Mrs. Rowein's Blog

Students have been busy all week finishing their Spooky Stories! Tomorrow we will be sharing them with one another. In Math, grade threes have a new goal: I can add and subtract numbers up to 1000. Within this goal, we will have a heavy focus on mental math as well. In Science, students have been practicing critical thinking. Critical thinking is coming up with your own ideas, and pushing yourself to go deep with a question or issue. They have been given the big question: How has human activity impacted animal habitats? They will be answering this question through a newspaper report. Reminders: Tomorrow is Halloween Dress-Up Day! No School on Friday  :) Mrs. Rowein

 What a busy week we have been having! First, students started writing spooky stories. They are experimenting with word choice in order to set a spooky mood! Since we finished our novel study, we have been doing some fun stuff with Fantastic Mr. Fox. Students were given the task of mapping the underground fortress Mr. Fox created. Their maps must include a title, legend, compass, plus detailed explanation of the important locations within the book. We also watched the 2009 movie version of Fantastic Mr. Fox. Students compared the movie with the boo using a Venn Diagram. In Science, students worked hard to complete dioramas of animal habitats. They look spectacular! Today, we had a gallery walk. Everyone had a chance to present what they had created and what they learned. Some students have kept their dioramas at school to put on display. In Math this week, grade threes had a quiz on place value and number sense. They were sent home yesterday. Next Thursday is Halloween dress-up day...

 Today in Language Arts, students started planning their Spooky Stories. We continue to focus on showing emotion in our writing through strong verbs and specific words.  In Math, grade threes are finishing up their number sense unit. We will be having our unit quiz on Thursday. Parents can practice at home with their children by asking them to identify hundreds, tens and ones in numbers, drawing numbers with base ten blocks, and ordering numbers from least to greatest or greatest to least.  In Science. students are very busy making their shoebox dioramas. It is so fun to watch their creative sides come out! We are going to show off our work to some special guests on Friday :) This week the entire school started Learning Sprints. Learning Sprints are short classes designated to specific reading goals. Students receive personalized instruction to help them with whatever level they are at. Please ensure your child is dressed appropriately for the snowy weather. It is so fun ...

Throughout this school year, students will continue to use Google classroom as a way to submit their digital work. It is important that students are familiar with this platform, just in case we ever have to move to at-home learning. Parents are welcome to look at their child's work on the Google Classroom. However, assignments that are done at school are meant to be done at school, not at home. Please do not have your child work on the Google classroom unless work has been assigned as homework.  Thanks, :) Mrs. Rowein

Much to my surprise, our biggest learning moment of the day was learning to tie knots in art! Parents- please work with your child over the weekend and have them practice tying knots, and tying bows.  This week in Phys. Ed we wrapped up our soccer unit by playing a modified socially-distant soccer. It was fast paced and super fun. Team red was victorious in the best out of three tournament! In Language Arts students are working hard to show emotion in their writing by using specific words and strong verbs. Next week we will all be starting spooky stories, just in time for the spookiest day of the year! Please don't forget to bring your shoebox to school on Monday. We will be using them to create a diorama of the animal habitats we've been learning about in Science.  We were spoiled with a beautiful start to autumn, but now the weather is changing. Please make sure your child is dressed appropriately for the frosty weather. If you are not able to provide winter clothing, let me...

 Students will be making dioramas in Science. Please bring in a shoebox (or similar size box) by Monday October 19. 

 This week in Language Arts we are continuing reading our Novel Study, Fantastic Mr. Fox. We will be finishing the book early next week! Our writing goal for the month of October is to show emotion in writing. Students have been experimenting with verbs that show different emotions in their writing. In Math, grade two continue to work on place value in numbers up to 1000. Creating numbers with base tens, reading and writing numbers, and ordering groups of numbers are all ways they can practice at home, In Social Studies, we have visited our third and final country of study this year- Ukraine! Students noticed that Ukraine had many similarities to Alberta. In Science, we have now moved on from animal life cycles and are learning about animal habitats. Students will be learning about a specific animal's habitat, and creating a detailed replica. We will also be talking about the many threats to animal habitats around the world, and actions we can take to help the animals.  Book e...

 Make the Biggest Number Grade threes also learned the game Make the Biggest Number. We played with a deck of cards. Divide the cards evenly amongst the players and remove the J, Q, K and Jokers.  Each player flips three random cards, and organizes their cards to make the biggest possible number. The player with the biggest number wins the round, and gets to keep all the cards. *If you do not have a deck of cards at home, it would be helpful to buy one at the dollar store. We will be using cards for math games all year. TrueFlix Go to learnalberta.ca. Choose Online Reference Centre. Within the list, find TrueFlix. Each night, read one book from TrueFlix and do the activities that go along with it. We have been learning about animals in Science, so a good topic to start with might be Animal Kingdoms. The password for learnalberta.ca is 4105, and the username is LA06 Try Some International Cuisine! We have been learning about quality of life in Peru, India, and Ukraine. As a fun...

Some students have expressed interest in exchanging books with one another., so we have decided to organize a book trade in! This is optional- you do not have to participate if you don't want to. If you have a book at home that you no longer want, bring it to school. We will sanitize the books and leave them for 14 days. At the end of the month students who have brought a book will get to take a book from the pile.  Please bring books in by October 16.

 In Language Arts, we have a new writing goal for the month of October. Students are working to show emotion in writing. Good authors make us feel, and they do that through word choice, and plot development.  We continue to read Fantastic Mr. Fox every other day. The kids are really enjoying it! In Math, the grade threes are learning how to say and write their number words. Parents can work with their child by practicing the spelling of number words, and practicing saying three-digit numbers.  Grade fours have been playing "Make the Biggest, or Make the Smallest Number" This is an easy game to play at home. All you need is a few dice or deck of cards! In Science, students have been independently researching the life cycle of a butterfly.They are working on creating scientific diagrams to show their learning.  We are continuing our Social Studies unit on Quality of Life Around the World. Today we "travelled" to India! We saw that India is a big, diverse place. Life i...

Today we continued our reading of Fantastic Mr. Fox. The story is starting to get very suspenseful! I've been impressed with students ability to read and understand new vocabulary in this book. In grade three we continue to work on understanding place value, and representing 3 digit numbers with base ten blocks. For homework, students should continue practicing identifying and saying 3-digit numbers. In Science this week we learned about the life cycle of amphibians and birds. Students are creating scientific diagrams to represent each life cycle. Yesterday, students had an impromptu spelling challenge. They were asked to spell the months of the year. Only two kids were able to do it correctly! So, we decided that we will try again next Thursday. Until then, students can study up on the months of the year and their proper spelling. Reminders for next week: Picture Day Monday, October 5 No school Friday October 9, or Monday October 12