Days I wish I had a notebook handy

So many funny things happened today. I think it had a lot to do with the minus 30 temps. We all got a little cabin fever I think while being stuck indoors. I received countless drawings many of which featured roadkill... Was informed by two of the boys that they have girlfriends that of course live out of town and of course was entertained by the dance party to call me maybe that our indoor recess became. We worked on more multiplication which is coming along really nicely and classified some rocks in science. The highlight of my day was one one of the kids brought over the love note he had written for his girlfriend. He told me a friend had told him what to write, I asked which friend to which he took an old gummy bear from his pocket and said "my buddy" haha It was the best way to end the day. No kids tomorrow but showing some teachers some great math games we have been playing...this week will be low on the updates as I am off Thursday with meetings but we will be back Friday. Have a great week.

Mr.G

Love Fridays

Great busy day! We had some fun playing math games and getting some extra practice while a few kids had to retest on a past outcome. It was very fun and those that retested showed a lot of improvement so bonus.

We drew some monster pictures and wrote up descriptions that we will use to sort the pictures and find the creators.

We had some new math time on subtraction strategies that we have yet to try. The kids were very successful even though it took a lot longer. Many complained about the time it took but adding another tool to their tool kit for math can only be a good thing :)

Looking forward to a nice weekend.

-Mr.G

We are in grade 3 and kick butt at multiplication

Today we practiced multiplication and after the kids made all the facts that multiply creating 12 I thought we should be brave and try another number so we looked at 16 and worked our way through 16. The kids were firing out answers so fast that it showed they really were getting the concept of equal groups. Then we decided they should go one higher and we attempted 24 and well here is what happened.

Oh also one of my kids finished their treasure map and well guess where they hid the treasure

Yup,  that is a dead deer 

I am so grateful for the kids I get to teach and the fellow teachers I get to learn with and learn from. I love my job :)

Mr.G

Cookies...A teaching tool

So 90 cookies later we have had a science lesson on sedimentary rocks and division lesson working on equal sharing. THe kids had a fun time and worked like crazy for the chance to eat their cookies. A few of the kids in class read aloud their road trip gone bad stories and we had a lot of fun cheering each other on after they finished reading their stories. Some wall soccer tired out a bunch of the kids. After  I was smashed a few times i realized there was nowhere safe :) Tomorrow we continue our multiplication journey. Stay tuned for a few reviews of NERDS 2 we moved on to the third book in the series and the kids LOVE it :)

Have a good one,

Mr.G

A moment of silence :)

Followers of our adventures might we ask you for a moment of silence for our fallen friend.

This is Tim

2013 RIP

Tim is a marshmallow that has a face. A few of the girls played with Tim and well he dried up and today they had a funeral service for him at recess and asked that I make a note on the blog. 

Now on to our great day. 

Yesterday the kids practiced sorting by properties as we are going to be discussing rocks and minerals and all the properties involved in classification. We started with beads because well they are sparkly and the kids like sparkly things. Most sorted by colour but some ventured into shapes. They decided that the really small ones could just stay together because well they are too little and hard to move but for all the rest we did a great job.

In Social Studies we have been discussing mapping and things like, scale and compass roses. The students have started making a map and will be writing directions to a secret treasure that they will let partners read to find the treasure on the map. They are turning out really well. 

Multiplication and Division began today and Equal Grouping/Equal Sharing will be words we continue to practice :) Maybe the 100 cookies i baked for tomorrows lesson will help :)

Goodnight all and please remember Tim and his mini marshmallows :)

Cheers,

Mr.G

Maps and Multiplication

What a nice Monday. It is always interesting to see how the week is going to begin. Some morning the kids come in tired from a busy weekend others they come in excited to tell me al about the fun they have had. Today was a math heavy morning working on a bit of subtraction with a small group (they did great) and others practicing a whole selection of skill in a daily activity book. THe kids worked quietly and made it possible for those needing a bit of support to work really well.

THis afternoon we talked multiplication and discussed it as a simple skip counting. We then filled out a mini times table for the kids to keep with them. 5x5 will be easy in no time. Maps and legends and scale was the topic of Social Studies and Science had us sorting by properties of beads in preparation for looking at rocks and minerals.

Busy day great start to the week.

Mr.G

The difference between Cats and Dogs

One the kids decided during our work on Bar graphs that they should inform me on the difference between dogs and cats, dogs apparently think they rule the world and cats are the land...I think there was something lost in the translation but all the same very informative.

We had a great day in grade 3 with Science and work on rocks and minerals, math and our ever growing graphing unit and Daily 5. During our Daily 5 time i was very pleasantly surprised to see the growth in one student in particular when it came to his reading.  After commenting on it I could see the pride on his face with the great accomplishment he had made. Another student had so much expression in her reading she started to to get animated physically like she was performing a play. It was so fun to see her enjoying reading so much.

Our Math today was centered around graphing with the Bar graph being the star. The kids picked it up quickly for the most part and have loved creating huge graphs to show the class. One moment in particular that was beyond funny was the child that had favorite music with choices like Crazy Frog, Gangnam Style, and Nickleback and his outrage that no one voted for Nickleback.

It was a busy day but a fun day and tomorrow is FRIDAY!

Please Take a look at our pictures below :)

Cheers,

Mr.G and the Super 3's

Some mineral brainstorming

Creative use of holes in the paper :) 

Word Work

Read to self

Our choices

Scrabble anyone :) 

Hard at work

C is for Chupacabra

Today was the highlight of the week so far. Funny moments make for a very fast day. We spent some time working on pictographs and it lead to the very interesting conversation on what is a Chupacabra. One student decided that he wanted to check on the favourite mythical creature in the classroom between dragons, hydra, basilisks or chupacabra haha. Most voted for dragon since they had absolutely no clue what the rest were. He then explained how Dire Wolves would hunt animals stuck in Tar pits. Math and Science were very informative.

While there were many highlights to our day today a student randomly doing that ridiculous gangnam style dance in the middle of a class discussion had to top the list. Have a great evening.

Mr.G

It is clear I drink too much pop and eat too much chocolate

Today i was reading stories about how I kidnapped the class pet and well the clues... empty cans of Tahiti Treat and candy wrappers...

We also discovered as part of a graphing activity that one of the kids has 9 siblings, Tiger Ice Cream is a favorite for a few and none of the boys want an imaginary girl coming for Easter holidays.

In our social studies class we look at various countries through the eyes of a child in the country. Ukraine is represented with Irena. The students have looked at holidays of these countries and discussed how they are similar to their own. They then wrote short letters to the kids in these countries. Many of the boys wanted to write about Easter and that meant Irena would be their guest. Many had to be reassured time and again that Irena was not actually coming over before they would invite her :) Good day for grade 3.

Mr.G

Hairy Rocks???

Nice day today in grade 3. I am having a hard time remembering to do the blog since the Christmas break. Getting back at it will be work :) Today we started writing a short story with the basic theme being a kidnapped Gizmo. The kids had a fun time coming up with ideas for clues to lead to the kidnapper. I told them they had to pick a teacher that they could use things they know about them as clues to locate the kidnapper and many chose the same teacher for her love of Elton John, Chocolate and apparently purple and red. I hope one day I will get to be the teacher that the students all know so well and light up talking about :)

In science we found a picture of a rock that looks like it is covered in hair...a little gross but cool. We will be looking further into that. Tomorrow we are starting a little graphing before jumping into multiplication and division. Interesting topics like favorite Ice Cream flavour are sure to be discovered. Have a great night and a happy Tuesday.

Mr.G and the Super 3's

Friday-Feelings-Fantastic

First week back has come and gone. We spent a lot of this week looking back at the math from before the break and getting use to our new Daily 5 schedules with all the moving and group transfers going on in grade 3. Today we finished a long process of looking at all our word wall words and which ones we need the most time with. Wrapped up (for the most part) addition and subtraction and getting ready to move on to more things :)  We talked about feelings today and the kids drew themselves in 4 different ways. If was a fun way to end our great week.  Thanks for tuning in :)

Mr.G

As promised some pictures :)

Today we tested bridges. They were awesome. :)

My new Daily 5 wall 

Slavery, Slugs and Mr.Popper-A day in Guided Reading

As a team in grade 3 we have decided to mix our classes to utilize all the students to create reading groups with kids at the right levels all reading together. 2 days in and it has been a good experience. Today I learned all about slugs and snails (they have feet or a foot anyway), read some of Mr.Poppers Penguins and began a story with one group that was all about running for freedom as slaves in the United States. An odd mix of books but all the students were demonstrating critical thinking skills analyzing the texts that we were reading. It was a very interesting conversation looking into what kinds of background information kids had on slavery. A lot came from movies they had seen but the basics were there. As we talked about people being bought and sold kids pointed out how wrong and sad that was. Making real life connections create more powerful reading experiences. Cool day to be teaching grade 3 :) Add it to the list.

Mr.G

New Year new adventures

I will post a larger post later this week. Just a quick update. The kids all had a great holiday one had an appendix removed and another got a puppy. Not sure on that trade but we all came in with smiles today.  2 weeks is a long time to not see the kids and getting back in to our grove will take another day or so I am sure. We did have some great work opportunities today and had a fantastic visit this morning sharing our holiday adventures. More to come. We are happy to be back!

Mr.G