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