Highlights of the Week; Nov 19-23

With the afternoon holiday for Thanksgiving yesterday it seems we have more things to do in less time.  The students worked diligently tidying up their folders, including their google folders.  Don't forget, all parents have access to their child's learning folders on the google drive.  Please let me know if you need help with this.

In literacy this week we continued our reorganization of the class library.  We still have more to do, but it is getting much better organized thankfully.  The boys and girls also worked on their persuasive writing skills.  They have been revising and editing their paragraphs they wrote a couple of weeks ago.  They are using the Six Traits of Writing protocols, and the writing process to revise and edit their work.  They will soon be able to compare their two paragraphs, and I am sure they will see much improvement.

In math this week the students continued their mental math  routine.  Today we did a learning activity connected to asking questions, and building understanding about a math concept.  The word "origin" is both a word about time, but also a word with a very specific meaning in math.  It is related to the coordinates of (0,0) on a graph or map.  The students made connections to the global positioning system (GPS) that we use to navigate.  This week we also found some time to write a short test to summarize where they are in grade 3 math expectations.  We also did some computational programming this week, working with the Blue Bots, small computerize gadgets.  The students are learning how to program, and about using coordinates to describe positioning.  Be sure to see the pictures of our Blue Bot Challenge.

Today we went on a field trip to the State Museum of History.  The tour guides were very helpful in helping the students build their understanding for our new unit of inquiry, Where We Are in Place and Time.  We learned about the stone age, the neolithic age, the bronze age, all the way to the science renaissance times of Amir Temur and Mirzo Ulugbek.  

I had the opportunity to go into their Art class this week and see the artists at work.  Ms. Lind begins each class with the students doing some sketching of still objects.  It builds their depth and use of shape, form, line and space. 

See the pictures of our week below!

Pictures for Week of Nov 19-23

Summative Assessments, Library Re-organization and Division!

It has been a very eventful week of learning in 3P. Reaching back to the previous week however, the boys and girls in both grade 3 classes came together to share their learning in the G3-5 PYP Assembly. As we were coming to the end of our Unit of Inquiry (UOI), the students wanted to share their research for How We Organize Ourselves. Their developing research skills were very evident to the grade fours and fives. I was proud teacher as I watched each and every student discuss their work. It was a great warm up for their summative assessment this week, where the students presented their full research projects to their grade three friends. Being able to articulate their ideas and research concisely is not an easy task for grade three students but I was very pleased with their efforts and results. The students took the time to thoughtfully evaluate their peer's presentations, and offered respectful and constructive feedback.

Despite our focus on their research and summative assessments, we managed to do some other learning tasks. In math this week, our focus was division--notably understanding that dividing sets into equal groups, and understanding what it looks like as a "division sentence", and how division is actually reverse multiplication. The boys and girls are understanding that there is more to multiplication and division than memorizing tables. "Mr. Shawn, multiplication is the opposite of doing division."

This week we also found some time to reorganize our class library as a learning activity. Understanding literature genres is not such an easys task. Our non-fiction section of the library has so many groups; from subjects such as transportation to countries and culture, to space and animals/zoology. Likewise, our fiction section now has books sorted by both author and series, to large picture books and chapter books. Finally, as recognition of the importance of multilingualism and home language, we now have a leveled reader section, and even a basket of books in other languages than English. We have also built a pretty comprehensive reference section, including dictionaries, thesauruses, atlases, a math reference series, and some encyclopedias to support their research. While we are not yet finished our library reorganization, the students certainly have greater understanding of the variety of genres.

In language this week students continued in their word study and writing groups. Our common writing focus this week was on persuasive writing.

This week we were finally able to decorate their "discussion jars." Next week, they will bring their jars home with a bunch of questions in them. The idea is that the questions will have some provocative discussion starters for students to ponder with their families, perhaps over the dinner table. Our new Unit of Inquiry, an investigation into Where We Are in Place and Time, begins in earnest next week. The questions will be related to our UOIs.


Four important pieces of information:

1) Next Friday, November 23, grade three will go on a field trip to the State Museum of History.  Permission forms and additional logistical information will go home on Monday.

2) On Thursday afternoon (November 22nd) is a half day due to American Thanksgiving. Students are to be picked up at 11:30 on this day.

3) On Wednesday morning there is a book sale in the MPR. Books vary in price from 60,000 to 200,000 cym.

4) I have been asked to post this information about Dita's birthday: Dita is turning 9 and she would like to invite all her classmates to her Birthday Party. Date and time: Sunday, November 25, 2017 from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Place: I fly - trampoline center, 41/6 Mirabad Street, Tashkent RSVP: michaela@pospisilovi.eu or +998 90 359 83 46 Please come in sportwear. Invitations were sent home with your child.

I am sorry for the long post. Have a great week ahead. Be sure to see the pictures below! Mr Shawn and Ms Olga

Pictures for Week of Nov 12-16

Pictures; Week of Oct 22-26

Probability; Elapsed Time, and Currency

Math is far more than knowing addition, subtraction, multiplication and division.  In grade 3P, we spend a fair bit of time practicing these basic math operations, but we also apply our knowledge to other areas of what we call math for everyday living.  This week during our math olympics we were investigating many areas of time and number.  What is the chance that we will roll a 5 on a dice?  If your ideal amount of sleep was 8 and a half hours, and you wake up at 6:15, what time should you go to bed?  How much change would you get if a watermelon was 27,000 cym but you only had a 50,000 cym bill?  These are all relevant questions, even for grade three students.

This week the students also worked hard on researching and writing notes for their time projects.

This weekend is UN Day, one of the best events on the TIS calendar in my view.  It all starts at 10:00 am on Saturday.  The day kicks off with a UN Parade of Nations.  Please ensure your child is dressed in national clothing.  The parade is followed by an assembly of cultural presentations in the gym, and then culminates with a food festival in the park, and country room visits in the secondary building.  It is a fantastic opportunity to learn about other cultures.  I hope to see you there!  And a little bit of selfish promotion...be sure to come shoot a puck in the Canada room!!

Topic Bottles
One final note:  Next week we will ask students to bring in an empty bottle, preferably with a lid.  This is for a learning activity we will begin.  Students will decorate their bottle.  At the beginning of new Units of Inquiry (We are currently on the second of a total of six throughout the year), students will bring home some discussion questions.   The idea is that students will be asked to draw one question out a dinner time for example, and have all members of the family respond and discuss the question.  So please ensure your child brings in a bottle on Monday.  Thank-you! 

Be sure to see the pictures below!  Some of the pictures are from the rehearsal for UN Day.

Student Led Inquiry

For our current unit of inquiry, we in grade 3 have taken a new approach from what we have done in the past.  There is a heavy emphasis on what we refer to as Student Led Inquiry.  Simply put, it is a process of learning that involves a number of important activities for students, including asking their own questions, investigating multiple sources of information for a purpose, thinking critically to make sense of information they’ve found, and establishing and communicating new understandings and knowledge.  Of course these are processes we pursue for all units of inquiry, and this is how it has happened previously.  What makes this more unique this time is that we have presented all of our information much earlier on, so that students have a broad understanding of the central idea from the beginning.  The goal is to make the students much more involved in their personal learning path.  For example, we exposed the students to various "tuning in" resources about our unit, such as videos, books, and discussions.  Our UOI, How We Organize Ourselves, is about how we understand and use time to manage our lives. One student used this preliminary research and knowledge presented, and would now like to pursue knowledge about time zones and the international  date line, and to develop her understanding how it is connected to managing time.  In this way, students build their own repertoire of skills as they research, think critically, and present their ideas.  This way they also link their math and literacy skills which are developing simultaneously. For example, they read, gather and summarize information, both in note and extended form.  They also may build something related to their learning, such as a model of a time keeping device such as a sundial or water clock. They apply their growing math knowledge of time related concepts such as elapsed time, the use of the earth's moving shadow to measure time, and of course how to tell time to the minute. 

This image outlines the research process we use in class.  Students are encouraged to be very participative in class, working and discussing ideas together.  My experience is that during student led inquiries, students gain a great deal of confidence in their research abilities.

In addition to the literacy associated with their research this week, the students were learning about the writing process: prewriting, writing, revising editing and publishing their work.  Most students were in the revising and editing stage, after having chosen a piece of written work they felt they could improve.

In math this week, the students were learning about arrays, area, and grids, and how these terms the are connected to addition and multiplication.

Be sure to see the photos from the week below.

I wish everyone a restful few days with your families.

Pictures: Oct 8-12

How We Organize Ourselves

Our new UOI can best be described as an inquiry into the interconnectedness
between human-made systems and communities.The most important system that humans use for organization is time. As our central idea indicates, an understanding of time impacts how we organize and manage our lives. Last week we tried to see the impact of not having time....at least to an extent. "Fluid time" was an experience whereby we removed all clocks from the classroom, and tried to function as normally as possible. We arrived early to music class, missed some of me-time, and were late for recess numerous times. Needless to say, the students quickly began to dislike the disorganization of fluid time. The students are writing about their experience in their living journal.

Time was also the focus in math this week. Understanding time begins with knowing that a day is a calculation of the rotation of the earth, and a year is the time it takes for the earth to travel around the sun. But in math, understanding time is knowing how to tell time on a face clock, but also how to convert seconds, minutes, hours, days, weeks and months.

Time flies when we're having fun!

Pictures: Oct 1-5

New Unit of Inquiry

It was wonderful to meet with all students and their parent(s) for last Friday's student-teacher-parent conferences.  Having the students previously set academic and social goals, and having parents and teachers discuss their goals with them, helps students become more responsible and knowledgeable about their learning paths. It is expected that the students revisit and reassess their goals in January and again late in the year. 

This week we finished up our discussions and investigations into our first unit of inquiry, Who We Are. Much of the unit was about the students learning about how they learn best, and what thinking strategies they use to solve problem. This unit of inquiry has provided a great deal of literacy opportunities, such as when writing their thoughts in their living journals, and in math, when they record their progress on their graphs for mental math. 

Living Journals are essentially a diary of their learning, and their reflections.  We use an iPad application, Book Creator to record new knowledge, and most importantly to record their new ideas, opinions and reflections.  A great deal of attention is placed on what we refer to as the Six Traits of Writing: Writing Conventions, Writing Ideas, Sentence Fluency, Word Choice, Organization, and Voice. 

There is a growing use of technology in our classroom.  Students use iPads on an almost daily basis.  The students have been uploading their work in math, literacy, drama and other areas to their google folders.  Shortly, the folders will be shared with parents.  Parents will be able to see their child's learning only.  I encourage parents to look in on your child's learning from time to time.  As with parents' involvement with their child's goal setting, being aware of what they are learning is very beneficial to a healthy learning partnership.

This week we began our discussions about our new unit of inquiry, How We Organize Ourselves. Essentially, this unit is a deep dive into how people organize their lives around the facility of time.  The unit begins with the study into the origins of time.  Learning about time of course involves the sun, earth and moon, and naturally students have great interest in space.  History of time devices is also a focus, as well as managing our time, understanding lapsed time, telling time, using calendars, stopwatches, and collecting data. Researching and writing about their findings will be prevalent.

It is a very exciting unit of inquiry, which allows for a great deal of independent student research and inquiry.

IXL and Raz-Kids

Hello 3P Students and Parents;

Students are now signed up for accounts for IXL for math, and Raz-kids for reading.  User names and password information have been inserted in their reading record books, which students bring home daily.  When using raz-kids, they can access it through the website on a browser, or they can get to it by downloading the app called Learning A-to-Z.  As I have told the students, Raz-Kids can be used for their 20 minutes of daily reading.  Likewise in IXL, I encourage them to look at the sections on place value and addition/subtraction and multiplication/division as a way to build fluency in basic facts of operations.  An app for IXL is also available for tablets. This past week was also a time for school wide assessments, as the students wrote MAP tests for both reading and math.

This week in literacy, the students began working in both their spelling and reading groups. In our math olympics this week, our focus was on number operations, to assist students to improve on their basic math facts.  In our Unit of Inquiry (UOI), we have been investigating the factors which affect how we learn.  In the week ahead, we will pursue this, as well as how we contribute to others' learning.  This week the students will do their summative assessments for this UOI. 

Have a great week ahead!

Mr. Shawn and Ms. Olga

Pictures from 3P

Assessments and IXL

As always with a new school year, we never hit the ground running as quickly as we like.  A big part of a teacher's responsibility is to get to know your child educationally.  To do this we assess students' abilities and knowledge in reading, spelling, writing and mathematics.  It has been a busy couple  of weeks but we are getting there!  Once all the assessments are finished, the students will be put into small working groups, so that for at least some of their learning, they will learn at the same pace and level with others.

In math we are continuing our work with place value, which is a critical for number. Understanding number is far more than knowing how to count and write numbers.  It is recognizing patterns in numbers, and understanding that our number system is based on the value of 10.  Knowing the strategies behind math, at this stage of their development is more important than knowing or memorizing answers. In our math activities, our focus is getting students to understand the strategies and many ways to think about numbers.

Today, as part of our weekly math olympics, one activity had the students working together to use base 10 number blocks to make large 5 digit numbers.  Watch the videos below to see students working to build understanding together.

To help them get a better sense of days, months and years, I have inserted a calendar in their reading record book.  They will be marking off the days.  It is important students bring  their reading record book and calendar to school daily.  

In language this week the students were learning about adding voice to stories, or adding dialogue as a literary device.  They understand that adding dialogue to text makes the reading more enjoyable and interesting for readers.  Of course with dialogue comes the proper use of speech or quotation marks.  Voice is one of the Six Traits of Writing, the writing program we use in our classroom.  Last week our focus was writing conventions; punctuation, letter size, line and word spacing, and upper/lower case.  See the story below of one of the students--Bouncey Ball Fell in the Toilet.--There is never a dull moment in grade 3!

This week in our unit of inquiry the students have been investigating the kind of learners and thinkers they are.  Most identified that they learn in a variety of ways.  This week they learned broadly about De Bono's Thinking Hats, and will do more self awareness about this next week.

I have signed up all students in IXL, an online math support program.  The students know how to use it.  Their user names and passwords are on the outside cover of their reading record book.  It is intended that IXL be used to support areas in math particularly where they struggle.  If parents have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me.

I hope to see many of you this evening at the campout.

Please note the parent-teacher-student meetings on Friday, September 21st.  

All the best,

Mr. Shawn

Week 2: Full Immersion

We are now getting well immersed in our learning.  While there are still some routines we have yet to begin, such as getting in math and literacy groups, some preparation work is being done in both of these important learning areas.  Primarily, there is some pre-assessment going on such as reading, spelling and number assessments to ensure your child's learning is maximized.  We are continuing our work with place value in Math. In our Unit of Inquiry (UOI) this week, the students have been considering how people learn--namely their learning styles.We are all different learners, and for students to be knowledgeable about their own learning style will help them be more self-aware.  Understanding about the factors that affect their learning will help them make better choices.  Generally we have been learning that there are four broad groups of learners;  visual, auditory, reading/writing and kinesthetic. The reality however, is that the vast majority of students have a mix of all of these learning styles.  If you get a chance, ask your child about what kind of learning styles your child possesses! Next week we will learn and self assess about various thinking strategies.

Week 2;Pictures

Week 1: Off to the Races!

Welcome new parents and students!

This is our class blog.  I hope you check this space every week so you can find out what we have been doing in 3A.  It will have pictures, videos, and information about their learning.

This week we have been busy getting to know each other.  We have played name games, we have been having discussions and doing other activities.  Getting to know each other is an important component which fosters healthy learning environments.   Getting into routine activities such as establishing class rules and procedures in the classroom has been another focus, so that we have an effective and efficient learning space.  Soon you will be reading blog posts about specific learning activities such as what we are doing in language arts, in math, and in our Units of Inquiry.  This space will also be used to inform parents about important dates and school events.

There will be a meet the teacher night on August 23rd.  More information will be sent out shortly.

In the meantime see the attached pictures below.

On behalf of Ms. Olga, our wonderful teaching assistant, I want to wish you a wonderful weekend ahead!

Mr. Shawn

Pictures of Week 1

Have a Great Summer!

I just want to thank students and parents for the generous gifts.  It has been a wonderful year which I will remember for a long time. Below are some videos of our final end of year shadow puppet show, and a mannequin challenge. I have been busy moving into a new house and have now left on vacation. I wish everyone a wonderful summer holiday.  Safe travels

Rainbow Sheep Stories!

Finally....our Anthology of Rainbow Sheep stories has gone to print! The students have spent literally months on this project, from the pre-writing to drafting it, from revising to editing for writing convention mistakes, creating the illustrations and finally to publishing it.  They have edited each other's work, and listened to readings. They are all now published writers!   If you have yet to talk to your child about the quantity, please do so this weekend.  The printer has quoted us a price of 36,000 cym per copy, which was slightly more than I estimated. I emailed you what I thought was the number of copies for each child.  Please update this with me by email if there is a change.  We are collecting money on Monday, so feel free to send in the appropriate amount.

Thanks again.

Have a great weekend and see you on Wednesday!

Winding up to our Performance!

While some students may be winding down, our students are winding up.  Our culminating activity for this Unit of Inquiry, Sharing the Planet, will be on Wednesday, June 6 at 1:00.  This "secret" performance has been taken days and days to prepare.  We are hard at work rehearsing and the students are excited to have parents as the audience.  They will do some dress rehearsals in the morning to other grades.

Following the performance, the 3P students will present their final passion hour exhibition at about 1:30.  This of course is followed by our class party, with Mr Matt's grade 3 class, at 2:00 near the fish pond.

While we have been preparing for a performance, it has also included much reflection about certain issues connected to natural and finite resources.  For example, while almost all students understand that cutting down rainforests have a negative effect on the environment, there has also been recognition that the work provided to local workers feeds families, and helps to builds hospitals and schools.  The students are building empathy and additional perspectives for various ethical issues.  In short, they are learning that sometimes, there are no easy answers.  Similarly, they have compiled a very innovative list of many ways they can take responsible action for the way we live.  Examples range from wearing cloths more than once, to turning the water off when brushing their teeth, to refrain from using straws in restaurants--all in the hopes to helping to sustain the earth's finite natural resources.

Last week we managed to visit a grade 10 design class, to give them some feedback on their products.  The boys and girls were very engaged.  They were particularly interested in the 3D printer.

In literacy, they are completing their guiding reading and book reports. We have been reflecting in their living learning journals.

In Math class, we have been reviewing how to find perimeter and area of shapes.  Next week we will finalize our math research with an investigation into capacity/volume.

See the pictures below!