Week 3

LITERACY

Earlier this week the students voted on a novel that I will be reading to the class during Listening to Reading...it is Charlie and the Chocolate Factory by Roald Dahl. During Listening to Reading, students learn to build listening stamina, comprehension skills, and learn to enjoy books.

Our Fancy Word of the Week was INVISIBLE based on the book I read to the class last week. The students learned how to input new words into their personal dictionaries. The students also finished their Invisible Kid comic strip. The students had to create a comic based on a kid being 'invisible' and present a scenario where a classmate comes up to them and performs an act of kindness. This act of kindness makes the 'invisible kid' feel like they belong and have a friend. 
This week the students began to practice cursive handwriting. They will be finishing up the Clock Climber letters on Monday. These letters include c, a, d, q, g . A practice sheet for these letters will be assigned for homework on Monday so that the students have ample opportunities to refine their handwriting skills.
The subtle change in leaf colours inspired our "Making Words" mystery word: LEAVES. Students are given a set of scrambled letters and asked to create 2,3,4,5,6 letter words using only the letters provided (ie. A E E L S V). Once the students come up with a few of these words independently they pair up with a peer and try to come up with some more words together. Finally, we come together as a class and the students share the words they have created and try to figure out what the mystery word is. This week we had a few more students figure out the Mystery Word without the help of the teacher! 

MATHEMATICS

The students continued to use the counting on strategy to  find out the 'gap' between two numbers. Once they were able to find the 'gap' number they were able to determine and extend the increasing pattern. They used this knowledge of patterns to solve a couple of word problems. The rest of the week was spent on counting backwards to find the missing 'gap' number between two numbers. Once they found the missing 'gap' number they were able to extend the decreasing pattern.

This week, the students practiced their basic facts of +1 in the form of Mad Minutes. Their personal goal was to get more equations solved each day. On Thursday, we had our final Mad Minute of the week and I am happy to report that all of the students improved compared to their scores on Monday. YAHOO!

SCIENCE

On Monday, the students were faced with another challenge. This time involving an apple. The students had to imagine they were trapped on an island with nothing but apples and toothpicks! They had to construct a floating raft that holds weight and will help them sail home!



This week, 3D learned all about the layers of the Earth. They learned the names for each layer and the basic composition of each layer. There are four layers: the inner core, the outer core, the mantle and the crust. In groups, the students created a paper collage representation of the Earth to show the differences between the four layers. Next, the students created a clay model of the earth and when they cut into the Earth model it showcased the four layers beautifully.










Highlights of the Week














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