Summer is Super

I love the summer, it is a great chance to reboot and refresh. I have been looking a lot at different ways to approach things for next year and getting excited. I miss this years kids already and hope they are all having an amazing summer. Keep up with the Summer Journal project if you would like. :)

First Day with the new recruits :)

Awesome group, tons of fun and we even watched a video of Alvin from Alvin and the Chipmunks riding elevators. :)  Have a great summer.

-Mr.G

Blink and you missed it

Another year is gone. Time seems to fly so quickly. Looking at the bare walls and empty desks I focus on all the fantastic things we did this year. Trips to the museum, pool, butterfly releases, mountain hikes, all wonderful things. I feel however what I will remember the most fondly are the moments when you see a student "get it". One of our first math lessons one student displayed this number sense that was beyond his years and in that moment he became our first of many Mathamagicians. Another student struggling with numbers all year and finally with the help of the most fantastic aid a teacher could ask for developed his own strategy and was solving problems he never even would dare attempt without his new found confidence. That day he declared himself the "SMARTEST KID IN THE CLASS!" Where other times kids would have to help him in partnerships he was teaching them "his way" and the pride he had in his own work was amazing. Another student putting on her glasses that were purchased at the drug store so she could be like her friends with glasses and discovering it was all she needed to become a confident reader. These memories will stay with teachers a lot longer than the field trips and play days. I look forward to another year, another journey, with another group of amazing talented unique little people. I am grateful for the opportunity I have to be a part of their adventures. Thanks for reading.

Check out the Super Summer Journal Project and a few words from this years grade 3's if you have a moment.

Have a great summer,

Mr.G and the Super 3's

Butterflies, Poetry and a Nice Surprise

Dusting of the web page since it has been a while. These last few months have been go go go. I am so excited to be teaching grade 3 next year and looking back at the year I could not have asked for a more fun, interesting and talented group of kids to work with.  We have written stories, built towers, examined fossilized dinosaur poo, learned to multiply and divide, ran a functioning government and built 3d maps along with a million other things that helped add to an excellent year. 

These last few weeks we have been working on poetry and created an anthology of our work. Today the students hosted a poetry cafe complete with snacks and a very large audience. The phrase "if you build it they will come" came to mind. Before recess was over the first of many awesome supportive parents showed up to listen to their 8 and 9 year olds recite their original poems complete with farting frogs, swearing Santas and an uncle that apparently sings and dances to "I'm sexy and I know it". Fantastic imagery was created with lines detailing the colours they see in their garden or of the bright yellows of the grand star in Super Mario Galaxy. We were informed about Ants and Peru and made hungry by the many mentions of candy and chocolate. The most amazing part of the day however came with the most shy student walking up to the microphone and clearly and proudly reading out her wonderful poetry in front of a large audience. Prior to our poetry cafe the students took a walk with a large collection of hand raised butterflies to a teachers flower filled yard and released them as part of our life cycles unit. As I write this I cannot help but think of the journey the kids have been on this year. The growth that has occurred and will continue to occur with these kids has been extraordinary. Our little caterpillars and their change into beautiful butterflies, as corny as it sounds, was such a fitting activity as we come to the end of the year. I am so proud of the work that they have done. Below are a few pictures I took today. Thanks for reading.

Mr.G

Daisy :)

Just having left the butterfly enclosure this guy needed a drink 

One of almost 30 hand raised butterflies

Mrs.Dallas helping one of the little guys get the courage to fly

Almost there

Closing in on the last month of school

It has been an amazing year with tons of adventures. We are currently studying life cycles and organisms and having a blast collecting critters and talking about their life cycle. Today we had spiders, maggots, ants and worms in the class and discussed the EVIL Nightcrawlers that have ruined my yard. We have started a poetry unit working towards a poetry Cafe recital. A few pictures of what we have been up to are below.

After talking about "Honey I Shrunk the Kids" this is what I get for bug perspective art :) 

I love Frogs

Haha

Nothing better than Mario Mushroom Patterns in an assessment

Excellent looking notes. I am very proud :) 

Thanks for stopping by.

Mr.G

A funny thing happened while reading and I wanted to share it

As a teacher I have the great privilege of working everyday with the funniest, brightest, hardest working little human beings. Some days we need a laugh break. In the past week I have had 2 very good opportunities for a laugh. The first came as a student was giving feedback for a story she read. She told me she would rank the story as a beginner story, when I asked why she said "OK it is about a King...and he is POOR. That makes no sense, Kings can't be Kings if they are poor" I could not help but to laugh. The next day though I would laugh so hard tears may have come to my eyes. While reading in a Guided Reading group another student asked to use my iPad to take an Accelerated Reading Quiz. I asked one of my students to move over so the girl could sit in the corner where my iPad was. The boy looked at me and as I was about to repeat myself said, "No one puts Baby in the corner" You can't make this stuff up. As I laughed he looked at me and asked if I had seen that movie. It was very funny. Moments like these do not come from any other job. I am grateful everyday :) 

-Mr.G

Long time no see :) Busy Busy Busy and Loving it!

Really sorry to the five followers we have for not updating more often :) We have been working very hard on story writing making great strides towards our end goals. We have all progressed in reading this year and daily Mathamagicians are developing. It has been a great year so far and now in the final stretch we continue to do some fun things.

As a school we have taken on the goal of collecting some items that will be brought to schools in Thailand and Cambodia. Students will be collecting things like Skipping Ropes, Frisbees and water toys that will be heading over with a great organization called "Play around the World" we are very excited to help. In grade 3 we discuss the the rights of the child and how children have rights that should be guaranteed. One of those rights is the right to play. The kids have made some great posters to illustrate this right.

Hard at work

Love the eyes LOL

Perfect

Great finished product

In working towards developing some visualization and inference skills we read a very fun book called I NEED MY MONSTER without seeing the pictures students had to visualize based on the descriptions what each monster looked like. It was a ton of fun and they did a great job :) Take a look.

Creepy 

Creative bulletin board with over 100 monsters :) 

Would the real Gabe

Please

Stand up 

Great Book!

Love this job. Teaching is the best thing out there is you can be lucky enough to have such great students. Thanks for checking in.

Cheers,

Mr.G and the SUPER 3's