PJ's, Popcorn and Picking Garbage

Fun Fridays continue to be the joy of our week. The kids rocked out some great reading comprehension and almost finished their pen pal letters. We will be mailing them out on Monday or Tuesday and are so excited. We spent time making self portraits that matched ourselves on PJ/Crazy Hair day. 

We spent some time writing about really happy moments in our lives, read some great books and created some winter scenes in art. 

We ended our day with store but not before the entire grade 3 class went out to do a little cleaning of the playground. We all ran around in our PJ's picking garbage all over the playground and had a great time making the playground a much cleaner place.

Love Fridays!

-Mr.G

Venturing into Negatives...the point of no return

Today was a great day :) After yesterday not going as planned in life things today were smooth as can be.

My amazing Sidekick Mrs.R was away and stepping in for her was the amazing Mrs. O. We had a blast and she was awesome to work with.

The kids worked very hard on some art this morning that are turning out wonderfully. We are finishing our Pen Pal letters and working hard on subtraction.

Today some kids ventured into negatives and so we ran with it. Most could not fully understand the concept but we had one Mathamagician that was comfortable with it.

Nothing makes your day as a teacher more than when kids write you notes about how awesome you are or thanking you just for teaching them. Great way to end the day.

-Mr.G

Pen Pal questions= laughter

Today was a quick day for Mr.G I had to step out for the afternoon but the morning went by like a rocket! The kids wrote back to their Pen Pals in Edmonton and had a great time reading their letters and answering their questions.

A few Highlights

• Student being asked if she was Chinese, she laughed but the kids were confused by the question.
• A student asking their Pen Pal to write neater next time...we took that request out.
• A student recounting the time they ate the preserving material in a Beef Jerky package and discussing how he was poisoned but is better now.

The letters they are writing are great and the kids had a fantastic time writing them so win win in my books. I can't wait to see the kids tomorrow and the towers they built this afternoon in my absence.

-Mr.G

Puppies and Social Studies=BEST DAY EVER

Ok so pretty much every day in Grade 3 is a new BEST DAY EVER but today was so fun. Reading NERDS book 2 is great fun but reading NERDS book 2 and having a parent bring in the most adorable little puppies EVER made for a fantastic morning. We also received our pen pal letters and are very excited to write back to our Edmonton friends. This afternoon we had an amazing discussion on quality of life in India and the kids really made the connections to what we have been talking about in class. It was a perfect way to end the day. Tomorrow we write letters, write some friendship keepers, work on subtraction and BUILD A TOWER! Come back soon!

-Mr.G

Oh Monday you come so fast

It is like the weekend does not really exist. Just a blink of the eye and it is gone. That being said there is nothing better than greeting the kids in the morning and hearing about their weekends.

Today we began 2 of the 3 different novel studies we are doing with readers at various levels. We are reading the Whipping boy in one group and it is fun talking about quality of life and seeing the students make connections with their lives, our Social Studies curriculum and the novel.

Our Science class was spent looking at finishing their Playgrounds and they turned out great. Problem solving using Salt Dough, Straws, Pipe Cleaners and various recycling materials was an adventure.

We have a parent bringing in puppies tomorrow, I have been instructed by no means am I to bring one home...We will see.

Already Tuesday tomorrow. Hopefully putting up our Life Maps by weeks end but if not they are coming soon :)

Cheers,

Mr.G

Fun Friday Fun Friday :)

Reading comprehension, spelling quiz, reading, creating our dream bedrooms and creating maps of our lives. The kids worked very hard all day but we had a lot of laughs and a great time. It was very fun to see what they felt was an important event in the early years of their life. Lost teeth, broken bones and baptisms seemed to top the list. The amount of car crashes and close calls I found surprising as well. We are sharing with class members on Monday so it should be fun. We finished the day with Friendship Keepers which is always a fun uplifting way to end the day. Kind words shared with each other creates a great environment and we are already seeing more friendships develop with these social building activities. Great Day! 

-Mr.G

Give peace a chance

Today I give thanks for having the most excellent group of 8 and 9 year olds in the universe. We had a fantastic day in grade 3 with tons of fun in science, tons of learning in math and a great debate during our current event time.

In Science we began constructing pieces of playground equipment. The only rule was that they had to create a blueprint for they piece of equipment. Students used paper clips, tape, straws, cardboard, egg cartons, pipe cleaners and salt dough and they came up with some great things.

In Math we continued working on addition and regrouping. We came up with a strategy of taking the numbers to their expanded form and then adding them together in their easier place value groups. We had a lot of success, kids even chose to keep doing math rather than going outside for recess.

Finally in Social Studies we decided to debate and discuss the issue of hostilities between Israel and Gaza. We watched news clips looked at maps and discussed some of the history and then the kids entered into a debate on what they think should happen. It was very interesting to see what the kids thought. We had some that thought it would be best for Israel to leave the people of Gaza alone and give them more areas to settle and that should solve the problem. Others thought that they should just split up the West Bank area and share it equally. A final group talked about how Israel should only go after Hamas and leave the innocent people in Gaza alone. It was very cool to see that they understood the impact on quality of life living in this region would have and in their simple uncomplicated opinions that the right thing to do would be to help the innocent and protect your families. Of course we came to no conclusion but the ideas floating around the room were very cool to watch develop :)

Teaching is the BEST

-Mr.G