Learning about services needed in a community is a major component of our Social Studies curriculum in grade three. Did you know that 783 million people in the world do not have access to safe drinking water? We are grateful to have such amazing water treatment facilities in Calgary, along with access to health care in case we get sick. With the help of CAWST, grade threes learnt all about safe drinking water, sanitation, and the hygiene services needed to stay healthy. They followed the story of Tihko, a small girl from Zambia, who helped her community learn about sanitation and hygiene technologies. Walk for WaterFor many of us, safe drinking water is usually only a few steps away – just open the tap at home, school, or at work, and there it is! In many countries, however, the situation is very different – kids must walk an average distance of 6 km per day to get drinking water! In an attempt to better understand the challenging nature of these situations, the grade threes went on a 'walk for water' going to the Glenmore Reservoir and back to school.
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Taking advantage of one of this season's favorite vegetables, students closely examined the pumpkin in all its glory! English Languages Arts: - What do pumpkins look like? Smell like? Taste like? - Students used their senses to brainstorm a list of "juicy words" to describe a variety of pumpkins - Using their word bank, students wrote a descriptive paragraph about pumpkins Student Target: - I can use periods to separate my ideas - I can use different words to start my sentences - I can use capitals at the beginning of my sentences GREEN capital first, RED period lastASK ME ABOUT: How do you remember to include periods and capitals in your writing? Is there one strategy that works best for you?
Our tennis residency is well underway and the students are loving it! Through a variety of games and practice activities, students have been working on: - Ball balancing (forehand and backhand) - Feet placement - Angling the racket to direct the ball - Controlling the swing to manage the distance the ball travels Students have also learned about the lines limiting the space of the tennis court, safe handling of the tennis racket, and good sportsmanship. Thank you so much to our awesome instructor! ASK ME ABOUT: Where else might we be able to use the same, or similar, movements and skills that we have learned through playing tennis? Do you know of any similar sports to tennis? How can tennis improve our penmanship (handwriting)? Hover your mouse over the images below to see student comments and questions about the the program. Diwali is a Hindu-originated festival celebrated in India between October and November. The five-day celebration — also known as the “festival of lights” — has become a national festival marked by most Indians regardless of faith, with Jains, Buddhists, and Sikhs also celebrating. The grade threes kicked off our study of India by learning about this important festival and the traditions involved in this celebration. The Story Behind the CelebrationBeing in a second language program, our students are used to looking for clues to help their understanding of Spanish. The grade threes were asked to use the same skills to interpret the story of Rama and Sita. Students were first asked to watch the video in Hindi, then discussed their understanding in English. Below is the story in English. ASK ME ABOUT: What similarities can we find between this story and ones we are already familiar with? Does every story need to have a 'bad guy'? Students acted out this story in groups and discussed why the characters are so important to understanding the celebration of Diwali. ASK ME ABOUT: If each student has 2 arms, how many kids together (like the students above) would it take to show Ravana's 20 arms? DiyasDiyas are clay lamps that decorate the homes of Indians during Diwali. They are used to light the way for Rama and Sita's return to Ayodhya after defeating Ravana. The light represents the triumph of good over evil. But why clay? Science Connection: Clay is one earliest minerals being used in India. Clays originate from rocks by weathering. In India, clay is used not only for making brick, but also utensils, household appliances, and images of Gods and Goddesses. Geography Connection: Clay is available in the banks of many rivers, such as the Brahmaputra, the Ganga, the Godavari, the Kaveri. RangoliA rangoli is a colourful design made on the floor near the entrance to a house to welcome guests. At Diwali, people draw bright Rangoli patterns to encourage visitors to their homes. We explored the concept of symmetry as we drew our own rangoli patterns using a 10 x 10 square grid and a variety of mediums (pastel, paint, pencil crayon, marker, and colored salt. ASK ME ABOUT: How many lines of symmetry did your rangoli have? What does it mean for something to symmetrical? Cold and flu season is fast approaching and our Grade 3 teams have been enlisted as hand washing Police to battle germs! Our school nurse visited to demonstrate the importance and techniques of washing our hands so the Grade 3s could then teach other students in Kindergarten and Grade 1. First, students learned exactly how to wash their own hands, with tips on the most commonly missed spots and how long to scrub for. ASK ME ABOUT: What song can I sing to make sure I wash my hands long enough? Next, the nurse gave each student a special "germ" powder to rub all over their hands, it glowed bright purple under a black light and their task was to scrub it all off! If any powder was left over after hand washing, our nurse used the black light to show them where they had missed and sent students back to try again. On her second visit, the nurse showed the students how important it is to cover a cough or sneeze with your inner arm - and not our hands! She demonstrated the spreading of germs using glitter, and "sneezing" it into her own hands. Through a chain of students giving high fives, the germs were passed all the way down the line of 4 more people! This also re-emphasized the importance of washing our hands! ASK ME ABOUT: How far can a sneeze send germs? Next Step: Sharing our learning Once we were hand washing experts, the Grade 3s were off to teach their peers the same important information! Students were tasked with creating a presentation to teach the Kindergarteners and Grades 1s about proper hand washing. For some groups this was though a skit or song, and for others it was a poster and demonstration. Students were encouraged to do their presentations in Spanish and required the use of some new vocabulary to help them do so:
In our classrooms, as we begin to look at other cultures around the world and in our own country, the students have started to discuss the meaning of perspective. We have talked about the difference between facts and opinions ("I know that..." vs. "I think that...") as well as the idea that how you perceive the world is affected by your own story (connecting to our year's overarching theme - What is our story?). As we journey through the year, students will learn about cultures and values different from their own and will be encourage to understand that, just because we see something that may be strange or different, it does not mean that it is incorrect or "bad". Up to this point, some activities the students have worked on have included:
-Guessing mystery objects from a bag and understanding that someone will usually guess an item that is familiar to them -An art project drawing a "naturaleza muerta" (still life) from different perspectives to show that the same items can be seen in different ways -Looking at First Day of School photos from other countries and observing similarities and differences to their own first day! Our grade 3s have been learning about children's rights through a variety of lenses and perspectives, one of which explores reconciliation through education and age appropriate discussions regarding the history of Residential Schools in our country and province. Orange Shirt Day is an opportunity for First Nations, local governments, schools and communities to come together in the spirit of reconciliation and hope for generations of children to come. For more information, FAQs, and Phyllis' story (answering the question 'why orange?'), please visit this link: http://www.orangeshirtday.org/ Kicking off our Rocks and Minerals unit in Science has lead us through some interesting conversations regarding what rocks are made up of and questioning how old they are, where they have been, and if each rock or stone could talk - the stories it might be able to tell you. Students began by investigating attributes and sorting objects based on their physical features. In partners they came up with a sorting rule and placed items into two groups (sorting by one attribute). As they moved on to sorting by two and three attributes the number of their groups got bigger and the items in each group got smaller. ASK ME ABOUT: Ask your child about our silent sorting activity of the students in our class. What attributes did you try to sort by in the activity? Which one was the 'secret' attribute? What sorting rule created the most amount of groups? Scavenger HuntTasked with finding rocks in our playground that fit particular attributes, students set out to build our collection and sort our findings into a variety of groups. ASK ME ABOUT: Have you found your special rock yet? Which rock are you planning to bring to school? If that rock could talk what do you think it would say? What questions might you ask your rock?
Students unpacked each of their identified factors that affect quality of life and placed their components on a spectrum from need to want. For example, access to food is important, however access to healthy food is even better. We may want an ice cream sundae, but we need nutritional food to fuel our bodies and keep us healthy. Playing for children is a basic need, but playing with fancy toys is a want. The discussion that came out of this project was inspiring, to say the least, as student identified needs and wants, and explained their representation visually. The Story of a Soccer BallOf particular interest to many of our students who enjoy playing/watching sports, an offshoot discussion around makeshift sports equipment proved to be quite powerful in our discussion around needs vs wants. One thing students across the world have in common is their determination to play - no matter the cultural, linguistic, political, or financial climate of where they live. Our grade three students listened to the story of two children: Benny - a boy growing up in the depression playing hockey with a tree branch for a stick and frozen horse manure for a puck, and an unnamed boy in the following video who fashions himself a soccer ball out of plastic bags and other materials he collects around his community in Ghana.
ASK ME ABOUT: Do you think it is important to have toys to play with?
In addition to patterns, students have begun to work with base 10 blocks and other manipulatives to write, draw, and tell about numbers up to 1000 (...and beyond if they wish). Taking advantage of the students' familiarity with the pixelated world of Minecraft, we crafted our own characters and found the number each one represented in base 10 blocks. Students were challenged to see how many different ways they could talk about and represent that number. ASK ME ABOUT: What other ways do you know how to show a number?
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