IMPORTANT INFORMATION
+17ºC on Tuesday! Spring Concert Information We are excited to present our Spring Performance of Water Dance on March 21st and 22nd. The staff and students have been working hard on songs, dances, and artwork. If your child is not able to attend the evening performance, please contact your child's teacher and let them know. 1). Tickets TICKETS HAVE BEEN SENT HOME TO OLDEST AND ONLY TODAY FROM MY CLASS. 2.) When is/are my child(ren) performing? Students with last names beginning with A to L will perform on Wednesday afternoon and Wednesday night. Students with last names beginning with M to Z will perform on Thursday morning and Thursday night. 3). Clothing We ask that the students wear blue or green shirts without any letters, images, or logos and dark pants. Zoo School April 9 - 13 1). VOLUNTEER CALLOUT!! Zoo School is fast approaching, and we need 5 volunteers each ! Please let Jodi R (Room Coordinator) know or myself if you can come. You can volunteer of 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 days. There is room on the bus, OR free parking if you want to meet us there. Meet Ms Lauf’s mum! You will get to journal! Get a tour of the penguin filtration system! Spend some personal time with the hippo, giraffe, or brown eagle! Learn storytelling! 2). Zoo School Information I had my meeting with Andrea Beatty and Natasha McKay from Zoo School and Calgary Open Minds last evening. I have a wheelbarrow full of information to pass along, which I will do in the form of a letter. I will be sending that and the field trip form home shortly before Spring Break. I began sharing information with the class today, such as respectful and on-task behaviour, listening to they adult of the day, not wandering off, the penguin filtration system, the behind the scenes animal experience, storytelling, and that the week at the Zoo is our classroom. I will continue to support the students leading up to and during the visit. IMPORTANT DATES March 13: Field Trip to the Glenbow Museum (all day) March 21: Fun Lunch (Jugo Juice) March 21 & 22: Spring Concert (evening; more information to follow) March 23: PD Day - No School for Students March 26 - April 2: Spring Break April 3: Classes resume April 9-13: Zoo School OUR DAY 111 days to go, 69 days left. A bit of a flip day. We started off with this morning exploring the Tunisia research site. They specifically practiced their skills of note taking. The next step will be for them to cross-check their information with notes I took, and add to theirs. We also looked at craft artifacts, such as a silver-gilt necklace, patterned bowls, and an ancient silver Berber necklace. This was part of their personal notes page, where they will use for our BIG TUNISIAN PROJECT. After recess, we were very fortunate to have Ms Joy Norstrom share her life as an author, and what she does when she writes stories, where she finds inspiration, and how she makes sure she has enough information to write a novel. She had fabulous ideas which we will use when we begin our story writing. We also looked at our next category in our animal research, which is food. We learned the words herbivore, carnivore, and omnivore, which quickly became a discussion based on “Is a vegetarian an omnivore?” Never a dull moment. After lunch, students rolled their way in their spelling/sound pattern words. (Roll the dice, and write the word that many times, roll the dice, write the next word that may times, repeat… .) When they were done, students continued writing their six-room poetry. Those are coming along nicely. We will use Ms Norstrom’s advice to get peer feedback, using the following questions:
There was a Grade 6 presentation in gym, so we noodled it out in the class. There are some pretty sweet dance moves in this class! We finihsed the day with cutting out our Reader’s Response shapes while I read some more of Harry Potter. Such great similes! Fantastic character development! I truly love reading this book, and boy were some students on the edge of their seats! Cheerios! Ms Lauf IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Glenbow Museum Field Trip Forms Trip is March 13, all day. Field trip forms have come home today. They should be in your child’s backpack. If it is not, send me an email, and I will send another one on Monday. FORMS ARE DUE BACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. If you can volunteer, please contact Jodi R or myself. Spring Concert Information We are excited to present our Spring Performance of Water Dance on March 21st and 22nd. The staff and students have been working hard on songs, dances, and artwork. If your child is not able to attend the evening performance, please contact your child's teacher and let them know. 1). Tickets Tickets will be coming home tomorrow. 2.) When is/are my child(ren) performing? Students with last names beginning with A to L will perform on Wednesday afternoon and Wednesday night. Students with last names beginning with M to Z will perform on Thursday morning and Thursday night. 3). Clothing We ask that the students wear blue or green shirts without any letters, images, or logos and dark pants. Zoo School April 9 - 13 1). VOLUNTEER CALLOUT!! Zoo School is fast approaching, and we need 5 volunteers each ! Please let Jodi R (Room Coordinator) know or myself if you can come. You can volunteer of 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 days. There is room on the bus, OR free parking if you want to meet us there. Meet Ms Lauf’s mum! You will get to journal! Get a tour of the penguin filtration system! Spend some personal time with the hippo, giraffe, or brown eagle! Learn storytelling! 2). Zoo School Information I had my meeting with Andrea Beatty and Natasha McKay from Zoo School and Calgary Open Minds last evening. I have a wheelbarrow full of information to pass along, which I will do in the form of a letter. I will be sending that and the field trip form home shortly before Spring Break. I began sharing information with the class today, such as respectful and on-task behaviour, listening to they adult of the day, not wandering off, the penguin filtration system, the behind the scenes animal experience, storytelling, and that the week at the Zoo is our classroom. I will continue to support the students leading up to and during the visit. IMPORTANT DATES March 13: Field Trip to the Glenbow Museum (all day) March 21: Fun Lunch (Jugo Juice) March 21 & 22: Spring Concert (evening; more information to follow) March 23: PD Day - No School for Students March 26 - April 2: Spring Break April 3: Classes resume April 9-13: Zoo School OUR DAY 110 days to go, 70 days left. I am still amazed at how fast the time flies by! Word Work and Literacy Centres started our day before Music. I supported the students in keeping a quiet learning environment, helping some not wander around the classroom chatting with others, and providing feedback to students with our various writing tasks. It was a successful morning, and I will continue with the guided reading groups tomorrow. We also finished, or nearly finished, our Harry Potter drawings for the Reader’s Response. The kids let out a big cheer when we began this. The snippets of conversation I heard from them as they worked was they were feeling very proud about their work. Two thumbs up! After recess, we had our make-up gym class from yesterday. It was a treat where all three Grade 3 classes played a massive game of capture the chicken. We finished up our morning by looking at the land of Tunisia and taking notes about it. I talked with them about plagiarism and a strategy for rewording information. We will continue building our knowledge about our second country study. After lunch, we continued with our animal study, with the focus on characteristics of animals. We looked at the connection between looking at physical properties of rocks and physical properties of animals, and that the language was similar. We also used characteristics of humans can help us see the characteristics of animals/birds/fish/insects. After second gym of the craziest game of tennis I have ever seen, we had Library. We finished up the afternoon with a beginning talk of Zoo School. Cheerios! Ms Lauf Hello Beautiful Families of Room 18's Beautiful Children!
This is a second callout for volunteers (with a police check clearance) for our Glenbow Museum Field Trip on Tuesday, March 13 (full day). Come hear Blackfoot stories and the stories of the artifacts; plus you can do some journalling with us! (Yay!) Ms Lauf might even regale you with some of her singing during lunch. Please let Jodi Rasmussen or Ms Lauf know if you can come. IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Fun Lunch is Tomorrow! See above Glenbow Museum Field Trip Forms Trip is March 13, all day. Field trip forms have come home today. They should be in your child’s backpack. If it is not, send me an email, and I will send another one on Monday. FORMS ARE DUE BACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. If you can volunteer, please contact Jodi or myself. Glenbow Museum Volunteer Call-out! All Grade 3s will be going to the Glenbow Museum for a field trip on Tuesday, March 13th for the whole day. We need 5 volunteers (with police clearance). If you can share in this day of learning, please let Jodi our Room Coordinator know, or you can email me and I will pass it on to her. Zoo School This is a callout for volunteers for Zoo School. When: April 9-13 Time: All day. Bus leaves at 8:10, arriving back at the school shortly before dismissal. You can meet up there, and parking at the zoo will be free for volunteers. I will confirm the time our day starts at the zoo if you choose to meet us there. We need 5 volunteers a day. You can contact Jodi (classroom coordinator) or you can email me. You can volunteer for 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 days. They have to be whole days. A Zoo School coordinator will be visiting our class on April 4th to go over the program, protocols and expectations. Volunteers are invited to this event. More details to follow. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. IMPORTANT DATES March 7: Fun Lunch (Extreme Pita) March 13: Field Trip to the Glenbow Museum (all day) March 21: Fun Lunch (Jugo Juice) March 21 & 22: Spring Concert (evening; more information to follow) March 23: PD Day - No School for Students March 26 - April 2: Spring Break April 3: Classes resume April 9-13: Zoo School OUR DAY 109 days to go, 71 days left. Morning bell goes, word work, repeat… After Music, we began our Literacy Centres. The plan was to read with my groups, however every time I gave my attention to the student in front of me, the class began chatting quite merrily. After the fourth call to task, I suspended my Guided Reading groups, keeping a watchful eye on a quiet class. Though my discussions with them, they have all identified that they work best when it is quiet. I am hoping that I can resume in a day or two. If not, I will hold a class meeting so we can all put our heads together to come up with a plan. After recess, story (Chicken Little), and snack, we practiced our Harry Potter drawing. Oh my gosh, do they look cute! Some students would like to redo them (Yes you can!) and tomorrow, we will add colour. We also looked at Tunisia on Google Earth. I have added the link to the Tunisia blog page, and it works best in Google Chrome. We will be exploring different areas at street view, gathering more information for our upcoming project. After lunch, students did a Read-to-Self, and then they read up on the animal they chose. I have added links for each chosen animal on the Zoo School blog page. Today, they just read and looked at the pictures, while writing down unknown words, which we will discuss. We discussed the strategy of when we come up to an unknown word in a sentence, how we can omit that word, reread the sentence, and usually another word naturally pops into our heads, and usually it means the same thing, in a round-about way. One student asked if he could begin taking notes, and Yes you can! Love this! We have been practicing note-taking, and this is the independence we are working towards. Many students followed suit. Logging onto the computers, getting the text-to-speech up and running took some time, so we were flexible in mind, and pushed our gym to tomorrow morning (as it just happens there was an open time slot), so we will have two gym classes tomorrow. We finished up our day working on our addition strategies of using the place value mat, Base-Ten representations, and the stacked method, as well as the lesser known strategy of shouting out the answers. We continue our learning tomorrow… Cheerios! Ms Lauf IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Word Sorts Word Sorts have come home today. Check your child’s backpack for them. If it is missing, have them ask me for one, and email me as well, so I can support them in remembering. Glenbow Museum Field Trip Forms Trip is March 13, all day. Field trip forms have come home today. They should be in your child’s backpack. If it is not, send me an email, and I will send another one on Monday. FORMS ARE DUE BACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. If you can volunteer, please contact Jodi or myself. Glenbow Museum Volunteer Call-out! All Grade 3s will be going to the Glenbow Museum for a field trip on Tuesday, March 13th for the whole day. We need 5 volunteers (with police clearance). If you can share in this day of learning, please let Jodi our Room Coordinator know, or you can email me and I will pass it on to her. Zoo School This is a callout for volunteers for Zoo School. When: April 9-13 Time: All day. Bus leaves at 8:10, arriving back at the school shortly before dismissal. You can meet up there, and parking at the zoo will be free for volunteers. I will confirm the time our day starts at the zoo if you choose to meet us there. We need 5 volunteers a day. You can contact Jodi (classroom coordinator) or you can email me. You can volunteer for 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 days. They have to be whole days. A Zoo School coordinator will be visiting our class on April 4th to go over the program, protocols and expectations. Volunteers are invited to this event. More details to follow. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. IMPORTANT DATES March 7: Fun Lunch (Extreme Pita) March 13: Field Trip to the Glenbow Museum (all day) March 21: Fun Lunch (Jugo Juice) March 21 & 22: Spring Concert (evening; more information to follow) March 23: PD Day - No School for Students March 26 - April 2: Spring Break April 3: Classes resume April 9-13: Zoo School OUR DAY 108 days to go, 72 days left. We started today off with reviewing our Heart Challenge reflection writing and how to compose our Six-Room Poetry, as these were part of the Literacy Centres. During Literacy Centres, I pulled the word sort groups for, you guessed it, word sorts! After recess, the story, Interrupting Chicken, and snack, we worked a bit more on our Harry Potter reader’s response layout, and began a guided drawing on Harry Potter. We will continue this tomorrow. After lunch, we looked at some Tunisia images. I’m having students look at images, read some information about Tunisia, and have them document things that interest them (note taking!). This is the prep work for their Big Project Fun: Tunisia, which is a similar to a Genius Hour research project. This means that after our two weeks of exploration, each student will pick something they want to learn more in-depth about and create something to show and share their learning. This may be a video, a poster, a report, a diorama, a mobile, a 3-D creation, etc… . I will be showing them the different ways, and support them in their choices. We will be discussing the criteria for each project, so that they are guided by the Grade 3 outcomes for knowledge and skills. When I have done these projects in the past, the classroom is running tickety-boo and WOW are the projects amazing! After some more tennis skill practice in gym, we tackled math, using Base-Ten representations (squares = 100, line = 10, a purposeful dot = 1) and tying it to the stacked method with carrying over. Several students indicated a better understanding after the half hour. Onwards and Upwards! And sometimes Backwards, but always with Better Results. We finished the day with Circle, where students shared something they found interesting about Tunisia, something they observed, or something they wanted to learn more about. Cheerios! Ms Lauf IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Scholastic Book Order Some students brought home Scholastic Book Orders. Due to a request, they are now due on Monday, March 5. Glenbow Museum Field Trip Forms Trip is March 13, all day. Field trip forms have come home today. They should be in your child’s backpack. If it is not, send me an email, and I will send another one on Monday. FORMS ARE DUE BACK AS SOON AS POSSIBLE. If you can volunteer, please contact Jodi or myself. Glenbow Museum Volunteer Call-out! All Grade 3s will be going to the Glenbow Museum for a field trip on Tuesday, March 13th for the whole day. We need 5 volunteers (with police clearance). If you can share in this day of learning, please let Jodi our Room Coordinator know, or you can email me and I will pass it on to her. Zoo School This is a callout for volunteers for Zoo School. When: April 9-13 Time: All day. Bus leaves at 8:10, arriving back at the school shortly before dismissal. You can meet up there, and parking at the zoo will be free for volunteers. I will confirm the time our day starts at the zoo if you choose to meet us there. We need 5 volunteers a day. You can contact Jodi (classroom coordinator) or you can email me. You can volunteer for 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 days. They have to be whole days. A Zoo School coordinator will be visiting our class on April 4th to go over the program, protocols and expectations. Volunteers are invited to this event. More details to follow. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. IMPORTANT DATES March 5: Scholastic Book Order Due March 7: Fun Lunch (Extreme Pita) March 13: Field Trip to the Glenbow Museum (all day) March 21: Fun Lunch (Jugo Juice) March 21 & 22: Spring Concert (evening; more information to follow) March 23: PD Day - No School for Students March 26 - April 2: Spring Break April 3: Classes resume April 9-13: Zoo School OUR DAY 107 days to go, 73 days left. We started our day with our Not-a-Spelling-Quiz Quiz. This was then followed by looking at all the different animals that live at the Calgary Zoo. Students decided on which animal they would like to learn more about. I am meeting with the Zoo School team on Tuesday and I will be getting more information about what our week will look like then. (ZOO SCHOOL IS IN ONE MONTH! We need 5 volunteers a day for this amazing experience. Please contact Jodi (Room Coordinator) or myself if you can come, for any day. After Music, we had a quick snack, and then Ms Parent came into the class to guide the students in getting their Harry Potter Reader’s Response layout in their journals. I scooted out and helped her class and Ms Smith’s class with our Spring Concert Soundscape ‘song’ all grade 3s and our buddies are doing. The Reader’s Response prep work brought us to the end of day. My the time flies. Stay safe out there! Winter is just digging in its heels. I am making peace with this knowing we need this precious water when it melts. Cheerios! Ms Lauf IMPORTANT INFORMATION
Scholastic Book Order Some students brought home Scholastic Book Orders. Due to a request, they are now due on Monday, March 5. Glenbow Museum Volunteer Call-out! All Grade 3s will be going to the Glenbow Museum for a field trip on Tuesday, March 13th for the whole day. We need 5 volunteers (with police clearance). If you can share in this day of learning, please let Jodi our Room Coordinator know, or you can email me and I will pass it on to her. Glenbow Museum Field Trip Forms Field Trip forms are coming tomorrow! Zoo School This is a callout for volunteers for Zoo School. When: April 9-13 Time: All day. Bus leaves at 8:10, arriving back at the school shortly before dismissal. You can meet up there, and parking at the zoo will be free for volunteers. I will confirm the time our day starts at the zoo if you choose to meet us there. We need 5 volunteers a day. You can contact Jodi (classroom coordinator) or you can email me. You can volunteer for 1, 2, 3, 4, or 5 days. They have to be whole days. A Zoo School coordinator will be visiting our class on April 4th to go over the program, protocols and expectations. Volunteers are invited to this event. More details to follow. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact me. IMPORTANT DATES March 5: Scholastic Book Order Due March 7: Fun Lunch (Extreme Pita) March 13: Field Trip to the Glenbow Museum (all day) March 21: Fun Lunch (Jugo Juice) March 21 & 22: Spring Concert (evening; more information to follow) March 23: PD Day - No School for Students March 26 - April 2: Spring Break April 3: Classes resume April 9-13: Zoo School OUR DAY 106 days to go, 74 days left. This morning began with Word Work. (There is a Not-a-Spelling-Quiz Quiz is tomorrow.) After, I spent some time with the class going over the Math Extravaganza Thinking Booklet - a math booklet that has them thinking critically over math problems and puzzles. We talked about strategies we can use to solve, how we don’t give up right away, and sometimes we need to walk away and come back to it. This was followed by independent and guided reading, as well as Literacy Centres, which included the Math Extravaganza Thinking Booklet, Pen Pal Writing, a reader’s response, and the reflection of our time with Elder Shirley. After recess, we deconstructed the four Six-Room poetry student samples, and sorted them into the six rooms. During the process, students were required to discuss with their partner where they thought the lines should go, which helped them justify their decisions. We also found out that the poetry lines could fit into more than one room. After the sort, we shared with each other, and every student was able to explain their reasoning. We are ready for the next step which is to construct our poems. We also went back to our Three Heart Tower Build. We first discussed all the things this challenge is measuring (strip length, how many strips, height, length, height and length). Students drew out their final builds, and then measured and labelled their drawings. The next step with this will be to reflect on the task, which includes what worked, and what you change to get a better result. After gym, we started talking about the direction we want to go when we are at Zoo School. The focus will be on conservation, and how that ties in with quality of life, wants and needs, for humans, animals, and the environment. We also discussed about using our learning so far this year (The One and Only Ivan, Owen and Mzee, our learnings from Elder Shirley, and learning about quality of life, wants, and needs) to help inspire us. Cheerios! Ms Lauf |
AuthorMs Lauf Archives
June 2018
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