Mrs. Rowein's Blog

Today students finished the rough draft of their Winter Writing. They will be typing this piece of work and doing some winter illustrations to go with it. In Math, the grade threes have started their month of giving assignment. They completed a "wish list" of items to donate, and now they are looking up prices. Within this unit, students are practicing their addition skills, rounding, and the life skill of staying within a budget :) Learning Sprints have ended and we are back to our regular afternoon routine. In the next few weeks I will be doing one-on-one reading testing with each student to see how they are progressing. Keep in mind that this reading assessment is just one piece of the puzzle when it comes to understanding where a child is at. Students were introduced to their new Science unit: Light and Shadow. Over the next couple weeks, they will be designing and carrying out three experiments on their own. For these experiments they will need a flashlight. If you have ...

 This week in Language Arts, students started two new projects. First, is their Winter is Here pattern book. Using their knowledge of sensory words, students are writing a pattern book that describes winter through the five sense. Yesterday, we read a book called Painted Skies. It told about the Inuit legend of the Northern Lights. Canada's Indigenous people have lived here for tens of thousands of years, and have a strong connected to nature. For our next reading unit, we will be learning Indigenous ways of knowing through stories and legends. Today grade three wrote their addition and subtraction math quiz. Now, they get to put their skills to practical use with a giving project! As a group we will be picking a local program to give to before the holiday season. Students are going to help me plan what to buy within my budget. In Social Studies, students are still "traveling" through the regions of Alberta. They are learning lots as they go! We will finish planning our i...

 Important reminder that grade three will have their math quiz tomorrow. The quiz will focus on addition and subtraction using both base tens and the traditional algorithm. :) Mrs. Rowein

 This week in Language Arts, students are practicing hard for their Reader's Theatre performances which will happen on Thursday! In Math, grade three's have been learning how to regroup when subtracting. We've been practicing with base tens, as well as the traditional algorithm. Our quiz will be early next week, to give us a few more days to practice. In Social Studies we have began our research and planning for our Road Trip Scrapbooks. So far, we have learned about the Rocky Mountain region, and the Foothills region. I don't know about everyone else, but all this talk about traveling has made me ready for a vacation! This week is CBE Bullying Awareness week. As a class, we will be clarifying what bullying is, the right thing to do in tough situations, and discussing kindness.  I was hoping to start volleyball this week, but my shipment of beach balls has not arrived! We will continue working on throwing and catching activities for the remainder of this week. Reminder:...

 Today at school we honored our veterans in a classroom Remembrance Day assembly. Students shared messages of peace, listened to songs about Remembrance Day, and reflected during a moment of silence. Tomorrow is Remembrance Day, so there is no school. Take time to talk to your children about the sacrifices Canadians have made for peace around the world. In Language Arts, we have been working on a new writing strategy to add description to our writing: using sensory words. Today, students took a wordless book, and added their own description to make an interesting and descriptive story. Over the next week or so, we will also be practicing and performing Reader's Theatre. Reader's theatre involves using actions, unique voices, and props to tell a story. Students are almost finished their most recent Science project. They wrote newspaper articles sharing how human activity has had an impact on animal habitats. By next week, we will be finished our Science unit on animals and ready...

 This week we have two new focuses for Language Arts. First, students will be practicing reading out loud, and reading in front of an audience. We are focusing on reading with clarity, expression, and appropriate volume. In writing, students have a new target: I will add description to my writing. Today they were introduced to sensory words as a way to describe the world around us. In Math, grade threes learned about the traditional algorithm today. The traditional way of adding is a good strategy if it is followed precisely, and if you have a pencil and paper handy to keep track of your work. We will be learning other strategies that are better suited to mental math in the coming weeks. This afternoon was all about Science! We reviewed an article about monarch butterflies that students read yesterday. Then, we used the 5W's+How as focus questions to lead discussion about the article. Afterwards, we watched the first part of the documentary series Our Planet. This show shows us the...

 The purpose of this game is to practice basic facts with accuracy and speed. The hope by grade three is that students can add numbers up to 20 with automaticity. -Deal an entire deck of cards into two even hands. Do not look at your cards. -Both players flip a card over at the same time. The first player to say the sum of the two numbers wins the round, and gets to keep those cards. -The game ends when one player has completely run out of cards. -Number cards are worth their usual number value. Joker = 0, A=1, J=11, Q=12, K=13