Here’s a sampling what the Grade 3 class was up to in April:
Art
Beautiful Easter crosses, using chalk pastels and paint.
Here’s the original Pinterest pin: http://www.pinterest.com/pin/175288610471090221/
(I used to be able to embed pins into my posts to give clearer credit to the original pinner, but it doesn’t seem to work properly anymore. Any tips would be appreciated!)
Writing
Students wrote interview questions for an adult in their lives, conducted the interviews, and wrote a min-biography. Photos always help to make the work attractive for display purposes. I won’t show any of them here, as the adults may not want their photos shared on the web!
Reading
We finished our read-aloud of “Holes” by Louis Sachar, and I feel confident saying that it’s the most engrossed in a book that I have ever seen a class. I had never read it either, and I was hooked. Then of course we watched the movie! Now we’ve moved on to “Frindle” by Andrew Clements.
Math
For our measurement unit on Length, Area and Perimeter, the students were asked to plan their dream backyard on grid paper, and then calculate the area and perimeter of some of the items they selected (ranging from arcade to mall to Pizza Hut to hockey rink!)
Social Studies
We’re learning about “Living and Working in Ontario”, and one day we did Map of Canada puzzles to help kids wrap their minds around the geography of the country. These ones are from Dollarama, and the 100 pieces kept groups of students busy for almost the entire 30 minute period.
One of their final tasks was to design an Ontario city, planning it appropriately (e.g. keeping the dump away from houses, grouping shopping areas together, etc.) They loved this!
Field trip
We visited the Camp Kawartha Environment Centre and participated in a very fun filled day, including “Nature Art” and “Traditional Games”. While I am SO not outdoorsy, this was a perfect trip for my class. The day was very well-organized and the instructors were fantastic with the kids.
Religion/Language
I find Easter is the perfect time to work on the skill of questioning as you read. I shared the Passion story from each of the four Gospels, and students made lists of the questions that popped into mind during the reading. There were a few that I had the answers to, but they came up with lots of deep-thinking questions that we may never be clear about.
Now it’s time to spend the next month gearing up for EQAO. If you don’t know what that is…lucky you!
