Monday, Jan 22nd

This week's Math centers included some new, fun puzzle challenges! Students are looking forward to having a chance each day this week to try them out.

 Triangle puzzle where the sides are matched up by solving various addition or subtraction facts; one side had the equation on it, the matching piece had the answer. Student dialogue was amazing as they helped each other solve the puzzle!

How fast can you build a hundred chart using the pieces provided? Students are getting more and more efficient as they become increasingly familiar with the placement and order of numbers on the chart.

A fun colour puzzle! Students started off with a puzzle that had only a few squares coloured in. They then had to colour in the rest of the pieces using only yellow, blue, red, or green. The catch: pieces that touched each other could not be the same colour!

   Can't wait to see the rest of the learning that happens during these centers this week!

     Mrs. Miller 

Sunday, January 21st

- Weekly Homework for this week has been posted!

- A reminder that this upcoming Friday (Jan 26th) is a PD Day.

- Don't forget to please return your library books EVERY Thursday so that your child can make a new selection during our weekly Library visit (3rd block).

  I hope that everyone had a fantastic weekend and enjoyed the mild weather! Looking forward to another fun week with everybody :)

  Mrs. Miller

Thursday, Jan 18th

Thank you to everyone who has brought in a cereal box so far! If you haven't had a chance yet please send them in by next week. If you do not have any boxes at home don't worry, a few students have brought in extras this week so everyone will have their own for their project. Thanks!

   Students have been working on procedural writing tasks this week ("How To's"). First we worked as a class to write a comprehensive "How to make a Peanut Butter and Jelly Sandwich." Students are now working in pairs to write directions on either "How to build a snowman" OR "How to make Hot Chocolate." Next week, they will get a chance to work on their own "How To" piece to show how much they have learned!

  In Science we are continuing to explore properties of solids and liquids. We had our first chance at a hands-on science experiment yesterday by exploring "Oobleck": and debating whether it is a solid or a liquid! They discovered that this special mixture can act as both a liquid AND a solid depending on the amount of pressure that is put on the mixture; when at rest it is in a liquid state, and when being squeezed or held it turns into a solid state. Very fun!

  Mrs. Miller

Tuesday, Jan 16th

Weekly homework has been posted!

Yesterday we had the pleasure of having a special guest in our classroom from the National Art Gallery. Students were able to take a look at a selection of prints that can be seen in the gallery and hear more about the painting. They were very interested and we turned our classroom into a "mini" art gallery for the students to take a more in-depth look at each piece. If you were every wondering if your child would be interested in visiting the art gallery, they were all super engaged the entire time and would probably love visiting the gallery and seeing more art! I posted some information below about visiting the gallery.

Mrs. Miller

Tuesday, January 9th

Welcome back!

   I hope that everyone had a fantastic break! Please check your child's Mail Bag/School bag for an update and for this months Scholastic order.

  Today we had a FANTASTIC opportunity to try something that very few students in the class had done before: Snowshoeing! Our school has borrowed a set of snowshoes for the week and we had the perfect day today to try them out. Students loved it!

Keep checking back for more pictures and updates :)

   Mrs. Miller

Wednesday, Dec 6th

- Our science project presentations have been going wonderfully! Students are enjoying sharing their hard work with their friends, and it is clear that everyone had a fun time researching about their animals. Thank you again for all of the projects that have been submitted so far, I am hoping that the last projects will be completed and ready for Friday!

- Yesterday students had a busy day full of assemblies! First block we were in the gym for mass practice, and a combined "Caught you Caring" assembly. Congratulations to Dylan and Jackson for having their name pulled for a Caught you caring reward, and congratulations to Miley for having her name pulled from the new "Caught you Coaching" program! Second block yesterday we had our primary division assembly to celebrate the very first week of Advent. The grade 3 students did a great job organizing the event.

- Today students had an opportunity to complete another STEAM (science technology engineering and math) challenge. They had to build a christmas tree that stood on its own using only the following: 2 sheets of green paper, 4 popsicle sticks, tape, and glue. There was a lot of interesting ideas happening and, of course, lots of fun!

   There are a lot of fun activities coming up in the next few weeks leading up to Christmas. To help minimize disruptions, please do your best to have all students arrive before the bell in the morning. Thank you!

    Mrs. Miller

Monday, Dec 4th

  Science Project

       Thank you for all of your hard work helping your child complete their science research projects! Here is a schedule of when your child is set to present their projects this week:

               Tuesday                     Wednesday                 Thursday                     Friday  
              -  Bodhi                         - Aurora                       - Diana                      - Amaya
              - Faith                           - Marcus                       - Wes                         - Rylan
              - Jackson                       - Jordan                        - William                   - Dylan
              - Olivia                         - Mia                             - Blessing                  - Miley
              - Andrew                      - Annora                        - Darien                    - Maddie

  If your child is not here that day please do not worry, they can go the next day when they come back. Also, I have placed students on the schedule even if they have not handed in their projects yet. Please try your best to have your child complete their projects before their presentation date. If this is absolutely not possible, please let me know and they may present when they are finished.

  Today during class time I went over the rubric I will be using to mark their oral presentations. Please feel free to have a look!

                                                       Oral Presentation Rubric 

  Math Centers

     We have started a new routine in Math where students come in right away in the mornings and have a chance to work at a variety of Math centers that help reinforce important math skills. Here is a look at this weeks Math centres! Feel free to ask your child what each centre entails.

   

 

   Looking forward to a fun and exciting week!

   Mrs. Miller







 

Friday, December 1st

I am not quite sure how we are here already, but today we welcomed the first day of DECEMBER! This school year has been absolutely flying by so far, and our extremely busy days are about to get busier!

   We have spent the past couple of weeks finishing up some topics and beginning some new ones. One of the most notable changes in our classroom is happening during Math as we learn together how to do "Daily 3" Math in our classroom. Since our Daily 5 language program has already proved to be so beneficial, I have decided to introduce this similar Math program to the students. More updates will come as we perfect this new program!

   I do have a few housekeeping items I would like to mention:
        1) Students have been leaving their Mailbags at home very often lately. It is very difficult to organize handouts when I am missing half of the students Mailbags. I obviously understand that sometimes they will be forgotten at home, but it is getting out of hand. I have been telling students that it is also their responsibility to make sure it is in their backpack each morning. Please help them become responsible by helping them to remember! Thank you!

     2) With cold and flu season already started, we are already low on tissue boxes. If you had any extra tissue boxes you would like to donate to the classroom, that would be greatly appreciated!

   3) Due to many unforeseen circumstances, we have NOT had the chance to complete book exchanges in our Library for the past few weeks. We are hoping that the Library will be open again and ready to use next week. Thank you for your understanding!

   4) Don't forget to have your child complete their Science research project this weekend! I have asked that they be submitted this Monday, December 4th. On Monday I will go over with the students what is expected of them for their presentations and students will present their projects later that week.

  Again, December is an extremely busy month for everyone as we excitedly prepare for the Christmas Holidays. I have updated this page with some important upcoming dates to mark down. Please continue to check the school website and calendar to stay up to date! Looking forward to celebrating this month with everyone,

   Mrs. Miller


         

 

Monday, November 20th

Notices:

- There will be NO weekly homework posted this week or next week. Instead, students will be receiving a small research project to complete at home to finish up our unit on animals in science. They will receive the assignment either tomorrow or Wednesday. 

- Don't forget that this Friday is a P.D. Day! Pizza day will happen on Thursday instead this week.

     I hope that everybody had a wonderful, snowy weekend! Students were very excited to have some fresh snow to play with at recess times today. We embraced the love of the first snowfall today by doing our first "winter" themed art. First, we read the story "Snowmen at Night." We discussed all of the different uses of colour in the book and how the illustrator used different colours in the pictures. Then, students had a chance to draw out a new scene of what they think snowmen do at night! They used black paper for the background, and worked with chalk to create their pictures. I absolutely loved how students talked about different techniques for creating different colours, textures, and forms in their work. They did a great job! Here is a snapshot of some of their work:

 Mrs. Miller 

    

Thursday and Friday

Hello!

   We are always busy working and having fun in our class! Here are some of the things we did over the past two days :)

  Yesterday we had a chance to go down to the gym and cheer on our boys volleyball team! We were excited to see some of our Grade 6 lunch helpers playing for our team. Go St. Francis Go!

  During gym time yesterday we did a rotation of three activities to get our bodies moving on a dreary rainy day. Students rotated between a catching and throwing game, using skip-its, and then the scooters. The scooters really gave students a great workout!

   Today we began our day with our favourite end of the week activity: Math centers! Second block we caught up on all of our unfinished work from the week, and then had some Daily 5 activity time. 3rd block today we relaxed and watched some very funny, and very educational episode of Bill Nye the Science guy on the topics of: Amphibians, Insects, and Invertebrates. It was a great way to end the week and to compliment our unit on Animals!

   I hope that everybody has a fantastic weekend!

     Mrs. Miller 

Wednesday, Nov 15th

Reminders:
- Friday is PJ and Teddy Bear day for United Way!


    Today was an interesting day, where students were surprised with a chance to watch a movie with all the other grade 1, 2, and 3 students! As your child is sure to tell you, we were short three teachers today with no supplies available to cover. In order to make sure that all students were supervised, the primary division had a chance to relax and unwind in the learning commons in the morning and watch a movie; they were even treated to an extra long morning recess! What a beautiful sunny day to enjoy this weather and get some extra exercise!

   Students came back to class in the afternoon refreshed and ready to learn. We had one of the best Daily 5 times this year, with students working hard on each station. I was able to work one-on-one as well as with some small groups of students during this time, and everybody was eager to work.

   After Daily 5 we completed some science work. We are finishing up our unit on Animals and students are completing their own mini booklets about the 6 different classifications of animals. It is easy to see all the learning they have done these past couple of months!

   We ended with math today, where we reviewed pictographs and had a chance to visit different stations and practice drawing pictographs in a hands-on way. There were 10 stations with a brown paper bag at each station containing a variety of "mystery" objects. Students worked in pairs, dumped out the contents of each bag, and created their own pictograph to represent the data found in the bag. Students loved doing this!!

Looking forward to seeing what tomorrow brings!

     Mrs. Miller 

Monday, November 13th

Important Announcements

- Homework for this week has been posted online!

- This FRIDAY, NOV 17th our school will be having a "Teddy Bear and PJ Day" to raise funds for United way! Donations of $2 is appreciated.

- The weather is VERY chilly these days, please make sure your child is coming with lots of warm layers, especially Mitts and Hats, for recess. Thank you!

Our Work Today

    This morning we started off our Monday Math block with a few games that reinforced counting, subitizing, and number sense skills. We started with a dice game where students rolled three dice and found the sums of all three. We then discussed certain number combinations that were easier to add together (i.e. 9 + 1 + 5) and why these numbers were easier! Many students were already looking for friendly numbers, such as adding to make 10 or 5, and some were even using doubles and near doubles facts. Students were then challenged on our next activity to find as many number combinations as they could that add up to 10. A lot of great math talk happened during these activities!

   During Language Arts today we started with our Daily 5 time. After Daily 5, we workout on our weekly "Weekend Retell" writing, which we do every Monday. I also choose a different writing skill to focus on each time we do our retell stories. Today, we worked on adding more detail to our writing by answering the "5 W's" (Who, What, When, Where, Why). Students did a great job!

   And finally, during 3rd block, we continued our talk from Remembrance day about "Peace" and discussed ways we could all be Peacemakers at our school. Students then helped me create our next Religion bulletin board above our prayer table by colouring a peace sign and writing out how they could be a Peacemaker... pictures to come once everyone is finished!

  What a busy day! Looking forward to our adventures tomorrow.

   Mrs. Miller 

Tuesday, Nov 7th

Today was a very exciting day for students! You may or may not have heard the news that students finally figured out last Friday... Mrs. Miller is expecting a baby! Today students had even more fun as they were told the gender of Mrs. Miller's new baby :) Of course, I made students work for their answer!

    We started by working as a class to build a graph of their predictions. Most students predicted the baby would be a girl...

 After we made our predictions, students were shown a basket of blue dinosaur counters (boy) and a basket of red dinosaur counters (girl). Whichever basket had MORE counters in it would tell them what the baby was going to be.

   Students took turns sharing and showing the strategies that they would use to count such a large amount (there were 50):

By 5's

By 2's

By 10's 

By 3's

By 25's

  We counted the blue dinosaurs many MANY times and then discussed which strategies were the easiest/most efficient way to count. Most students agreed that counting by 5's or 10's was the most efficient way. After counting the blue dinosaurs, we used counting by 5's to count the red ones and they celebrated pretty hard after learning that Mrs. Miller's baby is a.......

GIRL :)

Mrs. Miller