Week 28 update

Bonjour!

This week's happenings: 
Monday - Library book exchange
Tuesday - Fire House visit, choir rehearsal
Wednesday - Swimming
Thursday - Lt. Governor Judith Guichon visits Willows, dictée
 Friday - Good Friday (no school)

Next week: 
Monday - Easter Monday (no school)
Tuesday - choir rehearsal
Wednesday - Swimming
Thursday - Spelling quiz
Friday - Pizza/sushi, Musical rehearsal

Please make sure your child brings a choir uniform ASAP as we are headed for "Musical season" starting soon.

Science
This week we started a study of Thermal Energy in Science.  This is a new unit introduced to Grade 3s this year as part of the new BC curriculum.

We started by exploring new technical French words associated with this theme.  Some of these multi-syllable words will likely be difficult for our young second-language learners.  But I'm hoping that by defining them, illustrating them, and using them as part of experiments, we will all become more familiar with them and use them more fluently.

Our main goals are to find sources of thermal energy, as well as to know basic workings of conduction (heat transfer from a stove element to a pot), convection (heat transfer from rising hot air from a campfire to a pot above it ), and radiation (energy moving in the form of rays through space).

Math
We are beginning to work with multiplication, working with arrays and repeated addition (2+2+2, or 3x2=6).

Français
Over the next few weeks we will be practicing verbs in the present tense and playing games to help us remember them. We will be looking at avoir, être, faire, aller, pouvoir, and ER verbs.

Français/Sciences Humaines
To get into the mood for the upcoming May 9th election, we will quickly be looking at the steps a candidate must go through from a nomination meeting to a provincial vote.

Joyeuse Pâques!

This week's dictée:

Week 24 Update

Bonjour!

Upcoming dates to remember:

Monday Feb. 27 - Library-please return books, buddies, ***return swim lesson intent letter

Thursday Mar. 2 - Dictée (see written words in email, also see below for audio dictée)

Friday Mar. 3 - Field trip (please see email)

Mon. Mar. 6 - Author Sigmund Brouwer visits Willows at 9am

Thurs. Mar. 9 - Spelling quiz, Square Dance in the Gym at 9:50, Family Dance in the evening

Fri. Mar. 10 - Theatre presentation in the morning, Pizza/sushi lunch, Report cards sent home

Mon. Mar. 13 - Return Student-led appointment forms (given in the report card)

Wed. Mar. 15 - Student-led conferences (1pm to 5pm)

Tburs. Mar. 16 - Dictée, Student-led conferences (1pm to 5pm)

Fri. Mar. 17 - last day of school prior to Spring Break

Field Trip

Please see email.

There is room on the bus for 4 adults from my class to accompany us.  If you would like to join us please let me know ASAP (preferably by email).

Swim lessons

Late last week you will have received a letter regarding upcoming swimming lessons for Grade 3s.  Every year at Willows, the school organizes swim lessons for students during the school day.  Many years ago when my own kids were students at Willows, municipalities used to pay for Grade 3 students to learn how to swim.  Somewhere along the way the municipalities stopped to fund this initiative, but the school continued to facilitate the lessons.  Please see the letter sent home for an approximate cost of the lessons.  Participating students will not be missing any classwork as typically most, if not all, students participate.  Non-participating students will remain at Willows with another teacher and will be given activities.  Please return the bottom portion of the letter by tomorrow.

Academics

Français - recognizing and writing nouns/adjectives in the singular and plural forms, writing stories or journal entries with interesting beginnings.  Planning/writing an oral presentation.

English - reading "The Stone Fox".  Discussing similarities and differences between European and First Nations cultures.  Looking at the role of government and taxes in society, working with words with a "u" sound.

P.E. - hockey and various playground games.

Social studies - learning about Inuit culture, and starting projects.  These projects will be on display during the student-led conferences March 15/16th.

Math - addition and subtraction with regrouping.  Problem solving with addition and subtraction.

Social responsibility - For the anti-bullying day on Feb. 22, students from my class each made a poster with at least 8 tear-away tabs, each containing a compliment, in French or in English.  We placed the posters in the hallways throughout the school so other students could take a compliment with them if they needed a one.  These were a big hit with Willows students and all the tabs had disappeared by the end of the day.  

Audio dictée

Week 18 Update

Bonjour!

It's hard to believe that we only returned from the winter break two weeks ago, because we have done so much in class since then!

Firstly, let me wish everyone a Happy & Healthy New Year!

I am always excited to teach from January to March because it seems to be the most productive part of our year.  The students have matured since their grade 2 selves in the fall, have settled into routines, and are not yet distracted by warm, sunny days.

Before I forget, please check details of an upcoming field trip in the 2 most recent emails.

This is what we are working on in class:

We started the year by learning how to wish each other "Bonne Année" and how to give a good handshake, not too hard and not too soft.

French - We have just completed a unit on "les noms" (common and proper nouns), and have started to work on the concept of singular and plural.  I expect to be working on this for the next few weeks.

Last week we also started working with transition words in French such as:  d'abord, ensuite, puis, après, enfin, ...  Students practiced using transition words by writing and illustrating what they did over their winter break.

Dictée - The theme of this week's words is "skating" so the students learn French words related to our upcoming field trip.

Cursive writing - While this is no longer in our Grade 3 curriculum, I have decided to continue introducing students to cursive writing.  We will not spend much time on this but I believe that it is empowering for children to learn new skills.  I plan to chip away at the alphabet when we have 10 minutes here & there.

English - Our spelling list last week included words with the sounds "ea, e, ...".  We have also started to read a novel together called "The Stone Fox".  I have taught this story many times and it is always a favourite with students.  Not to give too much away, the story takes place in winter and involves a dog-sled race.

Social Studies - We are starting to learn about the Inuit.

Science - We held a few experiments in class this past week looking at which objects would float or sink, making predictions beforehand.  We also tested what would happen to a sugar cube when dropped into water.

Math - Counting by 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 25.  We will soon be starting to add larger numbers such as:

  235
+749
____

P.E. - hockey

Upcoming:
Monday - library checkout
Thursday - dictée, P.E.

Here's this week's audio dictée:

Week 14 Update

Bonjour!

A big thank you to everyone who volunteered in the past two weeks to make our field trips possible.  It was a nice change to be learning outside the classroom.  Both trips were a big success and it was most interesting to hear the students' views about our walk in the forest, as well as riding the city bus.  We walked quite a bit on both days, and all students remained positive throughout the day.  After our trip to the Royal BC Museum, working in groups, students shared with the class what they had learned during the trip.  I was impressed with how many details they had noticed in the Museum.

Here's a quick look at what is going on this week at school:

Monday - Busy day:  Library book exchange, P.E. with our little buddies in the morning.

In the afternoon we have our monthly assembly.  We will be receiving a trophy from the fire department for our very quiet & orderly fire drill back in October.  It was the quietest I had ever experienced.

At this assembly we will also be honouring our music/choir teacher, Gail Evans, for being named an "Outstanding Professional Educator" by the BC Music Educators Association.  We are very lucky to have such a dedicated and knowledgeable teacher at our school.

Tuesday - Choir practice in the afternoon

Wednesday - 11:52 Dismissal.  Parent/Teacher interviews from 1pm to 5pm.  Interview notices were sent home in the report card envelopes.

In the morning, my son Eric, a member of the UVic Rocketry Club, will be speaking to the class about space exploration.

Thursday - 11:52 Dismissal.  Parent/Teacher interviews from 1pm to 5pm.  Interview notices were sent home in the report card envelopes.

Friday - Choir practice in the morning

Here's a link to this week's dictée:

Week 12 Update

Bonjour!

What's going on this week:

Tuesday: choir practice

Thurday: Field trip, please see email sent for more details about Thursday's field trip and next week's field trip.  Make sure your child is wearing boots and a rain jacket.  Send along a snack which can be tucked into a pocket.

Also Thursday - dictée & gym

Agendas:
I really appreciate it when you are able to sign your child's agenda.  Thank you to those of you who can do this consistently.  Just sign in the actual school day somewhere.  So a typical week would have 5 teacher signatures, and 5 parent signatures, one for each school day.

Here's the dictée:



Bonne semaine!

Week 11 Update

Bonjour!

A fairly quiet week it seems this week.  Here's what's planned:

Monday - Library book exchange, Grade 1 buddies
Tuesday - Choir
Thursday - Dictée, Gym.  New dictée words to go home in the agenda this day also.
Friday - Pro-D, no school for students.  I will be at another school, looking forward to learn about Brain-Gym and student peer-helping activities.

- This week, we will be doing an activity where students reflect on their attributes (good qualities), skills, interests, and accomplishments (something they are proud of).

- Math - We will work more with Place Value, and learning number names in French.  If you want to help at home, practice counting by 10s in French, forwards & backwards.  Something to work on together on the drive home perhaps?

- Science - Matter:  solids, liquids, & gases

Here is this week's audio dictée:

Week 10 Update

Bonjour!

Upcoming this week:

• We will be on grounds clean-up this week, rain or shine!  Please make sure your child is dressed for cold & rainy days.
• Please send your child's labeled choir uniform to school, in a labeled bag.  (white top, black bottom)
• There will be no dictée this week.  Next dictée - week of Nov. 14th, the theme is words with an "é" sound.  You can find these in your child's agenda, in the week of Nov. 14th.  

Monday - Library book exchange.

Tuesday & Wednesday - Afternoon choir rehearsals in the gym.

Thursday - Morning Choir performance, only open to parents of children performing as part of the honour guard.  The choirs will perform the same songs (and more!) in the Christmas concerts.

Friday - Remembrance Day, school not in session.

As noted above, please make sure your child's choir uniform is labeled.  Students change in & out of their uniform in the washrooms and I'm sure you can imagine what a sea of white and black becomes of items dispersed on the floor.  Labeling your child's clothes will help us organize them quickly.

Swim Club:

The Willows after school Swim Club is in the process of accepting applications.  Permissions have been sent home with interested students.  If you would like more information, please email me and I will send a form home in your child's agenda.

Remembrance Day Posters:

On Friday we had a class discussion about what Remembrance Day means to our class community.  Students shared many stories of relatives having served abroad, or stories of war in other parts of the world.  This serves as an introductory discussion to Remembrance Day and other themes such as sacrifice, caring, and working together as a team.  Students have started to work on a Remembrance Day poster reflecting our discussions.  Interested students may wish to take part in the Royal Canadian Legion's Primary Poster Contest.  Local Legions award prizes, and local winners have a chance to win a trip to Ottawa.  If your child is interested in participating, I will send a registration form home for you to complete.

For inspiration, we also watched a short video here to see other students' Remembrance Day posters.

Other concepts we are currently studying:

Math:

We just finished a unit on Patterns, using numbers, letters, and shapes.  Some of this included skip counting, mostly by 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, and 20, either adding or subtracting.

Next week we will be starting what I feel is the most important elementary age unit, that of placement value.  Kids who understand placement value know that in a number such as 498, the 4 represents 400 and is a larger than the 9 which represents 90.  We will be using blocks and many out of textbooks activities to reinforce these concepts.

Social Studies:

We are finishing a unit on Mapping concepts, and the students are creating their own map of the Musgrave field making sure they include a title, a legend, and cardinal directions.  Last week, we snuck outside when it stopped raining for 10 minutes in the early week, and used compasses to find out where North, South, East, and West fell on the playground.  

P.E.

Students have been playing Handball, focusing on fair (and safe) play, and short passes.  

Bonne semaine à tous!