May 29

Celebrating Our Authors–Camp Style!

Snuggling up around the campfire, nibbling on s’mores and reading really great stories was a great way to spend a Wednesday afternoon…after EQAO is all done.

Flashlights in hand, we had a fun afternoon of reading, celebrating, and praising each other for all the hard work with our published realistic fiction stories.

I have personally thoroughly enjoyed reading each and every one and am SO proud of everyone’s efforts. Wow!

There is so much involved in the writing process–planning, drafting, editing, revising, publishing. There were stories about getting lost in a mall, in the woods, making new friends, surviving a camping disaster, overcoming a fear of dogs, ocean, clowns, spiders…and so much more!

Congratulations to each and every one of you for the wonderful work you created!  I am so proud of you!

 

 

Category: Teacher Talk, Writing Workshop | 1 Comment on Celebrating Our Authors–Camp Style!
April 1

Spring Has Arrived!

After March Break, time always seems to fly. We are in the season of Lent, moving closer to Easter. The students in our class have been working incredibly hard on their school work. We have been diligently studying and practicing our times tables. Mrs. Sullivan has been impressed!

As a class, we’ve been pushing ourselves to strengthen our Word Study test scores overall and the results have been outstanding!

Several students have been challenging themselves to achieve silver certificates in Mathletics. Wow! Who will earn the first gold?

We continue to move along nicely in our newest writing unit called Realistic Fiction where we are gathering ideas.

Take a look at some of the activity in our room as of late:

What do you like the best about Spring?

Category: Math, Religion & Family Life, Teacher Talk, The Arts, Writing Workshop | 3 Comments on Spring Has Arrived!
January 11

In My Opinion…

In class, we are currently learning about what it means to persuade which will lead us into writing a persuasive letter in the coming weeks. 

One of the activities that we began with was an activity called 4 Corners. Each corner of the classroom had a sign that read either Strongly Agree, Agree, Strongly Disagree, Disagree. The students had to think about their position on the topic given and decide which sign to stand under. They needed to be able to justify why they believed what they did and were even allowed to change their minds if another group persuaded them to do so.

Topics ranged from “Should animal testing be allowed?” to “Should children be allowed to have a TV in their bedroom?”.  Several students were very passionate about their opinion while others were more easily swayed in any direction. Lots of chatter and discussion around these topics gave the students plenty of opportunity to practice their debating skills and how to respectfully disagree.

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October 4

What Does Learning Look Like?

Learning is thinking, doing, playing, sharing, questioning, listening, exploring, and so much more! The photos above show our class doing many of these things. Learning can be so much fun!

 

 

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May 29

Congratulations Authors!

As a fun way to wrap up our hard work in writing fiction, we held a special Author’s Party in our class today. The students seemed to enjoy reading each other’s stories and were very proud of their efforts.

There were stories of camping disasters, auditioning for a play, overcoming losing hair due to childhood cancer, playing baseball, soccer-playing dogs, dance competitions, and so much more! I enjoyed reading them all and hope you continue to look for new and interesting things to write about. You have so much to say!

Awesome work, Gr. 3s!

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April 23

Show, Don’t Tell

As we move further into writing our Realistic Fiction drafts, we have revisited the writing strategy called Show, Don’t Tell.

So, what is Show, Don’t Tell? Watch the video below to find out!

After several examples and some practice work at home, too, students partnered with a buddy in class and looked closely at their own writing to find at least 1 example where applying the strategy would help bump up their work.

 

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April 23

Our Books Have Arrived!

What an exciting day! The students have worked so hard to help make this book come together and today we celebrated by reading our books and sharing with our classmates.

Have a look at the action. Our classroom bulletin board will also have each student’s picture and paragraph on display this week to share with our school community.

Way to go, Grade 3s! I’m so proud of all of you.

Category: 2017-2018, Teacher Talk, Writing Workshop | 1 Comment on Our Books Have Arrived!
January 19

Persuasive Writing

Students have been busily writing their opinions on various topics. We brainstormed ‘hot topics‘. Some of the ideas that were generated in our class included:

  • should our school have a junior/intermediate playground?
  • should our school have a pool?
  • should animals be kept in zoos?
  • do boys and girls have equal ability when it comes to sports?
  • should there be year round schooling
  • racism

We are learning to structure our writing with an opening sentence clearly stating our opinion followed by 3 reasons why we believe it to be so. Finally, we finish with a concluding sentence, restating our opinion.

Have a look below at the students engaged in a sharing activity called “Inside/Outside Circle” where the outside circle rotates and the inside circle stays. Students share their paragraph and receive feedback on their work.

What’s something you feel very strongly FOR or AGAINST?

Category: 2017-2018, Teacher Talk, Writing Workshop | LEAVE A COMMENT
December 7

….and they’re off!

Our students are thrilled to have pen-pals this year. We are partnered with a Grade 3 class from Texas. Our students brainstormed, drafted, and wrote their good copy of their very first pen-pal letter and also drew a picture to accompany the letter. We learned about the parts that make up a letter and how to properly address an envelope. Our letters should arrive in Texas on Tuesday. I will ask Mrs. J for her to take a picture of her class opening our parcel and reading our letters!

We are super excited to receive letters in return! We hope they arrive before Christmas.

Category: 2017-2018, Teacher Talk, Writing Workshop | 4 Comments on ….and they’re off!
December 7

Celebrating Our Published Authors!

What a special day it was today when, one by one, students’ stories were introduced to the class with cheers, applause, and proud smiles.

Celebrating our writing is an important part of the writing process, and what better way to do that than with a treat and reading each others’ stories.

Congratulations authors!

 

Category: 2017-2018, Writing Workshop | 1 Comment on Celebrating Our Published Authors!