To Magnetize or Not

Students experimented with making magnets today. They used a magnet to try and magnetize other objects. As a group we discovered that some metal objects can be magnetized (scissors, nails) while others cannot (pennies, nickels, pop can tabs).

Guest Teacher

Today some of us had a guest teacher for our teacher led pod during language arts pods. Mrs. Helfrich (a grade 8 teacher from our school) came and worked with us while our teacher did some reading testing. If was fun to have a different teacher for awhile. She did a great job reading and discussing with us. Thank you Mrs. Helfrich!! :)

Valentine Problem

Today, students found various solutions to the following problem using a chosen strategy (draw a picture, write an addition equation, make a chart, etc). What solution can you make?

In Ms. Simonsen's class, 5 students made valentine cards for their friends. No student made more than 5 cards and each student made at least 1 card. How many cards did the students make?

Skype

Today we skyped with our pen pals from Kansas. It was alot of fun meeting each other "face-to-face".