December 4

A Savior is Coming

This past Sunday marked the 1st Sunday of Advent. Advent is one of the 7 Catholic church seasons and begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas. It ends on Christmas Eve.

Do you know what the word Advent means? 

Advent means “coming” or “arrival.” During Advent, we as Christians focus on preparing for the birth of Jesus. Advent means to prepare our hearts for the coming of Jesus.

The season of Advent is marked by a spirit of expectation, preparation and longing.

The main colour of Advent is purple. This is the colour of penitence, fasting and royalty.

At the beginning of Advent we normally put up an Advent wreath with 3 purple candles and 1 pink candle decorated with a purple ribbon or bow around it. The Advent wreath is a circle to show that God’s love has no beginning and no end. Wreaths are made out of fake or real pine needles from an evergreen tree because they never lose their needles and are always the same. This shows that God’s love will always be the same and never change. 

When I was growing up, my parents always played a particular album on their record player (ha!) called Gentle Night. It has songs related to Advent as well as Christmas and I still play it to this day (but on my iPod, not a record player!).

Here’s one of my favourite Advent songs on the album:

 

What are some ways you celebrate Advent?

Do you have an Advent wreath at your house or school?

 

 

 

Category: 2017-2018, Religion & Family Life, Teacher Talk | LEAVE A COMMENT
December 3

Welcome to December!

As we gear up for Christmas, our days are filled with plenty of learning, discussion, and activity.  Students talk about their Elf on the Shelf,  what their plans are for Christmas, decorating their tree, and get excited as we being to play Christmas music.

Check out our students in action in various subject areas over the past few weeks.

 

 

 

 

Category: 2017-2018, Math, Religion & Family Life, Writing Workshop | 2 Comments on Welcome to December!
November 27

UPower Maps are Taking Shape

Today was our first day assembling our UPower Maps. If you don’t know what a UPower Map is, check out this post.

Students brought in an assortment of magazines, stickers, pictures, and flyers to begin creating their vision board, also called a UPower Map.

Take a look at the wonderful creativity taking shape in our class. Woo hoo! I am so excited to see the finished products. Students will be presenting these to the class once we are all finished.

What would be a ‘must-have’ on your vision board?

Category: 2017-2018, Religion & Family Life, Teacher Talk | 5 Comments on UPower Maps are Taking Shape
November 21

UPower Map

Inspired by motivational speaker and singer extraordinaire, Sara Westbrook, who visited our school last week, our class is embracing the challenge of creating our own UPower maps! (Click here to visit our post about her visit, if you missed it).

So, what is a UPower Map?

  • it’s like a GPS for our life. It gives us direction and helps us visualize the person we want to be, our dreams, ambitions, character traits

This week, we are asked to gather ideas, magazine clippings, stickers, pictures, and anything else we can use to help us create our maps. We begin assembling our maps on Monday. We are excited to see the finished products!

 Check out Sara’s music video where you can see her creating her very own UPower map.

If you were to create your own UPower Map, where would you hang it so you could see it easily?

Category: 2017-2018, Religion & Family Life, Teacher Talk | LEAVE A COMMENT
October 15

Benchball and Other Class Happenings

Benchball is a fun, invigorating game which involves 2 teams whose goal it is to have all of their team standing on the bench by the end of the game.

One person from each team is chosen to begin on the bench opposite of the playing ‘field’. This person’s job is to catch the ball. If the ball is caught, the team member who threw it can join him/her on the bench. If you step off the bench, you must go back onto your side and try again. Collaboration and plenty of team effort helps teams to succeed!

Have a look below at a game nearing the end of the match.

There’s always a lot going on in our Gr.3 classroom. Have a look below and see some of the things we’ve been up to!

Category: 2017-2018, Health & Physical Education, Religion & Family Life, Teacher Talk | 10 Comments on Benchball and Other Class Happenings
October 6

In All Things, Give Thanks

First of all, I want to say publicly how proud I am of our Grade 3s for putting on a beautiful Mass on Thursday. I could tell Father John was proud, too. Many staff were so impressed with the maturity and professionalism that the students showed. Wow! Congratulations, Grade 3s!

Thanksgiving is here and we take the time to gather with family and celebrate all that we have. There is much to be thankful for, that’s for sure.

The students in our class are blessed in so many ways. Have a listen to some of the things they are thankful for:

 

How will you spend Thanksgiving?

What are you thankful for?

Share your thoughts by commenting on this post!

 

 

Category: 2017-2018, Religion & Family Life, Teacher Talk | 6 Comments on In All Things, Give Thanks
April 16

Happy Easter!

On Holy Thursday, staff and students gathered in the gym to participate in the Stations of the Cross performed by Mrs. Hollis’ class. It was a beautiful presentation. Thank you, Mrs. Hollis.

Today is Sunday, the day of the Lord’s resurrection. Lent is now over and we celebrate with food, family, and perhaps some chocolate 🙂

Many people around the world have customs or traditions at Easter time such as decorating eggs, making bread (in my family we make Babka), buying Easter Lily flowers, and many more.

How does your family celebrate Easter?

However you do, I wish you and yours a happy, holy, and blessed Easter.

Mrs. Sullivan

Here is one of our students celebrating Easter.  Here we see him at the Greek Orthodox Easter service where they light candles and sing “Christ is Risen!”

Category: Religion & Family Life, Teacher Talk | 3 Comments on Happy Easter!
March 1

A Season of Spiritual Preparation

Today is Ash Wednesday which marks the first day of Lent. Yesterday, Father John invited us to gather outside to witness the burning of last year’s palm leaves–leftover from Palm Sunday. Today, we wear the ashes on our foreheads as a visual symbol of penance, reminding us that we are sinners and we are asked to repent which means to turn away from sin. We heard the words, “Repent and believe in the Gospel”.

Lent is a season of reflection and preparation for Easter–Jesus’ death and resurrection. During the 40 days of Lent we are called to sacrifice. This is meant to mirror Jesus’ sacrifice and withdrawal into the desert for 40 days.

  • We are asked to pray perhaps before bedtime and in the morning, or pray the rosary;
  • We are asked to fast or give up something such as watching TV or playing video games;
  • We are asked to give alms which means to help those who have less than us such as give to the Food Bank, donate used clothing, or even give our time like volunteering.

How will you prepare for Easter during this season of Lent?

Category: Religion & Family Life | 2 Comments on A Season of Spiritual Preparation
February 28

You Batter Believe It!

Today was Shrove Tuesday, also known as Pancake Tuesday or Mardi Gras. Shrove Tuesday always falls on the day before Ash Wednesday when Lent begins. It comes from the old custom of using up all the fattening ingredients such as eggs, milk and oil in the pantry so that people were ready to fast during Lent. So, why not make pancakes with those ingredients? All classes in our school today celebrated by either making pancakes or having them provided. Thanks to all the parents who helped make this happen for our students! They were scrumptious.

In multiplication, we are learning not only about single digit multiplication as in 8×5, but also double-digit by single digit such as 45 x 3.  We understand that multiplication is repeated addition and we’ve been learning how to represent the numbers using addition sentences as well as multiplication sentences.

5 x 4 = 20      or     4+4+4+4+4 = 20

In the pictures below we were building arrays using square tiles to represent a number, such as 20. We discovered that there are sometimes more than one way to build an array to represent a number.

For instance, we learned that 20 can be built in rows and columns as in:

1 x 20

2 x 10

4 x 5

Students will continue to build on this foundation in the upcoming grades as they learn about prime and composite numbers.

In our class, the students are asked to know their times tables up to the 9s…especially our grade 4s! However, I know many of our grade 3s are up for the challenge, too!

 

Category: Math, Religion & Family Life, Teacher Talk | LEAVE A COMMENT
December 22

Christmas is almost here!

Advent means “a coming”. The season of Advent is a time of waiting. We are eagerly awaiting the birth of Jesus. Every Monday, during our Morning Meeting, we’ve taken some time to light another candle–there is 1 pink and 3 purple candles. We’ve joined in prayer and offer our own intentions. In our class, we use an Advent calendar to count down the days to Christmas. Do you have an Advent calendar at your home?

This year, our school has decided to support several different organizations. It is important we help others at this time of year, too. For Grades 3-5, the charity we helped was called Joy-FULL Socks. Last Friday, Elaine from Joy-FULL socks came to pick up the donations. She was so excited to see the abundant donations to the worthy cause. Thank-you for your generous help! Men’s Mission & Rotholme Women’s & Family Shelter will be so happy.

Our class has been busy the last 2 weeks creating 3 different Christmas tree ornaments. First, we designed a paper ornament with our picture on the back, then we made a cork snowman, and finally, our marshmallow ornament that we made today. I believe a few marshmallows may have been consumed along the way 😉

Have a look at our creations below along with our Secret Santa exchange:


Click here to be linked to the steps in how to make the Christmas cards cards we made using paint chips.

Category: Religion & Family Life, Teacher Talk, The Arts | 1 Comment on Christmas is almost here!