Week 8 Update

 Dear Parents,

What a fun week! Our Halloween Spirit Week was fun and we did a number of activities to celebrate the event. It is such a different Halloween this year, so we wanted to do as much as possible to make it a fun time for the children.

In Language, we did some Halloween reading in Readworks, and did an EQAO sample as well. We will be looking at examples of reading responses next week, so that students can work to “bump up” their answers and improve their ability to respond to short answer questions when reading. This is a difficult skill for many students at this age, and it is one we work on the entire year. The most important thing we try to teach students is to 1) Restate the question in their answer, 2) give their own opinion (or general answer), 3) give 2 or more examples directly from the text and 4) make a connection if possible. Students often struggle to provide all of that detail! It is a skill that we teach throughout the year. 

In writing, we learned about writing procedural text (instructions, recipes, etc). We started with a teacher led model, so that students would see how a procedural text is written. We wrote the text for the pumpkin that we carved last week (which melted over the weekend! We did another one…), and posted it as a model on the bulletin board so students can look at it when they are writing their own. On Thursday, we learned about how to roast pumpkin seeds and then developed an organizer all together. Once the organizer was complete, students were asked to write their own procedural text about how to roast pumpkin seeds. In general, students had some difficulty organizing the text on the page so that the instructions were clear. I reminded them to look at the anchor chart sample that we had on the bulletin board to assist them. We will continue to work on this form of writing next week, and then will begin learning about writing a narrative, or a short fiction story. 

In math, we have begun learning about adding and subtracting numbers less than 100, using both mental math strategies (doing it in your head), manipulatives (blocks), and the standard method. So far, we have only focused on mental math strategies. This is a very important skill for students to develop their sense of adding and subtracting, so we will be working on this over the next couple of weeks. When we use mental math strategies, I ask students to try to find a “friendly number” (usually a multiple of ten) to help them. For example, if we are adding 34 +48, I would ask students to make one of the numbers a multiple of ten. In this case, I might choose to add 2 to 48 to get it to 50. If I add 2 to 48, then I have to take away 2 from 34 to balance it out. So in my head, I would add 32 + 50, which is way easier, it equals 82! 

It works differently when subtracting. If I wanted to find 67-23, then I would have to add or take away the same amount from both in order to get to the closest ten. In this example, I would take away 3 from 23 to make 20. If I take away 3, from 23, then I also have to take away 3 from 67 to balance it out. So….it now becomes 64-20, which is easier to figure out. The answer would b 44. As you can imagine, this is very difficult for many children, and so we will be practicing for much of next week. One thing that I often have them chant to help them remember is “Addition is the opposite, ssssubtraction is the sssssame”. 

In science, we continued learned about strong and stable structures by learning about the different types of bridges (Arch, Beam, Truss, Suspension, Cable-Stayed), and we began building our own out of popsicle sticks and glue. We will be having a little contest next week to see how much eight they can hold! I hope students will enjoy this. 

I hope all is going well with the structures projects at home. If you have any questions, please feel free to reach out to me. A reminder that they are due on November 9th. We will be doing the presentations that week, and will have our final structures test that week as well. I will send home some study notes next week so that you can assist your child in studying for the test. 

In addition to all of this, we carved a new pumpkin on Thursday, and melted crayons on it to make “hair”. The students seemed to enjoy this. We also watched a little movie during 4th block on Friday as a little Halloween treat. 

As I mentioned in last week’s update, I will be sending the assessment folders home on Monday so that you can get a small glimpse of your child’s progress so far this year. I don’t rely solely on their marks for the progress report, as this year is a very different one, so I also rely on my own observations of their daily work as well. When it comes to report card time, where there is an actual letter grade for each subject, then I rely on their assessment folders much more for their marks. Thus, if you see your child getting a lot of Level 3’s, you can guess that they will have a mark in the “B” range on their report card. If they have a lot of level 2’s, it would mean they would likely get “C’s”, and so on. Once again, if you ever have concerns or questions about your child’s progress, please reach out to me. If I have serious concerns, then I will always reach out to you. 

Here are some pictures from the week. Hope you enjoy!

https://photos.app.goo.gl/A9Uv1b2owkqzeTgFA

I hope you have a  wonderful Halloween and a restful weekend. Take good care!

Yours,

Chris Pouliot

Week 7 Update

 Dear Parents,

Wow! This was a busy week. We covered a lot in all of our subjects. In language, we began learning about visualizing when reading, and writing procedural text. In math we finished our unit about 3D shapes and had a small assessment on Thursday and Friday. In science, we continue to work on our structures unit and this week we learned about how to alter the strength of materials by changing their shape.

In language we read  an old EQAO story called "Building Nests is for the Birds". We talked about how to answer short response questions by using the method linked here, and how to highlight important information by first reading the questions that we needed to answer. In writing we began learning about what procedural text is and its main features. We developed our understanding of this type of text by identifying the steps to carve a Halloween pumpkin and then filling out a graphic organizer to help us plan our writing about it. We carved a pumpkin (I had some of the students draw the face on it) for the Halloween Spirit Week next week and will be further decorating it next week just for fun. 

In math, we finished up our 3D shapes unit. We had a short assessment of this unit, both on paper and using Prodigy. In class we use a program called MathUp, which is very language based, while Prodigy relies heavily on multiple choice, so using both programs gives me a good overall picture of a student’s understanding. Our next unit will be addition and subtraction of numbers less than 100. In this unit we will be learning how to add and subtract in a variety of ways including mental math and the standard algorithm.

In science we learned about altering the strength of materials by changing their shape. We built a bridge out of books and paper and then tested the paper bridge to see if it would hold anything. We found out that it would not. Then we folded in half to see if thicker paper would hold, but it also would not. Finally we folded the paper in an accordion style so that it had many triangular shapes and found that this  shape could hold quite a lot of weight.

Next week is the st. Anne Halloween Spirit Week! Please see the poster below for the events for each day.

Finally, progress reports will be coming home on November 9th. I am currently in the process of working on them and will be sending home an assessment folder with a number of samples of your child's work, mostly in math and language. I will send it home on November 2nd. Please look at each item in the folder and sign it so I know that you have seen it.  Please return your child's folder by November 6th. . 

As always, I thank you for your support and if you ever have any questions about your child's progress please feel free to contact me.

Yours,

Chris Pouliot

Week 6 Update

 October 16, 2020

Dear Parents,

For a short week, we accomplished quite a lot! This week, we began learning about the reading skill of visualizing, learning about 3D shapes in math, and made some structures (you may have seen these come home) in science. 

In language, we began learning about visualizing when we read. This simply means trying to “see” what we are reading. Kind of like watching a movie in your head as you read. This is much easier with fiction than with nonfiction, but is definitely a skill that can be used for both types of text. Here is a short video we watched that explains what visualizing is. 

In writing, we started our final written piece for descriptive writing. For this piece, I asked students to imagine that they had gone to heaven. They were then asked to describe what Heaven or God might be like. As always with descriptive writing, we encourage students to describe using vivid adjectives, big grade 3 sentences (using joining words) and using all the 5 senses. Our next form of writing will be procedural writing. This form of writing is essentially giving instructions. Great examples of procedural text are things like cookbooks (recipes) and instruction manuals. We only touch on this form lightly in grade 3, so we will likely only be doing a few samples of procedural writing. Next week, we will write about how to carve a pumpkin! At home, you can help your child practice reading procedural texts by looking at things like recipes, or having them assist you with a recipe, if you wish. 

In math, we are learning about 3D shapes. This week we built some 3D shapes using toothpicks and marshmallows, and then we investigated all the properties of those shapes such as how many faces, edges and vertices they each had. One thing that I try to emphasize is the difference between pyramids and prisms. I tell students that pyramids are always named by the shape at the bottom, and they always come to a point. Also, they are joined by congruent triangles. So, a pyramid with a pentagon at the bottom would be called a pentagonal pyramid, and would have 5 congruent triangles coming to a point at the top. A Prism, on the other hand, is also defined by the bases BUT there are 2 of them, and they are exactly the same at each end. The two shapes at the ends are always connected by rectangles. Children often have difficulty identifying the differences between the two types of 3D shapes, so we will have been practicing this quite a bit this week, and will continue next week as well. Here are some photos of the shapes we built in class:

In Science, we are continuing to learn about structures. Next week we will be sending home a project about researching a famous structure. This project will be completed at home, but students will do an oral presentation at school. I will send more details next week. 

This week, we learned about how to make structures stronger by using triangles to stiffen shapes. First we made a cube out of straws and tape, and put some books on one that I made. Mine only held 5 books! I then asked students to try to strengthen their own structures to see if they could beat mine. Students did an amazing job! After students reinforced their structures, we tested a few, and found that a number of the cubes were now able to hold 40 books! They probably could have held more, but they were getting too tippy at that point. Amazing! Here are some photos of our cubes:

Finally, in Health we began learning about healthy eating by learning about where our food comes from and the difference between processed and unprocessed foods. 

I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. As always, if you have any questions or would like to discuss your child’s progress, please feel free to contact me any time. 

Yours,

Chris Pouliot

Week 5 Update

 Dear Parents,

The seasons are definitely changing! There were a number of rainy days this week. Please feel free to send your child with rainboots if you wish on rainy or wet days. 

We worked hard this week, and finished quite a lot of projects. First, in writing we finished our pop rocks writing that we began last week by eating some pop rocks to see how they looked, felt, tasted, smelled and sounded. We used a graphic organizer to write a sentence for each of the senses, and then wrote a rough draft of a descriptive paragraph. Afterwards, we looked at some examples that I created and decided on what grade we might give them. We talked about how we could “Bump Up” from one grade to another. Then students self assessed their work and tried to “Bump Up” their own writing. They did a great job! 

In reading, we are working on reading with fluency, answering multiple choice questions by looking at the evidence in the text, and writing written responses using evidence from the text. Here is a link to a slidedeck that I use to explain to students how to answer written questions:

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1-8JxInA0MUof7dKeHlDvB_PVORsHd6E5PjpSzjhH94w/edit?usp=sharing

In math, we have been learning about 2D geometry, of which there are not many expectations in the new grade 3 math curriculum. I felt that it was important for students to have some background in this area however, before we attempted 3D geometry, because the faces of 3D shapes are made up of 2D shapes. The background knowledge will help students when we get there next week. This week, we learned about sorting 2D shapes, identifying the attributes of quadrilaterals (ex. A parallelogram has 2 pairs of parallel sides, a rectangle is a parallelogram with all right angles, etc.), and congruence. We also learned that shapes can be made from putting other shapes together (we did this using pattern blocks in class). For example, I can make a hexagon by using 2 trapezoids, or by using 6 triangles, etc. We also practiced these concepts in Prodigy. 

In science, we did an experiment in which we learned how to make a structure more stable. We learned that we can make it more stable by: adding weight to the base, making the base wider, or fastening the base to the ground in some way. We also began an experiment called the “Straw Structure Experiment”, in which we will learn how to strengthen a structure by adding support to it. We will finish this next week. Here are the cubes we made so far:

Finally, in Health we talked a little about the Pandemic and Covid, and watched a few videos that helped clear up any misconceptions. The students had many questions, and we had quite a discussion about it (along with a few comments about President Trump!). Here is a link to one of the videos we watched: https://youtu.be/XUMScnrK63o

Thank you to all families who were able to send canned food items for our Hunger Heroes Canned Food Drive this year. These items will greatly help the Kanata Food Cupboard. Thank you. 

Next week, we will be learning about visualizing in reading, 3D shapes in math, and continuing to learn about structures in science. In health, we will begin talking about making healthy food choices. 

I would like to wish everyone a Happy Thanksgiving. I hope you all have a wonderful weekend. I personally feel quite thankful for such a wonderful group of students and community to work with. 

Happy Thanksgiving,

Mr. Pouliot

Week 4 Update

 October 2, 2020

Dear Parents,

It was nice to see you on Wednesday for the Virtual Meet the Teacher night. I hope I didn’t go too fast through the information. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me. 

Brace yourself - this is a longer weekly update than normal!

Here is what we covered this week:

Language:

We finished the Ryan’s Well EQAO reading sample and answered the short response questions. This is a really challenging area for most students. They often have the correct answers, but have great difficulty expressing their understanding in writing. This is something we will continue to work throughout the year. Here is a link that helps to explain how to effectively answer a short response question. It is also in this upcoming week’s workspace. 

https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/11H9wrqfZXZMEta4EaI_IKq8CV_zTz2pWAf127ImsBkw/edit?usp=sharing

We also began writing about our mystery gifts, which turned out to be Poprocks! We had the students eat the poprocks and then write down what they tasted like, felt like, smelled like, etc. On Thursday and Friday, we wrote a descriptive paragraph about them. We introduced similes and are encouraging students to use them in their writing as well. For example: “The pop rocks exploded in my mouth like a strawberry bomb”. We will continue writing next week with a description of a winter wonderland. Hopefully a “winter wonderland” doesn’t come too soon this year!

At home, you can help your child to develop his/her descriptive skills, by encouraging them to use descriptive adjectives when they are speaking and try to use similes. For example, if your child is telling you about a character in a show, rather than saying, “the character was weird”, you might encourage them to try to describe the character using more detail - eventually getting to something like “the character had long, scraggly hair that looked like a bird’s nest, and his clothes looked like a wrinkly bedsheet.”

Math:

In math, we finished up Patterning and had a small assessment on Wednesday, and then played Plickers on Friday for a little more of a fun assessment. We began learning about 2D shapes with a sorting activity that we will finish on Monday. 

Next week, we are going to be learning about 2D shapes. We will be learning how to sort them using Venn diagrams, we will identify the characteristics of a variety of 2D shapes and will learn how to compose and decompose 2D shapes. 

This will all be on the workspace (with some helpful videos) next week. Again, the workspace is only to be used if your child is absent. We are following the workspace during the week in class. This should help your child keep up with the class should he/she have to be away for a few days. 

Science:

Our first unit in science is about Strong and Stable Structures. We have just begun to learn about what a structure is, and what the words, strong and stable mean. Next week, we will be learning about natural and manmade structures, and doing an experiment about how to make a structure more stable by adding more mass to the base. We will also begin to think about other ways we could change the base to make it more stable. 

Homework:

Below is the link for this week’s homework, just so you can see it. I will also post it on a workspace specifically for Homework. The easiest way to complete the homework is to do it on the google doc, and then submit the doc in Hapara when it is finished. I will show students the workspace and how to use it so they can access it. 

Homework will begin this week, October 5th.  

Unless otherwise noted, homework will be shared electronically on a weekly basis. It will be shared on Fridays and will be due the following Friday. To access the homework, students will need to sign into a computer using the Chrome browser, using their school login. School logins all follow the same pattern: firstname.lastname@ocsbstudent.ca. Then they input their password. Students have been using the chromebooks in class, and they all know how to log in. Once they log into the computer, they should go to the St. Anne Website. 

From here, they will go to the "Student Portal".  Once they click on this portal, they will see a purple icon called "Hapara" (Workspace and Student Dashboard).  They will click this icon.  It is here that they may need their email address and password to log in again - usually only the first time they access it from home.  Once they do so, they will see a workspace called: Homework Workspace for 3A 2020-2021.

Here is a video that explains how to access the Hapara workspaces in general: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KE7lDTMtHQqJrgh9fQ2zGMMwKTBrBzIN/view

I will post all of the weekly homework assignments on this workspace.  They will be dated accordingly.

Your child can log in and out as many times as needed.  If I would like something printed out and sent to me, I will note that on the homework sheet. For example, there may be math problems in which I would like to see your child's work and/or thinking process - how they solved the problem. This would be easier to do with paper and pencil. In this case, I will ask that your child send their finished work to school.

When your child finishes the homework for that week, all they have to do is remember to press "SUBMIT".  This will let me know that they have completed the homework and that I can go ahead and look it over.

The homework that will be sent home each week is a review of the different learning goals the children are/will be practising at school, and some concepts that we may not have a chance to practise. I would encourage students to complete their homework, but as I said at the Meet the Teacher meeting, it is not going to be formally assessed, and is more for practice than anything else. It is a good life skill, and shows responsibility. If you are unable to complete it, or can only complete parts of it in a week, that is fine. A note in the agenda to let me know would be helpful. Thank you!

As well, for homework, I am asking that your child reads for about 20 minutes each night. Whatever they are happiest reading is perfect. 

They will have a short spelling quiz on Fridays with the Word Wall Words that are on the homework sheet. The Word Wall Words will also be posted on this website under "Word Wall Words". Three or four number words will be added to the Word Wall Words, as one of the curriculum expectations for Grade Three Math is: "read and print in words, whole numbers to 100".

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.

Here is the link for this week’s homework. Please have your child access it through Hapara when they work on it, or print it and send it in. 

Thank you again for all your support. Have a great weekend!

Yours,

Chris Pouliot