Money; Geometry, Volume & Sustainability

This past week was a busy one regarding math assessment. This week students were assessed to see their progress in math strands of money and geometry. In grade three, our objective is for them to be able to calculate total costs, and to be able to make change. While more practice is always beneficial, I am happy with their progress. Likewise, most have a solid understanding of features of 2D and 3D shapes, including concepts such as angles, parallelism, circumference, area and perimeter, tessellation, and symmetry. This week they built on their knowledge of volume, and common metric units for measuring volume. This week the students also spent time consolidating their mental math work, as we prepare for the math map testing in a couple of weeks.

In language this week, the students have been doing final edits to their historical fiction work, as well as continued working on their routine reading and book reporting.  We are right in the middle of our shared reading from Danny, The Champion of the World.  We have been continuing with our regular keyboarding and cursive writing.

This week we also kicked off our new (and final) unit of inquiry, Sharing the Planet. It is an investigation into rights and responsibilities in the struggle to share finite resources with other people and with other living things; communities and the relationships within and between them; access to equal opportunities; peace and conflict. In what is the first of 8 mini-inquiries we investigate as a class, we looked at how food waste has become a large contributor to global warming, as we spend a great deal of resources such as fossil fuels, to produce food, (of which up to 40 per cent is thrown away). This week we considered our personal responsibility to reduce food waste. This week coming, we will try to do two mini investigations into sustainability--How we Move People and Goods, and Our Homes and Cities.

This is a short week due to the Memorial Day holiday on Thursday. Teachers have meetings on Friday, so not school on Friday for students either.

 On Wednesday is sports day for grades 1-5. Here is a message from Mrs. Currie, the PE teacher who has organized the morning activities: Students need to be wearing sports shoes (no boots, Crocs, sandals, slip-on shoes etc) and comfortable sport clothes to run around in that they don’t mind getting dirty (no jeans or dresses). They should also bring a hat, water bottle, and a snack. There is a water fun play station so students will want to bring a change of clothes in case their clothes haven’t dried by the end of Sports Day. Thanks!!!!

If you have not sent in the yellow form about your child's learning for next year, please do so as soon as possible. Have a nice Sunday! Please see the pictures below from the last couple of weeks! Mr. Shawn