What's Happening in October!

October Newsletter

Dear Parents,

It’s hard to believe that it is already the beginning of October! September flew by so quickly. We have had a great start to the school year. We have a wonderful group of children in our class and I am looking forward to a great year of learning and fun! Because I communicate frequently via Twitter, I will try to be brief with my newsletters - mostly to let you know what our plan for the upcoming month is. I will use Twitter to inform you of what we do daily and any important upcoming events. There is also a Twitter feed on the right side of this blog if you prefer to follow my feed here!

Learning Skills

For the Progress Report, which goes home in early November, the two learning skills that we will focus on are Collaboration and Responsibility. The expectations for these skills will be discussed in class. Below are the expectations that these skills entail. If you could talk about these with your child and have them tell you how they feel they are doing, that would be most helpful. These expectations will be discussed in class and will also be visible in the classroom.

Collaboration:

-I do my job and help others.
-I volunteer to do different jobs in the class.
-I use kind words.
-I listen to others when they share ideas, even if I don’t agree.
-I invite others to be part of my group.
-I play fairly and let everyone have a turn.
-I include others during play.
-I mind my own concerns when things don’t involve me.
-I don’t tattle.
-I keep my hands, feet and body to myself.
-I try to solve problems that arise, and use my words to do so.
-I ask for help if I can’t solve a problem.

Responsibility:

-I line up quietly when the bell rings.
-I do not take or touch things that do not belong to me unless I have asked to use them.
-I take care of my things and the class.
-I keep my space clean and organized.
-I admit when I have done something wrong.
-I stay on task even when the teacher isn’t looking.
-I do what I am supposed to do when I am supposed to do it.
-I look at what everybody else is doing if I am unsure of the given direction or task.
-I speak politely to my classmates and teachers.
-I know what to do when I need help.
-I come to class prepared with everything I need for the day.
-I complete and submit homework assignments on time.
-I am respectful when there is a guest teacher.

Math

The strand in Math that we have been covering through September and that we will continue into October is Number Sense and Numeration. The expectations for this strand are the following:

-represent, compare and order whole numbers to 1000 using a variety of tools
-read and print words, whole numbers to 100
-read, identify and represent the value of a digit in a number according to its position in the number
-compose and decompose 3-digit numbers into hundreds, tens and ones
-skip counting
-adding and subtracting 3-digit numbers

I have been observing the kids in class to see how they are doing and will continue to assess their number sense knowledge through observations and "check-ins". Because number sense is such an important part of Mathematics, we will continue to touch on it throughout the whole year, even if it is not our main focus at the time. One of the expectations for grade three in number sense is: “read and print in words, whole numbers to 100”. Please have your child practise reading and printing these numbers at home.



Language

Our focus right now in writing is Recount writing. The kids have really enjoyed writing about special memories. We have begun to discuss paragraph writing and will continue to do so this term. We have also practised writing simple and complex sentences that make sense using proper grammar, vocabulary, spelling and punctuation. For reading, we will be focusing on strategies that help us to better comprehend what we are reading such as making connections, inferences and predictions to texts that are read in class. A big focus for reading this year is displaying comprehension through answers to questions about the text, in writing. The children will learn to ensure that they have given enough detail from the text, and enough of their own ideas, to support their answers and demonstrate their knowledge and understanding of what the given text is about.

Wonder

This term, the Grade Three classes are going to read the book Wonder. It will be done as a read aloud in class and the children will complete activities that reinforce the reading strategies that we will be teaching (inferences, visualization and making connections among others). I am sure many of you have heard of this book or have seen the movie. It is a fascinating fictional story written by R.J. Palacio. It is about a little boy who was born with a facial difference who is attending school for the first time. He had been homeschooled until now (Grade 5). He has many ups and downs in his journey. His story has many meaningful reminders for children of how important it is to treat others kindly.

Religion

We continue to participate in discussions and activities in regard to Samaritans on the Digital Road - This program is done throughout the board, at every grade level, to engage students in learning about participating in the digital world in a proactive, responsible and compassionate manner.

Science

We have begun with our Strong and Stable Structures unit. The students will continue to participate in activities and experiments about what makes a structure strong and stable and how and why they are designed in this manner.

Recycling

I will continue to ask the children to bring home any recyclable containers with food remaining inside to be recycled at home. The children can ask me for a Ziplock bag if they need one, to bring home their containers in. Everything else such as food and paper can be recycled at school. Thank you again for your help with this process!

The Grade Three team has taken on the recycling program at St. Anne this year. One recess per week, the children have been collecting all of the recycling (blue, black and compost bins) around the school. They have been having a great time with it!

Learning Commons

Our class will be going to the learning commons every Tuesday morning, however, we will only exchange our books every two weeks. Our learning commons visits should begin in the next week or so. I ask that the children please return both books on the Monday before book exchange so that we can ensure all books are brought back to the learning commons on time and that the children are able to take out new books. If they would like to keep the books that they have for more than two weeks, they can renew them, however, they need to return them to do so.

Gym

Our class has gym time on Monday and Wednesday. Please make sure your child has both an indoor and outdoor pair of shoes that they can run in on these days. We will be trying to do outdoor gym as often as possible until the weather becomes too cold!

Homework

We have begun our homework program for language already. I will be sending home the weekly spelling words on Fridays, and the sheet that goes along with them is due back on the following Friday. We will have weekly spelling quizzes on Fridays. Please assist your child in reviewing his/her spelling words if possible. Additionally, students have been asked to complete 1 Raz-Kids story each week. This means they must listen to the story, read the story, and then complete the quiz. If students choose to complete more than one story throughout the week, they are more than welcome to do so. I may have to reward them with some Class Dojo points if they do some extra reading!

Our math homework program will begin this week! All of the assigned homework questions are in a Google Slides presentation, which you can find on the blog, or here: 

October Math Homework

The homework is outlined for the entire month of October, but is broken down by week. The first week's homework is due Thursday, October 4th - because of the long weekend. It will normally be due Fridays.



Mass

This Thursday, October 4th is our Thanksgiving Mass at school. Our class, along with a the other Grade Three classes are in charge of the planning. We ask that your child wear a white (light) top with black (dark) bottoms on Thursday. Please join us at the Mass from 10:50-11:50!


Important dates

Thursday, October 4th – Thanksgiving Mass
Friday, October 5th – PD Day (No School)
Monday, October 8th – Thanksgiving Day (No school)
Wednesday, October 24th – Picture Day!
Friday, October 26th – Halloween Family Fun Night


I want to thank you all for your class donations of Kleenex, baby wipes, Ziplock bags and spoons. Please don’t hesitate to contact me if you have any questions and please continue to peek at our class website daily as I am trying to be very active with the Twitter feed. Thank you for a great start to a great year!

Have a fantastic Thanksgiving weekend!

Mr. Pouliot