Adventures With Mrs. Craig

Tomorrow will be our first Pillars of Care celebration, starting at 830am. Monday is orange shirt day. Please visit  http://www.orangeshirtday.org/  with your child to see why this day is so important. We started talking about the day today and will continue tomorrow. On Monday we will go for a small community walk to show off our orange shirts. Today we wondered and wrote down ideas and facts about the question, 'What is Science?' So many great ideas by everyone! Ask your child how they contributed to this great conversation. In Math today we learned about: greater than, less than, and equal to. They all understood this math concept with ease, and some needed challenge questions! We had a great time with out kinder buddies today. Mrs. Wu and I finalized their buddy for the year. This way they can really get to know each other and hopefully form a special friendship! See you tomorrow.

Two days ago it was the first day of Fall! We spent some time yesterday writing about Fall. We used our previous Science knowledge and wrote using our 5 senses. Ask your child what 2 things they wrote under each. In Science we are also looking at the changes in our environment outside and asking what animals do in Fall? We learned about migration and hibernation! Everyone had so many great questions! We started our class novel today! The story "Matilda" by Roald Dahl seems to already intrigue all ears! We will be journaling about this novel as we go. In Math we worked on EVEN AND ODD numbers. Ask them about 'Odd Todd' and 'Even Steven.' We went on a nature walk yesterday to see the changes in our community. They collected leaves that have already fallen. We made an alphabet display with them! Ask your child why leaves change colour and why they fall off the trees? It isn't so simple! Congratulations to our Pillars of Care winners! Please don

We started off our day doing Ignite! Ask your child what they participated in. We met someone new in the school today! Mrs. Harmony! Ask your child what she spoke to them about and the book she read. We will be doing our Terry Fox run tomorrow (due to snow on Friday!). Please dress for the weather. In Math we learned about rounding numbers to the nearest 10's. Spelling words. Your child will know what group they are in. We will have a spelling test on Friday. I will create more groups (if necessary) or switch people in different groups, as I learn my students needs throughout the next couple of weeks. Please study these words at home! Red: me, she, to, he, at Green: bring, drink, cut, see, down Blue: together, Canadian, myself, belonging, carrying

We created a class tree today and made 'dots' to go with it! This idea was inspired after reading the book "The Dot". We are continuing to learn about how to write a 'perfect sentence.' They corrected 10 sentences with errors in them today. In Social Studies we labeled and coloured a Canadian map. We also learned important facts about Canada and started a booklet. I look forward to meeting parents tomorrow evening!

We had a very busy Tuesday! Tuesday is library day for us so please make sure your child has their book back by Monday. Most students remembered this. This morning I read the book 'Wonder.' Ask your child what the main learning points of this book is. In Math we started 'number detectives'. They started with the number 20. They have to answer 10 questions around the number 20. After lunch we started Social Studies! In grade 3 we are going to learn about 4 different countries: India, Peru, Tunisia and Ukraine. I think it is important that we start with facts about Canada first. Ask them what they learned as they created an amazing poster with a partner! We will finish these off tomorrow. After gym they earned free time after working hard all day!

This morning we learned about different elements of a story such as; beginning, middle and end. I read the story "Chrysanthemum" to break apart a story. They then wrote 3 small paragraphs on the beginning, middle and end. Ask your child about each part. In Math we counted the letters of our name and answered the question, 'how many more letter do you need to make 10?' We also focused on expanded form with different numbers and recognizing the ones, tens, hundreds and even thousands. In the afternoon they pushed through a long spelling quiz. This quiz lets me know where they are at with their spelling. I will be starting their spelling groups next week! Have a great evening! PD day on Friday.

We did a type of drawing called 'Zentangle' this morning. Ask your child what it means. What is EXPANDED FORM? With a little lesson, room 13 showed me that they really understood expanding numbers. They answered 8 questions and some even had challenge questions. We have been working hard to understand the Pillars of Care. They have done writing and creating around this topic. You will see this next Thursday during "meet the teacher.' We had our first fire drill practice today. Tonight you should be getting an instruction sheet for how to register for Meet the Teacher night on September 19. Please note that these are not individual sessions.  This will be an overview of Grade 3, with a chance to ask questions about the program, including field trips, and topics of study. I do hope that there will be time on this evening to meet most of you face to face. Have a great weekend! Scholastic book orders due Tuesday September 17 Demographic papers all due Digital c

Our favourite part of school and learning so far: Jennifer - "I like writing about our family." Aleksa - "I like Math bingo!" Ben - "I liked quiet reading" Liam - "I like Math" Conner - "I like gym" Yiting - "I like buddies with kindergarten kids" Cynthea - "I like buddies and gym outside learning the new games" Jonah - "That we do lots of fun things!" Kimowan - "I like buddies and painting" Aiden T. - "I like buddies a lot!" Aidan S. - "I like writing about Queen, buddies and gym!" Hayla - "I like the art and crafts and I also like gym outside!" Thomas - "I like Ignite!" Tiamat - "I like Ignite and reading buddies!" Aya - "Ignite." Elyse - "Ignite" Floyd - "Gym and Ignite" Maeda -"Ignite." Ask me: What is IGNITE? How many ways can you represent the number 10? See y

Yesterday room 13 seemed to really enjoy hosting (pretending) a dinner party. They had to create an invitation and they could invite anyone! In the letter they asked 3-4 questions and described the theme and food they would serve. Ask your child about their dinner party. In Math we have been focusing on graphing and mental math strategies for addition and subtraction. We created a chart together "What is Math?" They came up with many jobs that need Math and life skills where Math is needed. In writing we have also been learning how to write a 'perfect sentence using neat printing, spaces, capitals and periods. In the afternoon, in groups of 2, they created Pillars for our bulletin board. Ask your child: What is the 5th pillar? What are ways to deal with stress? What do you like to write about?

This morning I read the story, "Invisible Boy." Ask your child what the story was about and how the author used colour to represent the emotions of the characters. We talked about taking care of everyone in our class and making sure that everyone feels safe and cared for at school.  In Math, the printed their numbers too 100 and learned 2 new Math games!  In literacy, they wrote 4-5 sentences about themselves and their family. We also made a poster about 'Belonging.' See you tomorrow for more learning and our first library visit! 

We had our first assembly today. It was around our new pillar. Each month there will be a different pillar. This month it is "belonging." Room 13 really showed their understanding of belonging by including everyone and showing kindness inside and outside the classroom. We enjoyed our Math lesson today on graphing. Ask your child what we graphed and what we concluded from the information we collected. They had 'free topic' writing time. Many students chose to write stories, others wrote about their interests and what they did during the summer. Ask your child what an adjective is. They each came up with an adjective that represents them. Remember to read every day at home. Even 10 minutes makes all of the difference! Have a great weekend and I look forward to more learning next week!

This morning we talked about personal space and respecting other people's 'bubble.' They created name tags for their coat hooks in order to help with space during transition times. We really enjoyed our task cards today on different situations that can and will happen in our classroom. Each group acted out their scenario and discussed the best reaction to the problem. Ask your child what their task card said. They painted self portraits today with unique patterned backgrounds! I will have these up for 'meet the teacher' night! Ask your child about their first music class.

We had a fantastic first day of grade 3! With a few reminders, everyone was respectful and ready to learn. We started off the day reading the book "Classroom Jitters." Ask your child what happened at the end of the book! Who did the main character end up being? Please take the time to read your child's letter they wrote to you. In there you will find some details about what we did today. Please make sure your child comes to school with a healthy snack so we can eat in the classroom. Recess is only 10 minutes long and I want them to be active and play during that time. Indoor shoes without laces (unless they can independently tie their own!). You may send your child with a water bottle and a pencil case to keep at school too. Your child's take home folder is in their backpack. Forms are due by Friday. We will be painting tomorrow!