Our eco-column designs are complete and we begin building Monday. Students took their individual designs, teamed up, critiqued and brainstormed and came up with a final group design. We'll use those group designs to build our eco-columns. Below is a brief video of one student describing their individual design (mid-process):

In math this week, we moved into an examination of addition algorithms. We focused on the standard algorithm that most of us know well. But we also looked at a few other algorithms, such as the lattice. My main goal is intentional: for the student to choose and master at least one algorithm with which they are comfortable, but to understand that there are a number of ways to solve a problem. Mastery of algorithms is an important part of math development, but our continued development of number sense goes hand-in-hand with it.

One way I've been assessing the students' understanding of what we are doing in math is by introducing intentional and authentic mistakes into example sums. I then have the students examine the problem, determine where the mistake was made, and explain it as if they were the teacher trying to explain to their student what is going on. The nice thing is, there is often more than one way to explain the problem, which allows the students to explore different ideas about math. So, though they still learn that A + B = C, they also learn the WHY so much better than simple rote memorization, develop their number sense, and become more comfortable with math in general.

This is challenging, and the students are really making their brains work and grow by problem-solving the error, correcting it, and explaining it to their peers in a clear way using mathematical vocabulary. It also gives me some excellent formative assessment on how they are doing. Another benefit is that it reinforces how to perform these algorithms accurately, quickly, and with confidence while also showing them some of the common mistakes we tend to make so hopefully they can anticipate and avoid them in the future.

In our Science/Social/Writing/Art project of creating a "Field Guide to the Birds of Peru", this week saw the students turn to drawing a toucan utilizing the principles they learned from watching the "Austin's Butterfly" video (see last week's blog). The students were excited to see how far they could progress by listening to constructive criticism, incorporating those ideas into a new draft, and persevering. I was very proud of them. Below is an example of one student's work.

We also have a curiosity corner, which I keep filled with a variety of interesting objects, such as fossils, geodes, broken small electronic devices (no power), old coins, etc. I let small groups of students work there when they are finished a task, for example. I find this is a great place for students to explore, ask questions, and grow their curiosity. I have them think about what they're doing and tell me how they used their time well, what they learned, and what they want to know more about. They love it! I've posted a couple of videos below of students exploring a fossil as well as an old wasp nest.

This coming week, please expect more information about our upcoming field trip to TELUS Spark. For homework, please work with your child on the addition algorithms we have been studying. Help them master them. Give them practice. Read with them, and have them read to you. Limit their exposure to iPads, iPhones, etc.

Also, we would love to see more parent volunteers in the class. If you're interested in volunteering in Room 16, please let me know. I would love to have you.

Greetings. This week was a VERY busy week. Our grade 3 students wrote the provincial SLA (Student Learning Assessment) for math and language arts. I'll be happy to share the individual results with you. The SLAs meant we had a pretty hectic schedule, as they consist of 2 parts, a written and a computer portion for both reading/writing and math. Our grade 4s participated as well in the written portions since it provides us with a good benchmark for them, too. In between all this, we managed to get some other things done!

In science, we are designing our eco-columns. We are taking our time, trying to think like engineers and designers, and putting in our best effort. This means many drafts before we'll be happy with our final project. We watched (and will watch again) the following video to help us understand how design, peer feedback, and putting in a hard effort can result in extraordinary results. Take a look for yourself: Austin's Butterfly. This video shows what a first-grade student was capable of, and it really provoked our grade 3-4s to push themselves to achieve!

In reading, we now have our book club groups up and running. We continue to work on our Reading Powers, and the children are showing a good understanding of connecting, as well as visualizing and inferring. Right now, we are focusing on three types of connections: connections to self, connections to other texts, and connections to the world.

In writing, we are combining a few disciplines. We are beginning to work on a field guide of animals and plants for the countries we are studying in Social Studies. This project will link language arts, science (plant and animal life cycles), and social studies (our study of Peru, Ukraine, Tunisia, and India). We'll incorporate the lessons from Austin's Butterfly to make our field guide as good as we can, writing and re-writing, drawing and re-drawing our work.

In physical education, we had a special guest this past week: Rob "Frisbee Rob" Mcleod. Rob is a Guiness World Record holder for frisbee, and he has been teaching the children a variety of fun techniques that are developing their hand-eye coordination, accuracy, balance, and movement skills. They are loving it. Rob is also putting out a challenge that we'll be developing: stay off of digital devices for a week. Parents can help by tracking their child and encouraging them to read a book, play outside, do something other than use their devices. They can also write a brief note as 'proof' their child did it. The winner will receive a special frisbee from Rob. More details to follow. P.S. We could still use some 2L pop bottles!

This week we began to focus on our eco-columns. We took temperature measurements from the class prototype and collected that data for a week. We then looked at how best to present that information. We studied different types of graphs and began to work on our own in preparation for our group eco-columns.

In Math, we continue to work on our number sense. This will be an ongoing process. We are now beginning to look at arithmetic, specifically addition and subtraction. We'll be mastering our algorithms and learning how and when to use them in real scenarios (for example, in our science project). We will also begin to look at word problems, starting with numberless problems. From their we will build our fluency and vocabulary. The goal is for the students to clearly understand a problem, what it is asking, what operation is best, and how to tackle it in an efficient manner.

In Social Studies, we continued our journey in Peru. We began by studying the life of a girl named Maria, and her life in the capital city of Lima. We took a brief Google Earth tour of Lima, delving into the Street View function to get a feel for what it is like in the city. We are tying in our art to this unit, with the students working on creating their own patterns along the lines of Peruvian textiles.

In Language Arts, we began our Book Club groups. Each group is working on a different book. Taking turns reading aloud, sharing connections (cf. Reading Powers by Adrienne Gear), writing, the students will progress in their reading.

Hello! We had another busy week. As an update, the school raised $1794.46 in our Terry Fox run! Great work! We didn't quite hit the minimum to let us shave off Mr. Hippe's beard, so we'll have to find another way to get rid of that.

In Math, we continued to work on our number sense by looking at our number system of Base 10. We did so by looking at the fact that other systems for counting exist. We watched a brief video on Base 12. We paused about half way through as not to make it too complicated. Take a look if you like: Base 12 video.

The point was to make the children more comfortable with math by showing them that they can play with it, manipulate it, and to get them to understand why we use the system we do (Base 10). Understanding that we have only 10 symbols, what those symbols are, and the pattern we have for using them to create new numbers will also build their general number sense.

You can work with your child at home on building number sense. Try this link: Number Talks. Scroll down to Grade 3/4. Choose a pattern, and show it briefly to your child. Have them try to figure out the number of dots, and then have them explain their strategy to you. This builds subitizing skills (the ability to look at a group of things and "see" the number instead of having to individually count it out).

In Literacy, we are continuing to read to develop our comprehension skills using Reading Powers. Making connections to stories and other texts helps students internalize what they are reading. We are also writing some fiction right now. Have your child tell you about their turkey story! Our grade 3s are continuing to work on their secret project while we develop our grammar skills. Ask your child about verbs, nouns, adjectives.

In Social Studies, we began our journey to Peru. Our passports were completed, checked at the passport office, and we "flew" to Lima. The kids enjoyed the flight with Mrs. Wilson (our team teacher from Room 17) and myself, and are excited to start exploring Peru's food, culture, clothes, and history.

In Science, we began our investigation of ecosystems (plants and animal life cycles) by receiving news that we had been selected by NASA to help design eco-columns for their astronauts as they prepare to make a 5-year journey to the newly discovered planet X-97a.

If you have any 2L pop bottles at home, please send them in, as we'll need them to build our columns. NASA will supply the rest of the materials.

In this investigation, we will learn about plant life cycles by planting a variety of seeds and watching them grow, collecting data about temperature, growth rates, and other things. We'll graph the data, write reports about our findings. We'll study the decomposition of different materials (bananas, kiwi, for example).

I've hired a class cinematographer (one of our students, chosen weekly :)) to document our journey. As soon as we have edited down some of the footage, we'll start posting it here for you to see. My apologies, as we didn't have time to get to it this week.

In Art, we used our artistic thinking and skills in our science project. We had to design cover pages for our eco-column challenge in our visual journals. The children had to select colours and make a wash as a background. They had to write about why they selected those colours, and how they represent the eco-column. We then tore letters from magazines to spell out the letters of our project.

Next, we'll begin designing our columns, thinking like scientists and engineers about use of space, materials, why we are doing what we are doing, and taking the time to create a design that is neatly drawn and replicable.

We have a lot ahead of us. For homework, please read with your child nightly, and have them read to you. Play some math games. Show them something you think is fascinating about the world. Build their curiosity.