The Grade 3 students are celebrating the publishing of their opinion writing articles. Each student selected a topic of importance to them and worked hard to convince their readers to agree with their opinion. The students have used the writing cycle and have planned, drafted, edited, revised, and typed their stories. Well done everyone!
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The Grade 3 students have become researchers for our current reading unit. They have been learning strategies for conducting meaningful research while preparing to become the teachers and present some of their learning to the class.
The students worked in groups to research a topic before individually selecting a specific subtopic for further research. They created slides to present their learning to their classmates.
Today the Grade 3 students had the wonderful opportunity to be reading buddies with Grade 1 students. They enjoyed sharing some of their favourite books and growing together as readers.
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This week in Grade 3 the students set aside a period to celebrate their writing. Since the beginning of the school year they have been using the writing process to craft personal narratives. They have planned, drafted, revisited, edited, and finally published their writing. They were able to share their writing with all of their Grade 3 peers.
The 3B students celebrated their successes and received another stamp in their learning passports. Well done!
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In 3B we are learning to read with a buddy. Buddy reading can be so much more than reading a book with a friend. Today we practiced making connections in our books and voicing our discoveries to our partners.
We can make many different types of connections in our reading:
Text to self
“I remember when this happened to me…”
Text to media
“I watched a movie with a similar storyline…”
Text to text
“This reminds me of something that happened in another book I read…”
This week 3RB made some new friends!
On a rainy day, we huddled together with the 1G students so that we could be reading buddies. It was wonderful watching the students share some books that they loved. Please enjoy some pictures and reflections from the Grade 3 students:
“I liked being a teacher because we really helped the Grade 1 students learn more.”
“We were working on taking turns reading.”
“I helped a Grade 1 student with some words that she didn’t know.”
“I helped a girl predict what was going to happen next.”
We are learning about fractions! We have been learning how to share an divide delicious treats such as brownies into equal portions. We have also been studying equivalent fractions. One rainy day we kicked off our wet shoes and spent time playing with our fraction pieces, experimenting with equivalent fractions:
During a maths lesson one of the Grade 3 students developed a question: “We know that <-ion> is a suffix, so does that make <fract> the base word?” The students discussed this question for a few moments, unsure if <fract> could be a word by itself. We wrote down the question and delved deeper at our next SWI session.
The students began their investigation by observing the word <fractions> and going through the four investigation questions to help guide their study.
After we spend some time looking at our word and going through the questions, we recorded the hypotheses and data that we had collected. Here are some answers that the students provided:
The investigation is still taking place and the students have developed a further question: “Does a base word need to mean something when it is by itself, or can the meaning come when affixes are added?”
3B students have been crafting and writing fairytale adaptations! As they develop their story telling voices, the students have been asked to work together in groups to create and act out their own dramatic retelling of fairytales.
The students are enjoying the process of developing scripts and practicing their lines so that their voices and actions help to tell the story.
The students have formed research groups to study their animal topics of choice. They must work together to study a range of subtopics, sort through a variety of resources, and use technology to create a presentation to share with their classmates.
Each group is working on communicating so that they can collaborate on their shared presentation. In their own groups they have decided which task each member will handle so that they are making good use of their time. Their presentations are going to be awesome!
During Sakura Medal season, the ES students have the amazing opportunity to read an interesting selection of books and vote for their favourite in the collection. When students start Grade 3 they move from the picture books category into the Grade 3-5 chapter book category.
In 3B some of the students set a challenge for themselves to read as many of the Sakura Medal books as possible. They worked hard to select books that were a good fit, and then read their books carefully to make sure they understood everything.
Three students focused on the challenge and made a plan so that they could reach their reading targets. As a result, they received a special invitation to the Sakura Medal voting party in the library. Woo hoo!!!
For further information about the event, please check out the Saint Maur library blog: http://blogs.stmaur.ac.jp/library/
This month the Elementary students have been celebrating their love for reading. All April the students have been submitting their individual and class photos for the Extreme Reading Challenge!
Check out our awesome submissions!
At the end of the Extreme Reading Challenge on April 23rd, we celebrated World Book Day by coming to school dressed as book characters. In 3B we had a wide variety of characters including characters from the Amulet series, the Cookie Monster, Harry Potter, The Big Bad Wolf, Mal from Descendants, and many more.
The students in 3B have become gardeners…of poetry!
First, they planted their seed ideas and made planners to help them organise their ideas and to develop powerful words to put into their poems.
Next, they used the writing process to draft their poems. As Wonderful Word Wizards, they added alliteration, rhyme, and strong adjectives to their writing. They considered whether their written words would take a shape, or be given a supporting illustration.
What started as seed ideas bloomed into a beautiful poem! Well done, 3B!
