Friday, September 26, 2025

Friday, September 26

 Hi parents,

Today was Orange Shirt Day. We went outside for a whole school sit spot, we had our spelling quiz, and the students worked more on their paragraph writing. The orange shirt day assembly featured poetry, drumming, singing, and indigenous language lessons, and was amazing to be part of.

We read the book 'Peter's Moccasins', and the story 'Terrence' from Wayside school.

Stay tuned for next week's spelling words (they probably won't be up till Sunday or Monday!) and enjoy your long weekend!

Zac


Thursday, September 25, 2025

Thursday, Sep. 25

 Hi parents,

We had a fantastic Terry Fox Run today. Thank you so much for your incredibly generous donations - our class raised $164!! That is by far the most any class I've ever taught has raised, and it was so moving to hear how kids were donating their own money to the cause. We also ran a total of 142 laps. :)

In the morning, we did some peer editing and revision. Students went into partners and read their paragraph writing aloud to each other, and gave feedback. Then, we wrote 'semi-good' copies. I thought it would be helpful to write everything into one paragraph, on one page, before transferring it into the actual good copy template.

In math, we learned the standard algorithm for addition. The students seem to have gotten the hang of the stamp game (for addition), and I don't want to bore them, so I thought we could take this on a little quicker than usual.

Tomorrow is Orange Shirt Day and it is also our Spelling Quiz!

Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, September 24, 2025

Wednesday, September 24

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today. In the morning, we had Music, and then we did a cool Orange Shirt Day-inspired art project that involved creating folded paper people chains, and then giving them more personality to really capture the message "every child matters".





We also read another story about Terry Fox in preparation for our run tomorrow. Please send a toonie if you can!

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, and then used the Stamp Game for more addition. The kids are getting faster and more accurate with their regrouping. Soon we'll be able to start moving away from the Stamp Game, and towards the standard written algorithm. I am a big fan of the algorithm, but I think it's so much more meaningful if kids first use the materials to understanding why it works.

At the end of the day, we practiced spelling, and some students were able to write conclusions for their Wayside School-inspired paragraphs. Not everybody has reached that step yet though!

The Terry Fox Run is tomorrow at 1:00! And, Friday is Orange Shirt Day.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, September 23, 2025

Tuesday, Sep. 23

 Hi parents,

We had another good day today. In the morning, the students continued working on their Wayside School-inspired paragraphs. We added some interesting sentences that helped the kids describe themselves in unique ways, for example, by comparing themselves to an animal, predicting what they'd be like in their old age, and sharing fun facts that nobody knew about them.

In math, we continued working with the Stamp Game. We did a bunch of 3-digit by 3-digit addition problems - with regrouping! Regrouping is the hardest concept we cover in math until long division. Thankfully the Stamp Game makes it easy to visualize. 

We're taking on two big social studies topics this week - Terry Fox, and Orange Shirt Day. 

We watched this video on Terry Fox: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3BzyHYZgMz8

We're taking on the 'Toonies for Terry' challenge - if you can, please send a toonie for our Terry Fox Run on Thursday!

And we also watched this video to start the conversation on Orange Shirt Day: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HsV79rGW15o&t=1s

We also practiced spelling and did Daily LA.

Have a nice night,

Zac


Monday, September 22, 2025

Monday, September 22

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today! In the morning we started a new writing task. It's our first 'big' writing job of the year, and it's inspired by Wayside School. The students are going to be writing paragraphs about themselves in the same quirky style that Wayside School is written in. Then we'll be creating a cool interactive wall display, where the stories are all stacked to form a multi-storey building, and you can open up the different storeys to read the story on each storey, and learn about the kids in our class, it's going to be awesome. Hard to explain but I will post pictures as it starts to take shape.

We introduced the new spelling words, and I sent home last week's quizzes.

We had Music and Gym, and in the afternoon we went outside with Ms. Rooke to put up the traffic safety banners our class created last year. You can see them on the fences in front of the school and across the field!

We had Daily LA, and then ended the day with a math lesson using the Stamp Game once again. Students learned how to add 3-digit numbers, with no regrouping.

A couple important dates to know about:

Terry Fox Run - Thursday, Sep. 25 (1:00 - 1:30pm)

Orange Shirt Day - Friday, Sep. 26

Have a nice night,

Zac



Friday, September 19, 2025

Spelling Words (Week of Sep. 21)

 Spelling List A (Sep. 19 – 26)

play

said

will

what

who

were

of

from

they

have

 

Spelling List B (Sep. 19 – 26)

know

anyone

hadn’t

hasn’t

where

some

because

off

don’t

their

 

Spelling List C (Sep. 19 – 26)

their

laugh

there

eight

they’re

called

found

they’ve

sigh 

enough


Only two more weeks of sight words! They're getting pretty tough now. If you're trying to figure out what list would be the best fit for your child, I would recommend starting at List A and working your way down. If your child is able to get 6/10 or higher right off the bat, they could probably go on to the next list.

For List C - I'm going to reading the 'their' homophones in a random order to make sure everyone knows which one is which.

Good luck!

Friday, September 19

Hi parents,

We had another good day today. The spelling quiz seemed to go quite well although I haven't had a chance to mark it yet. We met up with our buddy class, and worked on a 'connection quilt' activity (just on paper - no real quilting sadly, we don't know how to do that). 

In math, I introduced the students to my personal favourite Montessori material, The Stamp Game, and we practiced using it to represent numbers.

We had our first cursive lesson, and learned how to write the letters 'e' and 'l'. At the end of the day, we played tag games in gym.

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

Zac



Thursday, September 18, 2025

Thursday, September 18

 Hi parents,

We had a pretty good day today. The students spent a lot of time finishing up their art from yesterday, and when that was done, they moved on to Spelling Sentences. 


We visited the library for our first official 'book exchange'. Many students chose to take their library books home. We had Music and Gym.

In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, and then revisited yesterday's Golden Bead Estimation lesson. This time, we gathered up all of the tables' numbers, and after estimating the total, used regrouping to figure out the actual total. This was an awesome way to introduce the students to 'regrouping', which is one of the toughest concepts to grasp in math (especially when it comes to subtraction), so I'm glad we're getting an early start on it.

Tonight is the Welcome Back Pancake Party, as well as the open house - and tomorrow is the spelling quiz. :)

Have a nice night,

Zac

Wednesday, September 17, 2025

Wednesday, September 17

 Hi parents,

We had a great day today! In the morning, we worked with the Golden Beads on representing numbers in the thousands. We also did some estimation using the Golden Beads (more to come tomorrow).

We went to Music, and spent most of the rest of the morning working on a cool art project that challenges students to use rulers, shading, sketching techniques, and varying pencil pressures to draw a realistic tree on a colourful patterned background. Those should be done and up on the wall just in time for the family BBQ / open house tomorrow.




In the afternoon, we did Daily LA, and then went on our walking field trip, where we did sketching, played camouflage, and met kids from the other Grade 3/4 classes.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Tuesday, September 16, 2025

Tuesday, September 16

 Hi parents,

Sorry about the lack of Blog post yesterday, I was writing a sub plan for today and it totally slipped my mind...

Today and yesterday, the students worked on a couple connected writing tasks, which I'd hoped would help us fix some of the behaviour issues we had last week. On Monday, the students wrote about the responsibilities of a teacher, and what kinds of a qualities a good teacher should have. They also wrote about the best parts and most difficult parts about being a teacher. Then, today, we did the same thing, but for students. I'm hoping that through this writing task, the students became more aware of the responsibilities that we all have at school. 

In math, we did some place value practice worksheets. I think we're ready to start looking at some larger numbers, 10,000+!

Today, and yesterday, we did actual Daily LA time, where the students worked in groups on specific literacy tasks. The Daily LA stations are: Read to Self, Buddy Reading, Read with Teacher, Writing, Literacy Games, and Listen to Reading. I've split the students into groups based on their reading levels, with consideration to friendships as well. This allows groups to engage in shared reading tasks with minimal teacher support, since they're all working at roughly the same level, and it also gives me a chance to read with a different small group every day, which is such an awesome way to check in regularly and see student progress. 

We practiced spelling (today and yesterday), and in general, the kids have been working hard and trying their best. Big improvement from last week!

Remember that tomorrow is our walking field trip (to the park across the street).

Have a nice night,

Zac




Friday, September 12, 2025

Spelling Words (Week of Sep. 14)

 Spelling List A (Sep. 12 – 19)

see

with

want

goes

then

this

can

are

get

say

 

Spelling List B (Sep. 12 – 19)

eat

do

going

take

took

wanted

that

are

down

think

 

Spelling List C (Sep. 12 – 19)

always

again

many

these

your

right

full

hurt

show 

which


More sight words this week, and really, it would be so awesome if everyone in the class could spell all of these words, not just the ones from their chosen list... but I don't want to overwhelm anyone this early on. The option to do multiple lists is always on the table. :)

Good luck!

Friday, September 12

 Hi parents,

We had a much better day today! The students worked quietly and efficiently, and the classroom felt a lot more comfortable and peaceful. I'm hoping that we can maintain this positive work ethic as the students earn back more independence and choices in the coming weeks. :)

The spelling quiz went great. We're going to continue working on 'sight words' this month for spelling, but once October rolls around, you can expect to see the lists focused more on specific letter blends and spelling patterns,

In writing, we revisited the garbage and recycling sorting activity from yesterday, and the students had the choice to write about ways they can reduce waste at school, or to redesign a product of their choice to make it more eco-friendly.

We went outside to the garden, and did a fun sketching activity where the students sketched something in the garden in 10 seconds, 30 seconds, 2 minutes, and 5 minutes. 


In Daily LA, we learned how to play the sight-word recognition game "Splat".

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

Zac

Thursday, September 11, 2025

Thursday, September 11

 Hi parents,

We had a bit of a challenging day today but nothing too out the ordinary - I think the students were testing the boundaries a bit, which always happens near the start of the year.

For the last couple days, we've been working on an 'alliteration ABCs' writing task. Basically, for each letter of the alphabet, the students were tasked with writing one sentence using alliteration. For example:

A - An amazing anteater ate angry ants.

We brainstormed a bunch of awesome examples as a class, and I know the students had the hang of it, but for some reason a lot of their writing just ended up a bit lazy. So sadly we've lost responsible work choices for a few days, just to encourage students not to rush through their work. I'm hoping the kids will realize that sometimes, doing a really good job on your work is even more fun than Lego.

We practiced spelling, and the Grade 4's played Place Value Pickle while the Grade 3's did some government math assessments (we do these at the start of every year).

We had Music, and we learned about how to properly sort and dispose of waste in the classroom. The students cut out, sorted,  and glued a variety of items based on which bin they go in. 

We played literacy games for Daily LA but it was too loud so we had to stop early.

Our first actual spelling quiz is tomorrow! From what I've seen, it's going to go really well.  But extra practice at home can go a long way. :)

Have a nice night,

Zac


Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Wednesday, September 10

 Hi parents,

Here are a few pictures from today. We did a lot of work! I unfortunately have to get going right away so the blog is going to be incredibly brief, hopefully the kids can explain the context of each of these. I will go into more detail tomorrow! Have a nice night,

Zac








Tuesday, September 9, 2025

Tuesday, September 9

 Hi parents,

Today the students did some awesome writing in response to the prompt, "My special outdoor place is...". Our school's residency this year is focused on the concept of 'place', so it was cool to see how seriously the class took this work. It's clear that everyone has some places that are very near and dear to them, and I loved reading all about them.

In math, we used the Golden Beads to go further into the concept of place value (even more 'place', I know). We talked about the phrase '1000 times as big', and used the golden beads to concretely show just what a contrast that was. Then we learned how to play Place Value pickle, which is a math game in which students think strategically, build numbers, and place them in ascending order.

In the afternoon we had Gym, and then used the iPads for the 'Listen to Reading' station of Daily LA.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Monday, September 8, 2025

Monday, September 8

 Hi parents,

Today was a decent day for our class. It was really hot in the school though and everyone seemed a little exhausted.

We went over another reoccurring lesson for this year - 'spelling sentences'. This basically involves taking each of the weekly spelling words, and writing it in a sentence. While this may not seem like the most exciting activity (it isn't), it's probably the best way for students to build writing stamina and practice sentence structure in a low-stakes way. The sentences can be as silly, short, detailed, or interesting as kids want. The only rules are, they have to include at least one spelling word, and they need to be a complete sentence.

We also had Music and Gym in the morning.

In the afternoon, we worked with the Golden Beads material to represent some numbers. This was when the class seemed to get really tired. So it was hard to tell how much they were really grasping. The Golden Beads material is a fantastic way to teach place value and number representation, especially for bigger numbers 1000+, that can otherwise be hard for students to grasp. 




In Daily LA, we went over the creative writing station. This station gives students an opportunity to basically write in any context they want - they could write stories, poems, posters, essays, research papers, comics, you name it. Sometimes the abundance of choice can be a little overwhelming. If students are stuck, I encourage them to just use this time to practice spelling or finish other writing work.

Have a nice night,

Zac

Friday, September 5, 2025

Spelling Words (Week of Sep. 7)

 Below, you will the spelling words that students in Room 3 will be working on next week, and also a needlessly long explanation about spelling practice. If your child was in my class last year and you know all this, feel free to skip to the bottom.

 

My approach to spelling is meant to help students learn common patterns that will allow them to accurately spell familiar and unfamiliar words when writing, as well as those high-frequency 'need to know' words that may not follow common patterns. 

They will also develop their ability to work towards learning goals through regular practice and study, as well as some basic test-taking skills in a low-pressure, low-stakes environment.

 

Students will have the opportunity to choose ONE spelling list to focus on each week. In the classroom, we have talked about how to effectively choose a list that is a 'good challenge' - not so easy that it won't teach you any new spelling concepts, but also not so difficult that it's overwhelming.  

 

Most weeks, the spelling lists will focus on specific letter sounds, blends, or patterns, as they appear in words of different complexities. For example, the practice words last week were all intended to review short-vowel sounds, though the words on List A were simpler than those on List C. This approach lets me teach the whole class the same spelling concept, but give the students an opportunity to apply that concept at a level that works best for them.

The main goal of spelling practice is not to memorize words, but to learn a wide range of common spelling patterns, which will then allow students to attempt to spell unfamiliar words more accurately. For example, a student who learns to spell 'hot' and 'rob', would hopefully be able to spell the unfamiliar word 'rot' as well, even though that specific word was not on their spelling list. There will however be some weeks where we just really focus in on high-frequency sight words (the, said, they, where, and, etc.), that you just need to know how to spell. I’d like to address those early in the year.

 

At the end of each week, we will have a Spelling Quiz. These quizzes are meant to be low-pressure opportunities for students to showcase their learning, and experience what it is like to study for and take a test.  I do not use the marks in my report card grades! However, seeing how students perform helps me to teach better. If many students perform badly on a spelling quiz, it tells me that we need to spend more time on that concept. If an individual student has a tough time with a quiz, we might review that concept a bit more one-on-one.
Practicing for quizzes at home is completely optional. We will practice throughout the week in class. However, if you want to also practice at home, that can be a great way to boost your child's confidence and reinforce their learning. It's totally up to you. I will post the words each week on Friday.

Please let me know if you have any questions!







Spelling List A (Sep. 5 – 12)

the

and

look

my

I

come

here

me

we

for

 

Spelling List B (Sep. 5 – 12)

when

with

they

have

like

said

there

good

all

want

 

Spelling List C (Sep. 5 – 12)

would

could

should

done

myself

because

made

walked

talked 

watch


This week's spelling words are high-frequency words from the Dolch Word list. I'm going to try focusing on these kinds of words throughout the month of September in the hopes that it will help students reduce the amount of corrections they'll have to make in their day to day writing work.


Good luck!


Zac

Friday, September 26

 Hi parents, Today was Orange Shirt Day. We went outside for a whole school sit spot, we had our spelling quiz, and the students worked more...