Spelling Words (Week of Sep. 20)

 Spelling List A (Sep. 18 – 25)

funny	ride	may	once	with
they	said	she	fly	of

 

Spelling List B (Sep. 18 – 25)

before	first	which	only	anyway
upon	should	watch	street	raining

 

Spelling List C (Sep. 18 – 25)

picture	finish	someone	serve	near
heart	body	shopping	Tuesday	turned

Some pretty challenging words this week - we'll do one more week of 'sight words' after this, and then move on toe specific letter blends. I've been quite impressed with the quizzes so far!

Friday, September 18

 Hi parents,

Today Room 3 was taught by Ms. Suzee as a guest teacher, as I was doing literacy / numeracy assessment stuff in the library. The students met with their buddies and helped them with patterns outside, using chalk on the compound. They had a lot of work time to finish up their short stories and other work from earlier in the week. They also worked on some 'math mystery' problems, which are fun, algebra-type problems in which pictures are used to represent numbers. We didn't do this exact problem today but we did do similar ones.

I've found the literacy and numeracy screener assessments to be really interesting and informative. If there's one thing I could suggest to parents, its that a little bit of math practice every day goes a long way. Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, and Division Flashcards are a great way to build confidence and fact fluency. This is the kind of thing that is difficult for me to consistently teach at school, as it works best as a 1-on-1 activity, but even just five minutes a day at home can make a huge difference. In class we will use the Montessori materials to make sure students have a deeper understanding of math concepts, but regular, repeated practice is important too. 

Stay tuned for next week's spelling words, and have a nice night!

Zac

LBS School Merch!

 

Terry Fox Run - Sep. 24

 

Wednesday, September 16

 Hi parents,

We had another great day today. The students did some story writing based on picture prompts, similar to what we did as a whole school last year. I was happy to see that their creative writing skills are at an awesome starting point for Grade 3 / 4. 

I've been spending a lot of time doing these numeracy and literacy screener assessments, and getting a good idea of the students' math and reading abilities. Because we've been spending so much time on these, I haven't introduced anything new in math this week - instead we've been doing review and practice of last year's concepts. Today I did the Grade 3 numeracy assessment and I was really happy with how it seemed to go. :)

In the afternoon, we visited the library for our first Library book check-out of the year. The kids were really enthusiastic about this.

They've also been really enthusiastic about the Canada Map 'contest' we started yesterday. I am in the process of choosing the Top 3 Canada Maps, and its a tough choice! They all turned out pretty well!

Around the World - Basic Fact Practice Math Game

Canada Map Challenge

We watched a video about Terry Fox, and students added a little Terry Fox icon to their maps to show where he started his run, in St. John's Newfoundland. Our class is taking on a few roles related to the Terry Fox Run, including making an announcement, making banners, and counting out Terry tattoos for each class.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, September 15

 Hi parents,

We had a really great day today. In the morning, we read 'The Dot' (because it was Dot Day), and then students did a quick reading comprehension activity. Then we finished up our Dot Art, which has been added to a school-wide collaborative art display which you can come see at the Welcome Back Pancake Fest on Thursday!

We did Spelling Sentences, and this week, the 'twist' was 'Varied Length'. This means the students needed to ensure each of their sentences was a different number of words. We talked about how varying the length of sentences makes writing sound more engaging and interesting.

In the afternoon, we had Gym, and then did a Social Studies activity in which the students were given a blank map, and asked to label it. They had to first figure out what country it was, and how to find the information they needed. The students did an amazing job with this, and worked so well together to solve these problems and complete their maps in an exceptional way. It was a map of Canada. 

In Math, the Grade 3s are showing an excellent early understanding of addition, and the Grade 4s are busy reviewing fractions, decimals, multiplication, and division. I feel like in previous years I've waited to long to teach these things, and its been like starting from scratch, but I'm finding this time around they seem to be recalling more from last year.

Have a nice day,

Zac

Monday, September 14

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today! The rest of the month is going to be really busy. You may have heard of the 'screener' assessments that the Grade 3s and 4s are doing - these will be happening over the next week or so, and basically they're just 1-on-1 or full-class check-ins to see where the students are at with foundational math and reading skills. These assessments won't impact report card scores or anything like that, but they'll give me a better idea of how to make effective reading and math groups, and who might need a bit of extra support on specific content. 

We did some reading comprehension work as part of these assessments today, and the students did a great job of reading through a paragraph, independently, and choosing the correct words to complete sentences in a logical way.

We did a bit of painting today, in preparation for Dot Day (which is tomorrow). The students painted dots. We will be writing on the dots tomorrow and making a collaborative art piece.

We went over this week's new spelling words and specifically discussed the '-ed' ending. This is one that will probably have its own dedicated list later in the year as well.

We visited the library, and Ms. Smith gave the class an orientation and reviewed how to check out books, use the online catalogue, and behave while working in the library. 

The Grade 4s did a quick review of fractions and decimals while the Grade 3s practiced two digit addition. 

At the end of the day, I sent home the first Scholastic Flyers of the year. If you would like to make an order, please enter our class code - RC157953. Scholastic gives a percentage of every order back to our classroom which allows me to buy cool materials for the room, like K-Nex, the Roller Coaster set, and of course books for the classroom library.

One last time - tomorrow is Dot Day, and students are encouraged to wear dot patterned clothing. 

Have a nice night,

Zac

 

Dot Day - Sep. 15

 

Spelling Words (Week of Sep. 13)

 Spelling List A (Sep. 11 – 18)

has	take	walk	were	then
stop	her	by	my	put

 

Spelling List B (Sep. 11 – 18)

called	lose	fall	never	would
shown	drink	early	they	bring

 

Spelling List C (Sep. 11 – 18)

together	picked	lightly	grown	gone
kindly	started	born	Monday	know

More sight words this week. List C has gotten quite a bit harder, and I want to emphasize that these words are meant to be above-and-beyond what I would expect from Grade 3, and even Grade 4 students at this point in the year. Also, while I encourage students to challenge themselves, for these initial spelling lists, it is important that they already have a good handle on the words from lower lists before trying the harder ones. Generally the words on List A will be more commonly used in writing.

Good luck!

Friday, Sep. 11

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today. The students had a lot of work period time in the morning and most were able to finish all the work we started this week. We met with our Buddy class and played a get-to-know-your-buddy board game, which everyone seemed to enjoy. The students have been officially paired with a younger buddy for the year.

In Math, we did an estimation activity in which the students had to approximate where certain numbers would be on a number line from 0 - 1000. This exercise is a great way to help students build an understanding of 'relativity' when it comes to numbers. 75 might seem like a big number, for example,  but on a 0 - 1000 line, its actually a lot closer to 0.

The students did an excellent job on their spelling quizzes. Keep up the great work at home! Each week gives me a better idea of the class' spelling abilities, and helps me create lists that will hopefully challenge everyone.

Stay tuned for next week's words, and have a nice weekend!

Zac

Thursday, September 10

 Hi parents,

Today we did some more writing with conjunctions. I'm hopeful that building this skill so early in the year will help students use a wider variety of sentence structures in their regular writing work throughout the year. For today's task, students were given a simple sentence, and asked to use the five conjunctions we learned earlier to end the sentence in five different ways.

We did some printing practice to review proper letter formation for lower-case letters. There are a lot of students that write certain letters in unusual and inefficient ways. It can be pretty hard to undo these habits, but I thought a little review wouldn't hurt. In a few weeks, cursive will replace printing practice.

We also had our first French lesson of the year, and learned a variety of greetings. I was quite impressed with how much the Grade 3s remembered from last year. :)

In Math, we played the math game Race to 1,000. It's a very simple game that helps students review counting patterns, and remember that it doesn't go, "98, 99, 100, 200,  300..." Which is often how students count aloud.

Tomorrow is our spelling quiz. Have a nice night,

Zac