Ukrainian Field Trip to the Galt Museum

Today we went to the Galt Museum to learn about our connections with Ukraine. Belinda, the lead teacher at the Galt, was incredible and insanely knowledgeable as per usual!
Students learned about natural resources found in Ukraine, and how Ukraine and Canada are quite similar. We also learned about traditional clothing worn by both girls and boys in Ukraine. Finally students ended the day with playing a game of "Rooster in the middle" with a Ukrainian egg.

                                    Ukraine Flag                                           Alberta Flag 

Important Dates for December 19-23

Monday, December 19 
~ Carolling in the gym at 8:30 am
~ Learning about Christmas around the world starts today!
~ Jr and Sr choir carolling in the gym at 6:30 pm

Tuesday, December 20
~ Carolling in the gym at 12:30

Wednesday, December 21
~ Carolling in the gym at 8:30am: Grade 3's will be performing! 
~ Library books need to be returned, there will be NO library sign out this week
~ Learning about Ukraine at the Galt Museum
     - We will be leaving the school approximately 10:30 and returning by 12:30. 
     - Busses are provided therefore no drivers need
     - If you want to come along to help, you can either ride the bus with us or meet us there. (If younger siblings are coming with you, unfortunately they cannot ride the bus)

Thursday, December 22
~ Carolling in the gym at 8:30 am
~ Spirit Assembly as well at 8:30am. Three students will be awarded with the Entrepreneurial Spirit award.
~ Dress CHRISTMASY! 
~ Skating at the new ATB rink at the Crossings Complex from 9:45 - 11:30am.
    - We will be leaving the school by 9:30am. Thank you to those that have already volunteered to drive! 
    - Students will need Skates and a helmet. NO bike helmets. If they do not have skates, please let me know by Tuesday so I can find a pair for them! 
~ In the afternoon we will be decorating cookies and enjoying hot chocolate.
(Mrs. Fahey will be absent in the morning. Mrs. Nieboer will be taking the students skating - I will be back for the afternoon though!)
~ Magic of Christmas evening at the school

Friday, December 23 
~ Carolling in the gym at 8:30 am
~ PJ Day!! Dress comfy.
~ Watching a Christmas movie, enjoying popcorn, and playing board games.
    - If your child has any board games they wish to bring in, that would be greatly appreciated!

I wish you all a very Merry Christmas and joyous New Year! Have a safe and wonderful holiday. See you all in the New Year. 

Ms. Neigum's Last Day

For the last 5 weeks, we've had the absolute pleasure of having a PS1 student in our classroom. Ms. Neigum was an amazing addition to our classroom. She will be greatly missed. But we wish her the best of luck in her final two practicums. Maybe one day we will see Ms. Neigum again at Mike Mountain Horse.

For her last day, Ms. Neigum brought in sugar cookies and decorations for each student to decorate three of cookies. Ms. Neigum was so well prepared, she even had gluten free cookies for one of our students. The students had a blast decorating their cookies!

We then completed an Appreciation Circle focusing on why we appreciate Ms. Neigum. Finally we presented Ms. N with a book the students of 3B created with thank you letters and a drawing. We hope you had fun in our class - we loved having you here!

Christmas Websites

Here are a list of student-friendly, Christmas websites:

North Pole
Norad Santa Tracker
Merry Christmas
Primary Games - Christmas
Interactive games

For Christmas Around the World:

http://www.santas.net/aroundtheworld.htm

Newfoundland Traditions

I may live in Alberta, but my roots will always lie in Newfoundland. I am what is known in Newfoundland as a "Townie". This means I was born and raised in the "big city" of St. John's. My mother however is from a small town that is called Hearts Content. (Yes we have interesting names in Newfoundland). Anyhow, being from a small town, my mother grew up participating in an annual Christmas tradition called Mummering.

"Mummering in Newfoundland and Labrador describes the Christmastime practice of visiting several homes throughout an evening while dressed in a disguise. Groups of oddly dressed friends will piece together their disguises using whatever they have around their homes. They might change their walk, talk, shape, or size—whatever it takes to make them unrecognizable to the hosts of the homes they visit. Once the hosts guess who the mummers are, they take off their masks and stay for a party or social. Then the mummers go to another house...and another house....and another. For over 300 years, local merrymaking has flourished. Now mummering is considered one of Newfoundland and Labrador’s most unique and colourful traditions. The mummer is a symbol of the Province’s fun-­loving spirit and is tied deeply to a sense of who we are."


Check out the link below - watch the video on the main page about the Mummers Festival which took place this past weekend in St. John's, Newfoundland.

Mummers Festival

Here are the Mummers we created!

Important Info Week of December 12-16

Monday, December 12
~ no new spelling words this week
~ we will be working with our Grade 5 buddies today!

Tuesday, December 13
~ Hangout with our pals in Dallas, Texas
~ Hot Lunch
~ Book Buddies

Wednesday, December 14
~ Library: Please return all library books

Thursday, December 15
~ Ms. Neigum's last day with our class

Friday, December 16 
~ Mrs. Fahey will not be here today, Mrs. Wenaas will be substituting

Important Dates coming up:

Monday, December 19 ~ Choir Carolling in the evening
Monday-Friday (December 19-23)~ Carolling in the gym each morning
Wednesday, December 21 ~ Field Trip to the Galt Museum (10:30-12:30)
Thursday, December 22 ~ Skating in the AM, cookie decorating in the PM as well as a Spirit Assembly
Friday, December 23~ Last day of school before the holidays. Popcorn and Movie morning, followed by games!

Estimating In Math

Today we were working on making Estimations!! To introduce the concept of estimating, we watched a music video and had to estimate how many pianos, drums (trash cans), guitars and chimes were used in the making of the music video. 

Needing and Getting by Ok Go 

After watching the video, we then discussed creativity, perseverance and simply how awesome these guys really are! 

After our introduction activity, students were then given a bag of random items. Looking at the bag, students had to estimate how many items they thought was in the bag. 

Then we made a reference group of 10, and made a second guess.
Finally students were instructed to count the amount of items in their bags and see how close they were to their estimation. 

Pom Poms                                   Googly Eyes 

Buttons                                Macaroni 

Finally to end our lesson, we repeated the same activity as above, but instead with bags of marshmallows. Students learned rather quickly that the fastest way to count a large bag of items is to group those items. When we try to count each one individually, we lose our place rather quickly. Students wanted to eat their marshmallows which was definitely an incentive to work as effectively and efficiently as possible. 

(Please note all hands and desk tops were washed before working with marshmallows!) 

Important Dates December 5-9

Monday, December 5
~ New Spelling Words
~ "Shopping" Activity in math (demonstrating our understanding of money)
~ Global Connections, Mystery Hangout!

Tuesday, December 6
~ Guided Reading Centers
~ Math: learning how to estimate
~ Global Connections: Mystery Hangout - however today's hangout will be with a class who speaks French. Ms. Neigum's expertise is in French, therefore she will be our translator!
~ Elfing Ourselves!

Wednesday, December 7 
~ Not much happening today

Thursday, December 8 
~ Christmas Gala from 6:30-8pm. Hope to see you all there!!

Friday, December 9
~ Spelling Test
~ Math Buddy Games

Spelling Week of December 5-9

This will be our final week of spelling words until the new year. This week I am trying a different approach to our spelling words. Students will see the list below, and will choose 10 words for their spelling words this week. On Friday, we will buddy up to test each other on our chosen words for the week. We will be doing numerous Christmas writing activities - I had a very hard time trying to narrow down the specific words I wanted each group to learn, or even a specific pattern to focus on. Therefore I am going to give students ownership to their learning and choose words they feel they need to work on.

Here are their choices - keep in mind, this week they will have 10 new words not 5. But we will not have old words or pattern words on their spelling test.

Christmas, December, angel, tree, elves, carols, celebrate, decorate, tradition, ornaments, stocking, visit, sleigh, family, festive, presents, gingerbread, holiday, greetings, Rudolph, Santa Claus, give, receive, mistletoe, peace, reindeer, believe 

Science ~ Testing Materials

Today students participated in a mini PBL project with our student teacher, Ms. Neigum. She had students build a stable structure using: straws, pipe cleaners, paper clips and Plasticine. We had many students who had to modify their work, but the end products were amazing! Students were then able to share and discuss their structure, stating why they built it the way they did and what makes it "stable".
Just another fantastic day learning in grade 3! 

3B!

I was asked today if we could take a class picture of everyone Dabbing. Apparently I am old, as I had no idea what DAB meant. Anyhow, here is 3B "Dabbing"!

Spelling Words for November 28-December 2

-ook pattern

Group 1:
book, took, shook, cookie, rookie

Group 2:
crook, spook, booklet, Chinook, looking

Group 3:
fishhook, undercook, textbook, bookmark, overlook

Challenge Words:
imagination, science

Important Information for November 28 - December 2

Monday, November 28
~New spelling words - ook word family

Tuesday, November 29 
~U of L Theatre Assembly from 9:20-10:15
~ Guided Reading
~ Building Peru Geographical Region Dioramas
~ Book Buddies

Wednesday, November 30 
~ Library (please return all library books)
~ Beginning "Elf" Narrative Writing

Thursday, December 1
~ nothing major happening today.

Friday, December 2
~ spelling test


Upcoming events:

The Christmas Gala will be held on December 8 from 6:30-8pm. If you are new to our school, a Christmas Gala is an evening of christmas activities, dance and snacks at the school. It is meant as a family fun night out to participate in various christmas crafts and activities throughout the school. I hope we can see you all there.
(Once again, for those new to the school - we alternate each year between Christmas Gala and Christmas Concert. Next year will be a concert year.)

December 13 ~ Hot Lunch
December 21 ~ Galt Museum Field Trip from 10:50-12:20
December 22 ~ Spirit Assembly at 2:15, Skating from 9:45-11:45 (drivers will be needed, see forms within the next week or two), Cookie Decorating in the afternoon from 1-2!!!
December 23 ~ Christmas Holidays begin at 11:35am!

Earth Rangers

On Tuesday, we were extremely lucky to have the Earth Rangers visit our school. They taught the students about how they can help save various animals throughout Canada. During the presentation, the presenters introduced the school to a few of their wild life ambassadors.

Porcupine 

Pine Martin                                     

If you want to learn more on how to become an official Earth Ranger, check out their website: 

Earth Rangers

Green Screen

We are working on various ways to display information we learn. One of those ways is by use of a Green Screen. As a simple project to introduce how a green screen works, we made a video about our favorite books. Enjoy :) 

Important Information for November 21-25

Please note there will be no spelling words this week with it being a short week.

Monday, November 21
~ Access codes for Report Cards will be going home
~ Earth Rangers Assembly from 2-3pm
~ Final Connected Reader Club Hangout

Tuesday, November 22 
~ Starting Guided Reading
~ After School Skating

Wednesday, November 23
~ Swimming from 10-11 (will be leaving at 9:40 and returning by 11:20)

Thursday, November 24
~ Early Dismissal for students at 11:35.
~ Parent-Teacher Interviews from noon-7pm

Link to register for Parent/Teacher interviews if you haven't already: Registration for Interviews

Friday, November 25
~No school for students
~ Parent-Teacher interviews from 8am - noon

Spirit Assembly

Today's Spirit / Recognition / Rock Your Moc's Assembly was incredible! 3 of our amazing students received an "Engaged Thinker" Award.

An Engaged Thinker is someone who thinks critically and communicates well with others. An engaged thinker:
- contribues
- helps others
- listens to others' ideas
- respects others' ideas
- includes everyone
- is proactive 

Congratulations Bobbi, Benson and Tash for being our Engaged Thinkers this month. 

It was also, Dress as your Favorite Story Book Character Day! 

Here are just a few of MMH incredible students :) 

Thank you Havana and Charlotte for being our class representatives! 

Finally to end our assembly, we had the pleasure of listening to Mrs. Sutherland (grade 5 teacher), sing two of her very own songs. It was truly amazing! Here is a quick sample of her beautiful voice and extraordinary talent. 

PenPals!!

This year we are taking on "old school" penpals as well as blog penpals. We will have made MANY connections by the end of the school year. Today's first batch of  "old school" penpals arrived. What I mean by "old school" is the traditional paper, pencil, mail - penpals. Our pals today comes from Colorado. When each student received their letter, the classroom atmosphere was almost electric! Everyone loved reading their letter and learning about a specific student in another location on our lovely planet!
Here are some photos of us reading our letters.

Tomorrow we will be starting our replies! 

Stay tuned as our next set of penpals comes all the way from Russia!!!