Adventures With Mrs. Craig

 This afternoon we painted winter trees! We can't wait to replace the Fall trees with these.  We have been working hard on showing kindness in our classroom. This year we spend much more time together as a class and sometimes/all the time it will take patience and understanding. Today we created a kindness door in our classroom. Each student decorated an envelope. At the end of each day we will give a compliment to one student and place it in their envelope. They will take these home so ask to see them! Tomorrow we will finally do our contraction spelling words test! 

 In Science we are starting a new unit, Animal Life Cycles. Yesterday we talked about the different 'super powers' animals have to protect themselves. They then completed a journal entry titled "If I were An Animal..." Ask your child what animal they wrote about and why.  They completed a 3 part flap book based off of a fairytale. It included: first, next, last. There were clear characters, setting and a problem. We also talked about how readers need visuals from either pictures of descriptive words. We listened and read together the poem "Wynken, Blynken and Nod" for a great example of visualization in text.  We continue to learn Multiplication through drawing arrays. Today they completed a booklet that had cutting and pasting different arrays in categories of multiplying.  Our Pillars of Care this month was Respect. We went over the meaning of Respect. We made a poster together of what respect is and what it is not.  In Social Studies we talked about what

 This week we will continue with the same contraction spelling words as last week.  In Social Studies we read about "Alberta's Fossil Heritage." They learned that fossils are remains of the past. They give us hints about what Alberta was like millions of years ago.  In Language Arts we started our 3 part stories. Ask your child what their story is about and what problem they decided on. They are making flip books with their ideas.  We are continuing with multiplication strategies in Math. Today they worked on showing a diagram, addition sentence, grouping and the multiplication sentence.  I really enjoyed speaking to all of the parents. If you were unable to connect with me, please send me an email and we can find a time that works. 

 Today they created hot air balloons out of paper! They turned out great and we are excited to hang them in our classroom. They are excited to show you this craft at home. We will be doing writing around these creations tomorrow.  Today we started a new unit in Math: Multiplication! This is my favourite one to teach. We started with understanding that Multiplication means EQUAL groupings. Our first strategy we learned was repeated addition and drawing pictures of equal groups.  For example: 2+2+2 is the same thing as 3 cookies with 2 chocolate chips in them each (2x3=6). We learned to use skip counting as a strategy: 2,4,6. We also learned a song to help us.  Have a great evening and stay warm! 

In the morning we worked in pairs and read a Fairy Tale story, each taking turns and listening to one another. After reading the story, they completed a 6 part chart. They drew pictures and wrote sentences about the different elements the story had. They worked very hard through this. Ask your child what story they read. Mrs. Craig read a South African story called "The Three Little Rhinos" and we also listened to "The True Story of The Big Bad Wolf." They are getting ready to recreate a famous tale in their own words.  In Social Studies they learned about the Rocky Mountain Region of Alberta.  Ask them:  Why do people visit this region? What animals are in this region? What are some key landforms? We looked at some majestic photographs of The Rocky Mountain Region.  In Math today, they worked with a number puzzle to solve clues. Ask them for more details and to maybe give you one to solve!  Thursday evening and Friday are parent teacher interviews (online). I look

What are the most important "Elements of a Story'? This is what our morning discussion was based on. From this, we each created a poster as a 'cheat sheet' for the back of our journals.  It included: characters, problem, theme, setting, solution and plot. This began our discussion around Fairytales. I read them "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs." We could easily find the different elements in this story.  On computers they practiced their spelling words through using 'word document.'  In the afternoon they collected data with using a dice. With this data, they created bar graphs.  What is noise pollution and how does it affect living things? We each made a K.W.L chart in our Science book. Ask your child what they learned.  We started compliments last week. Each student gives another child a compliment. They really seem to enjoy this, as they practice giving and receiving kind comments.  Spelling words- Working with contractions: Red: she's, I'm

 In Math today we worked on skip counting and number patterns. We created mazes for different characters to work through skip counting by 2's, 5's and 10's. Grade 3's worked on number formation, as I am seeing quite a few numbers not facing the right direction.  To start our morning we had 'free writing' time with quiet music playing. They were all very focused and some wrote as many as 6 pages!  To end the day, we did a guided sketch of a bearded dragon (on our birthday kid's request!)  We will be having our spelling test tomorrow. Please remember to study your words tonight!  Thank you to those people who have been sending me pictures of interesting things at home or activities. We will be sharing these photos every Friday. 

 Please go on our school website and click on 'watch video' on the right hand side. Room 13 show cased their art and read a poem. It might be a nice idea to watch this tomorrow at 1035 (in order to get the moment of silence at 11am)  https://school.cbe.ab.ca/school/BeddingtonHeights/Pages/default.aspx BHS is participating the Mayor's Annual Christmas Food Drive!  It will be beginning Nov 24th and run till Dec 11th.  We will have a donations box setup too.  Please try to help those in need by bringing in any nonperishable food items or a monetary donation.   Thank you for instilling the value of caring for others with your children and families during this holiday season.  See you Thursday!

 Today in Math we had a pop quiz! This quiz was on rounding numbers. They practiced rounding to the nearest 10 and 100. They also had to list numbers that had digits less 5 and more than 5 (in the tens place). They also worked on less than, more than and equal to with comparing hundred blocks, rods and cubes.  As a class we created a K.W.L chart (know, want to know, learned) on Remembrance Day. Ask your child what they added to our poster.  Tomorrow we will be having an in-class assembly. If possible, please wear a poppy.  Wednesday is a day off for Remembrance Day.  If your child is away, please remember to access our Google Classroom.  Spelling words:  Red: day, play, say, may, clay Blue: remember, research, text, fiction, study Green: Remembrance, mindfulness, hydration, communication, respectfulness Remember! If your child has a picture they want to share to the class, to just email it to me! Thanks Adrian, we loved seeing a picture of your new puppy.   

 Please have a look at your child's poem and writing assignment they completed today. Copying this poem took a lot of focus and hard work!  We did complete our spelling test today! I will hand them back on Monday.  I hope you have a great weekend! Remember Wednesday, next week, is no school for Remembrance day! 

 To start off our morning we used a writing prompt from the board "In your journal, tell me about the time you lost your first tooth." This is always fun to read and writing about, because we all seem to remember that big day! Ask your child if they could remember their story from beginning, middle to end.  In Math we worked on double digit addition and subtraction with borrowing and carrying. Subtraction with borrowing is quite tricky - ask them to show you their strategy at home.  In the afternoon we created 2 goals: a math goal and a literacy goal. For each we came up with 2 strategies to get to that goal. Afterwards, we added these to IRIS. These will be shared with you during online parent-teacher interviews.  To end the day we went on typing.com and practiced our typing skills.  See you tomorrow! How is it Friday already?!

 This morning after silent reading we went on IPADS and worked on RazKids and Mathletics. If possible, try to use these apps at home too! We took advantage of the beautiful weather and went for a "Walk Like a Scientist" walk. Walking like a Scientist is growing your brain by asking questions/gathering information. We listed things that were good for the environment and things that were not. We had a great class discussion about this afterwards. We noticed that a lot of things human use (such as masks) are important for our health but in the end, not very good for the environment. Ask your child what they thought about during this activity. We also talked about how humans have evolved over time and how we live affects the world (housing, electricity etc).  We learned about compounds words today. They each chose one word and made a flap book with it. Ask your child what word they decided on.  In Science we played a Jeopardy/Cross word game together. Joy was the winner! We relea

 Room 13 worked hard on their flip books, 'Me in my World.' Everyone was able to complete them and they are showcased in our classroom. I think their favourite part is the picture of them standing on Earth!  In Math today we worked on expanding numbers in thousands and comparing numbers using less than, greater than or equal to. We were given 2 step equations to solve. For example: 98+98 __ 102+3 We started a new class novel today, "My Life in a Book."  To end the day, they played a word building game in groups of 2. 

 In P.E today we started a new unit, basketball! We started with passing and remembering to look at our partner when guiding the ball towards them.  Following our new unit we played a class game for Math. In pairs, they practiced double digit addition and subtraction with borrowing and carrying. If they got their answers correct they collected a paper basketball in their hoop. Ask your child for more details.  In Language Arts they wrote about their weekend and shared with a partner. They are doing a great job with adding detail and describing events through the use of strong adjectives. Reminder, we are using the same spelling words as last week.  In Social Studies today we learned about the different continents, oceans and hemispheres. Mrs. Craig drew a diagram showing the equator.  Ask your child: Why do we get 4 seasons? Why is it opposite weather in other parts of the world (northern vs. southern hemisphere)? We started a flip book 'Me in the World.' Ask your child what th