Our Shining Stars!

Today, the Grade 3/4 class performed their choral speaking at the Kinsmen Music Festival. All of their practice and hard work paid off. They did an awesome job and made our school proud!

I would like to share their performance with you. Due to privacy reasons, you will not be able to see the students; however, you will hear them :) !

Junkyard Symphony

On Wednesday, the entire school watched the Ottawa-based performers, "The Junkyard Symphony" perform in the gymnasium. The Junkyard Symphony is a two-man group that uses rhythms to capture children’s attention while relaying an important environmental message.  Their instruments include a variety of reused items such as mixing bowls, Rubbermaid garbage cans, paint buckets, hubcaps, and piping.

Here is a quote by the performer, Jonny Olsen, taken from the Cornwall Seaway News after their performance at another school. “We want them to learn that rhythm is a pattern, not just in music but in all things,” said Olsen. “The idea here is that keeping our resources going (through actions such as recycling) creates a rhythm. There is repetition in recycling. If we send things to the landfill there is no more repetition. It’s just gone. “The best way to create an environmental ethic in our society is to reach the kids first. We want to make it cool and fun and get kids excited about recycling.” 

We really enjoyed their performance and were able to take away the importance of reusing, reducing, and recycling! It is a great jump start to Earth Day which is quickly approaching.

Our Marvelous Mathematicians!

In multiplication, we are continuing to work on the multiplication facts as well as word problems. We are focusing on writing the find statement, showing our work, and stating the solution. I am really trying to emphasize that the solution must answer the question being asked. If the word problem is asking: "Will Tom have enough candles?" and you write 22 x 4 = 88, you have not answered the question completely. Here is an example that we did as a class. As you can see, we came up with a variety of strategies for solving this problem such as base ten materials, grouping, addition, and multiplication.

Thank you for taking the time to read our class blog! Next week, we will be starting division and our poetry unit! 

Also, our students are looking forward to showcasing their talent at the Kinsmen Music Festival next Thursday and Friday. According to the schedule that was provided to us and assuming that performances are running on time, the Grade 3/4's Choral Speaking is scheduled to occur at 10:30 a.m. on Thursday, March 27th. Some students will be attending on Friday as they will be participating in the Dance component of the festival. 

Stay tuned for more updates next week :)

We Love Reading!

Hi Everyone! I hope you had a wonderful and restful March Break! I was very excited to come back and see all of your children and hear them share their stories. They are such an awesome and sweet bunch :)

We are continuing to practise multiplication and are working on being persuasive writers. We are also spending time reading independently. As a class, we made an anchor chart outlining "What Good Reading Looks Like..." Here are our ideas as well as some pictures of us being independent readers :)

Should Ms. Desrosiers buy a puppy?!

Unfortunately, skating was canceled today due to the extremely cold weather. Brrr!!! Therefore, I decided it would be the perfect day to enlist the help of your children to make a very important decision. Should I buy a puppy?!

  

We discussed how to start our sentences and created an anchor chart. Everyone came up with an OREO for why I should buy a puppy and why I should not buy a puppy. Here are some of our OREOs!

Opinion: In my opinion, Ms. Desrosiers should get a puppy.

Reasons: This is because... One reason is... Here are some reasons why...	Examples: For example,
They are cute and cuddle with you and you can also play with them.	I have two dogs and they cuddle with me and I play with them.
Puppies are cute, cuddly, and smart. Puppies love to play.	You will never be bored because you will always have a puppy to play with. They are playful when you’re happy, excited, or proud.
If you are alone, the puppy could keep you company.	If you are having a party and everyone leaves, your dog will still be there!
If she doesn’t have a baby yet it might help her take better care of her baby one day.	You might not know how to feed a baby properly. You might not know how to let it go to sleep or you might feed it too much.
You can make your pet do cool tricks.	You can make it roll over, sit, lay down, and some other stuff.
They are cute, man’s best friend, and cuddly.	When you feel lonely you can call the dog and cuddle with her.
Puppies are cute, some love to cuddle, and they are really playful.	If you are feeling down your puppy will lie on your lap and you’ll feel better.

Opinion: In conclusion, I think Ms. Desrosiers should buy a puppy.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Opinion: In my opinion, Ms. Desrosiers should not get a puppy.

Reasons: This is because... One reason is... Here are some reasons why...	Examples: For example,
They are hard to train, they’re stubborn and they go to the washroom everywhere.	My dog went to the washroom in the house for 10 months.
They are a lot of work.	They need to be trained, need toys, need to be washed, and fed.
You shouldn’t get a dog because they shed everywhere. Also, they pee if you don’t let them out.	If you don’t hear your dog scratching on the door, it might pee in your house.
It will have accidents on the floor. It will chew everything at first.	She will chew your clothes and furniture and jump up everywhere.
They shed, they go to the washroom in the house and they destroy your new pillows and furniture.	When you are so tired and the dog pees on the carpet, you don’t want to get up to clean it.
They shed everywhere and if they are not trained well, she will go to the washroom everywhere.	I had a kitten that wasn’t well trained and on the first day I had him he went to the washroom everywhere.

 Opinion: In conclusion, Ms. Desrosiers should  not buy a puppy.

Hmm... I wonder what I will do? They have given me a lot to consider! :)

I hope everyone has a wonderful March Break!

Word Problems

In Math, we are continuing to practise multiplication. Often, we work in small groups which is why we have posted an anchor chart outlining the expectations for what group work should look like and sound like! :)

Here are some of the questions that we worked on in class this week.  

I think it is important to pose word problems in order to ensure comprehension. By engaging in a class discussion afterwards, we are able to explore a variety of problem-solving strategies!

Is it better to be a kid or an adult?

Today, students used the OREO strategy to answer the question, “Is it better to be a kid or an adult?”. Only 2 of the 16 students who completed the response, thought it was better to be an adult than a kid! Some of their ideas are below.

It is better to be a kid than an adult because:  

“Your parents buy your trips.” “You have easier work.” “You get lots of presents for Christmas.” “You don’t have to pay for the house.” “Adults get grey hair.” “In hockey, adults have to sit in the stands, but if you’re a kid you can play with your friends.” “Adults have to have a job.” “Kids can sleep in and are more active.”	“If you are a kid you have more energy but if you are an adult you don`t have as much.” “If you are a kid you are young and have a lot more life ahead of you.” “When you are an adult you see your parents getting older.” “Adults will probably be eating healthy stuff.” “Adults get wrinkles.” “Kids get to go out and have fun and play with their toys.”
My personal favourite: “Worst of all, adults have to get married.”

It is better to be an adult than a kid because:

“You get to be a parent!” 

“You get to shop more. Almost every weekend, my mom goes shopping.”

“You can drive yourself wherever you would like to go.”

“You get to play games with your kids.”

As you can see, they had a lot more reasons for why being a kid is better than being an adult. 

Parents, what are your thoughts?  :)

Persuasive Writing

In Language, we are learning about being persuasive writers. We are discussing: “What is persuasive writing?”, “Why do authors try to persuade their readers?”, and “How do authors persuade their readers?”. Here is our classroom anchor chart!

After the March Break, your children will be writing their own opinion piece on a topic of their choice. However, until then we are going to be doing a lot of practice using the OREO strategy!

Anti-Bullying Day

In class this week, we did a variety of lessons about what bullying is and what you can do if you are being bullied or you know someone who is being bullied.

Students worked in small groups to identify what bullying looks like, sounds like, and feels like. They were very insightful and had so many great ideas to share with the rest of the class. We combined all of our ideas into one chart!

One group even ended their presentation by saying, “This is a bullying-free zone!” They all did an awesome job!

During another lesson, we discussed the different roles in bullying: bully, victim, bystander, and active onlooker. We talked about what each person might be thinking, feeling, or saying. Here are some of our ideas!

What I really wanted students to take away from our discussions was that bullying is when someone intentionally and repeatedly says or does mean things to someone. We all make mistakes and say or do mean things sometimes; that does not make someone a bully. We all need to remember to think, before we speak and act! Our words and actions can have a lasting impact on others. Here are a couple of the pictures that are now posted in our classroom!

     

Here is a link to a song that we listened to this week called, "Don't Laugh at me". http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HTNVXlirF4Y

Multiplication

In Math, we are learning about MULTIPLICATION! This week, we discussed how there are many ways of solving a multiplication problem. We did an example using arrays, grouping, skip counting, and addition sentences. Together, we made our Multiplication Anchor Chart!

Our Math lessons typically consist of a class discussion, a small group question, and individual practice work. After students work in their small groups to solve a problem, we come back to the carpet and discuss the different ways of finding the solution! Here is an example of a question we did the other day together. 


We are working on using the following steps:

1) Write the FIND statement 
2) Show your work
3) State your solution