Happy October! What a month. We survived and it went by in a second. As I mentioned earlier, I will be sending out monthly email updates, both with important dates for that month, as well as curricular info we will be covering, allowing you want to follow up at home. In doing so I hope to provide you with links, resources and general information so that you can know where we’ve been and what we have coming up. I try and keep the number of emails to a minimum but these updates are ones that are important for you all to read.

Also, just a heads up that our room parent for this year will be Adrijana Meianagic. She sent out an email earlier this week and it in she kindly asked for you to respond to her message with the name of your child in the subject line so as to ensure she has the correct address and have, in fact, received the email in the first place. Please keep an eye out for an email from her regarding classroom parties for the year and any other volunteering opportunities. 

Important Dates

Wednesday, October 2^nd – Rockin’ AB Virtual Field Trip

Friday, October 11^th – PD Day (no school for all students)

Monday, October 14^th – Thanksgiving (no school for all students)

Thursday, October 17^th – Edo Fun Lunch and Crazy Hair Day

**Thursday, October 31^st  – Halloween Celebration (pm only)

Friday, November 1^st – PD Day (no school for all students)

**I will send more info about Halloween in the next week or two

Language Arts

In class, students are completing 30 minutes of daily reading, that also includes one-on-one and small group guided reading with their teacher. We also ask that you support your child with home reading, for about 15-20 minutes each night. This could involve reading to your child, listening to them read, or asking them what has been happening in their book. Throughout the year, we will also read a number of novels as a class, some just for fun, and some tied more closely to curriculum. In September, we read “Franny K. Stein: Lunch Walks Among Us”, and this week we have begun reading “The Dragon’s Egg”. This week, we have also read a number of picture books tied to residential schools and Orange Shirt Day.

Over the past month, students’ writing activities have included writing a paragraph about their favourite summer memory, as well as journal entries about their weekend activities. They have also written a few responses to books we have read. As they form their sentences, students are reminded to include the 5 W’s (who, what, where, when, and why).

Math

We are fully immersed in our Number Sense unit, as students are practicing reading and writing numbers up to 1000. Students have also been practicing writing numbers in expanded form and in base 10. Next up, students will be comparing, ordering, and rounding numbers up to 1000. As part of this, we began with a review of the place value system (we go up to one thousand in grade 3), having us practise ways to represent numbers as well as the different forms we can read, write and explain the value of a number: Base Ten, Number Form (aka Standard Form), Expanded Form, Word Form.

Basic Facts

As I mentioned in conferences, students are expected to practice their basic facts each night. For addition and subtraction, they are required to know up to 9+9 and 18-9, and for multiplication and division they are required to know up to 5x5 and 25/5. However you choose to practice this with your child is fine with me, whether it’s flash cards, computer games, etc. I will send another email out in the next week or two with more online resources. 

Science

In our Rocks and Minerals unit so far, students have learned about the four layers of the Earth and what purpose they serve. Students have also learned about the three types of rocks, how they are formed, and how they change from one form to another. Next up, students will be taking a closer look at the three types of rocks, as well as classifying rocks and minerals based on their characteristics. This past week's Rockin’ Alberta in-class field trip further supplemented this unit. I have uploaded and provided many links for this unit on the Science Resources page that you and your child are welcome to explore further.

Social Studies

We have kicked off our study of countries around the world by looking at the difference between continents, countries, provinces/states, cities, and communities. Our first country of study will be India, and over the next month or two, we will take a close look at how home and school life are different from here in Canada, as well as traditional Indian food, sports, cultures, and games. There are many links and resources for our study of India on the Social Studies Resources page. We’ve really enjoyed exploring the differences and similarities between our two countries and the students have come up with many interesting observations and questions for further inquiry.

Have a great rest of your weekend and bring on October. 

Sincerely,

Daniel Polsky

Grade 3 Teacher | Learning Leader

Fish Creek School | cbe.ab.ca

Instagram @mr.polsky | Twitter @mr_polsky