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!

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 them with your child and have your tell you how they feel they are doing, that would be most helpful. These expectations will be sent home, 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.  A list of numbers will be sent home and is also visible inside the classroom.

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.


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 Forces unit.  The students will participate in activities and experiments about what forces are and what they can make an object do.  I will have a test at the end of the unit.  A review will be sent home!

Recycling

I 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!

Learning Commons

Our class will be going to the learning commons every Tuesday afternoon, however, we will only exchange our books every two weeks.  Our learning commons visits begin this week (October 4th).  I ask that the children please return their 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.  Our first return date will be October 28th.  If they would like to keep the books that they have for more than two weeks, they can renew them, however, they should return them to do so.

Gym

Our class has gym time on Wednesday and Thursday.  Please make sure your child has both an indoor and outdoor pair of shoes that they can run in on these days. 

Homework

Homework begins this week! All the necessary information (e.g., passwords, email addresses) have been sent home already.  The homework has been shared with your child electronically.  Please follow the procedure on the Homework page of the classroom website: www.grade3pouliot.blogspot.ca.  We will have our first WWW test this Friday and will continue to do them weekly, on Fridays, unless otherwise noted.


This Friday, October 4th is our Thanksgiving Mass at school.  Our class, along with 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 Friday.  Please join us at the Mass from 10:55-11:25!

Important Dates

Friday, October 4th – Thanksgiving Mass
Friday, October 11th – PD Day (No School)
Monday, October 14th – Thanksgiving Day  (No school)
Wednesday, October 22nd – Picture Day!
Friday, October 25th – Halloween Family Fun Night
Thursday, October 31st - Halloween!

I want to thank you all for your class donations of Kleenex, baby wipes, Ziplock bags, spoons and any other donations that have been made to the class.  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 usually very active with the Twitter feed.  Thank you for a great start to a great year!

 Have a fantastic Thanksgiving!

Sincerely,
      Mr. Pouliot

How to Log in OR sign up for Prodigy

I recently asked students to sign up or log into Prodigy (an online math practice game, which children LOVE to play!). I have noticed that some students are having a little difficulty getting started with this, so I thought I would provide some more detail about how to log in. Here are the steps, I will first explain how to log in if you already have an account and you remember your username and password from last year, then I will explain how to set up a new account.

Logging in with credentials from last year:

1) go to play.prodigygame.com (please log into your browser using your ocsbstudent account - like you log into our chromebooks at school. Student accounts follow the format of firstname.lastname@ocsbstudent.ca. They should remember their passwords from last year. If not, they will have to log in at school so I can reset their password)
2) If they are signed in with their ocsbstudent account, then they should just press the "sign in with Google" button, which should log them in. Otherwise, sign in using the username and password from last year.
3) The next screen should show a button that says "New Teacher? - update". Press this button and then input our class code - BA1564 (case sensitive)
4) That's it! Now your child is ready to play Prodigy anytime, and is connected to our class.

Setting up a new account:

1) sign into your browser like we do the chromebooks at school. Student accounts follow the format of firstname.lastname@ocsbstudent.ca. They should remember their passwords from last year. If not, they will have to log in at school so I can reset their password
2) go to play.prodigygame.com
3) Press the button that says "New Student"
4) On the next screen you will be prompted for the class code. Ours is BA1564 (case sensitive).
5) Follow the steps on the remaining screens to sign up. They will provide you with a username and password at some point. Please write this in your child's agenda on the back page called "Notes". This way if there is a problem, then I can help at school.
6) Once you have your username and password, you can go through the introduction screens. Otherwise, that is it!

Thank you for your assistance in getting this set up for your child. If you have any questions, please let me know, and I will do my best to assist.

Welcome to Grade 3!

It is my pleasure to be teaching your child this year! I look forward to working closely with you and getting to know your child. You are your child's first teacher, and together we can help your child meet the provincial expectations for this year. We will be starting the year by getting to know each other, our individual strengths, interests and needs. The emphasis with students is that effort is more important than ability in achieving success and that a student's "job" is to work hard and try their best.

Please encourage your child to discuss what has gone on at school each day. Set aside 20-30 minutes for homework every night. Each week homework will consist of a reading comprehension activity, some spelling & grammar practice, and some math problems. We will not begin our homework routine until October in order to give students time to adjust to a new schedule. Homework will be written in their agenda books on Mondays and posted on this blog under "Homework" on the right hand side of the page. Homework will generally be due on Fridays, so that students have the week to complete it. This homework routine is very important. Again, homework will be posted on this blog under the "Homework" sidebar on the right, so you may check here if your child has misplaced his/her agenda.

We will be starting the year with a number of "Getting to Know You" activities. In language & religion we will start with discussing our names and their importance, writing recounts and identifying our goals for the year. Then we will begin an investigation into using technology appropriately and the importance of digital citizenship. In math, we will begin the year by investigating addition and subtraction and memorizing our basic facts! In Science this month we will be investigating forces, while in the Arts we will be focusing on music and visual arts for the first term.

This year, the Grade 3's will be using a few websites to help facilitate learning. We will be using Google Apps, Prodigy, Raz-Kids and a number of other applications to demonstrate our learning. We will keep usernames and passwords for these accounts in your child's agenda. A form for the Acceptable Use of Technology is being sent home the first day of school, so please sign and return it as soon as possible. Students may use technology (when available) to complete many of their assignments in class, and certainly for homework.

For now, please follow our class Twitter account at @MrPouliot. We will be tweeting regularly to update everyone on our learning journey. You can also follow this feed by subscribing to our classroom blog at this address: https://grade3pouliot.blogspot.com. I will be updating the blog monthly to let parents know what we will be doing. Twitter will be used to show daily activities and celebrate learning.

Finally, I would like to invite any parent who is interested in getting involved in our class to contact me at the school The more the merrier, and extra hands are ALWAYS welcome!

Yours,

Mr. Pouliot