Spelling List A (Feb 20 – 27)
Spelling List B (Feb. 20 – 27)
Spelling List C (Feb. 20 – 27)
Hi parents,
We had another good day today. We spent a lot of time finishing up Art Cards, and students who finished early wrote short, engaging blurbs about their animal. Or Middle Earth landmark.
We had our spelling quiz, but I haven't had a chance to mark or look at them yet. I was really happy about how many kids raised their hands when I asked who had practiced at home though. :)
We learned a bit more French today, around the phrase 'J'ai'. We learned how to say some common clothing articles, and describe them based on colour.
We ended our day with bench dodgeball in gym.
Stay tuned for next week's spelling words, and have a nice night!
Zac
Hi parents,
We had a great day today. I feel like the last few weeks have been a little hectic and we're finally getting a chance to get back to our routines.
A lot of this morning was spent working on Art Cards. I'm actually so happy with how they've turned out this year. Every student's artwork is super unique - they all did different animals, some have backgrounds, some are painted, some have text, others are super minimalist, its awesome (see below for a few examples).
In cursive, we learned the letters 'f' and 'j'.
In French, we learned the phrase "j'ai", which means "I have", and the students combined it with the french nouns we've learned to make simple sentences.
In the afternoon, we did an experiment where we went outside and threw boiling water into the freezing air. It was super cool. We recorded observations and hypotheses as well.
We ended the day with Daily LA and a math game called Mind Reader.
Tomorrow is our big 12-word spelling quiz! Good luck!
Zac
Hi parents,
We have had a pretty busy week!
The students have been working on their Art Cards, which will feature realistic sketches of animals found in Alberta. Before choosing an animal to draw, the students researched the six regions of Alberta, and wrote down examples of wildlife found in each one.
We started a daily Skip-counting challenge today. We're going to try this every morning, and if you want to try it at home too, its a great way to build multiplication skills. Basically, I will give the students 20 seconds to write down as many numbers as they can in a given skip-counting sequence. They'll record their score, and then we'll try a different number. After a couple weeks, I would bet that every students will see significant growth. Ultimately the goal is to be able to skip count by all numbers up to 12. And if you can write 12 numbers in 20 seconds, you've pretty much mastered it.
We had an awesome presentation this afternoon from Ken Kotyk, an Olympic bobsledder who competed for 7 years. He had a lot of wisdom to impart on the students, and also plenty of cool stories, fun facts, and equipment to share.
Have a nice night,
Zac
Hi parents,
We had a great Valentines Day today. In the morning, the class went to Music, and then we did more multiplication practice in math. I said this yesterday, but I am really impressed by how quickly the Grade 3s have caught on. After the break we'll really start focusing in on those skip-counting patterns. If you're looking for a quick, super effective way to build multiplication skills, just spend 5 minutes every day reviewing skip-counting by 2 - 10.
The students finished giving their speeches today, for Ms. Ireland's lesson. They did a great job overcoming their nerves, I was really impressed by that.
In the afternoon, we exchanged Valentines with our buddy class, and then did a collaborative activity where the students all anonymously wrote a kind adjective on every other student's card. Students who brought Valentines from home also had a chance to hand those out. Everyone seemed to enjoy the afternoon a lot!
Tomorrow is Teachers Convention - enjoy your long weekends!
Zac
Hi parents,
The report card grind is over, and I can get back to posting regularly. Thanks for your patience!
We had a good day today. In the morning, we did Spelling Sentences, with the rule that every sentence needed to start in a different way.
A few groups presented their posters on Alberta's natural resources to the class. We learned how pretty much all of the 'energy resources' are used in the same way - they're burned, to heat up water, to make steam, to turn a generator, and make electricity.
We will be making personalized, collaborative valentines cards for everyone in the class tomorrow too. :) If your child is bringing Valentines from home to give out, please make sure there are enough for all 24 students!
I sent home the Geometry Quizzes tonight. There will be an opportunity for a re-do at the end of the month, but its likely we won't have a whole bunch of time for geometry review, so please go over the content at home! Its honestly mostly memorization - knowing how to spot parallel lines, irregular polygons, right angles, etc. makes all the difference with grade 3/4 geometry. If you know what those terms mean, its a breeze, and if you don't, its not really the kind of thing you can guess at or figure out.
Thanks so much and have a nice night,
Zac
Spelling List A (Feb. 6 – 20)
Spelling List B (Feb. 6 – 20
Spelling List C (Feb. 6 - 20
We are thrilled to have the incredible Canadian author, David Bouchard, come to Lake Bonavista School. He will be at our school on Thursday, February 26th. In the morning he will present to all students. In the evening, we happy to host a special parent presentation called "The Gift of Reading". You do not want to miss out on this opportunity to hear from this legendary writer.
Thursday, February 26
6:30pm
Lake Bonavista School
To help us with planning, please RSVP by February 24th using this link.
Thank you to our School Council for their financial support of this event.
Hi parents,
We had a pretty good day today. In the morning, Ms. Ireland read the class a book called "Be a Good Ancestor". Then the students brainstormed ways that they can be good people, by taking care of the world and people around them.
We went over this week's spelling words, had Music class, and went to gym.
In the afternoon, we started learning about multiplication. The students used various materials around the classroom to model and represent multiplication equations. We're going to spend a while on this step because it's so important for the students to build a real understanding of what multiplication is, before they learn the tricks to help them do it quickly.
This week I will be busy with writing report cards, so I likely won't update the blog again until Friday - if anything important comes up, I will send a SchoolMessenger email!
Thanks for your understanding!
Have a nice week,
Zac
Spelling List A (Feb. 2 – 6)
Spelling List B (Feb. 2 – 6)
Spelling List C (Feb. 2 – 6)
