This year Prince Andrew has decided to host a “Math-a-thon” rather than the traditional Read-a-thon. All monies raised will go towards purchasing new technology items as well as other items that are needed at school. Students, your job is to work hard towards achieving your math goal that you printed on the front of your pledge envelope. One of the changes that we have made during March is to begin each day with Mathematics. Usually our day begins with reading and writing and math comes later in the day. So far so good… Beginning each day with a math game gets us off to a great start!

Some of our Learning Goals for math this month are:

I will work at finding my own strategies to help me when I multiply and divide.

I want to work at using what I know in geometry to help me understand the world around me.

I will work at not giving up when I’m trying to find the solution to a math problem.

I’m going to get better at solving math word problems.

I want to work at learning to use fractions to help me describe parts of a whole, like one-half.

I’m going to try and always double-check my work when I am finished.

I will make a plan and be sure that I understand the question before I begin solving math problems.

I will always read for meaning and understanding when I’m trying to solve math problems.

http://youtu.be/M7QpukKWsOs – Here is a good little, video introduction, to strong and stable stuctures.

We have started learning about learning about Strong and Stable Structures in Science.

Both people and animals build structures, and both people and animals need their structures to be strong and stable and to last a long time.

As we go through this unit, you’ll see the difference between strength (the ability to withstand forces) and stability (the ability to maintain balance and stay in one position), and the ways in which these two properties affect how useful a structure is.

We’ll be investigating the factors that affect a structure’s strength and stability, such as its shape and centre of gravity, and building your own strong and stable structures.

Watch our KIDBLOGS to see updates on some of what we have been learning in science.

We have started a new mathematics unit on geometry. We’ll be exploring figures and solids and the relationships among them.

Our Learning Goals for this unit are:

• describe, name, and sort figures and solids
• describe angles
• build solids
• explore congruent figures and congruent solids
• solve geometry problems

When you are at the grocery store, look for items on the shelves that have the same size and shape, and name the solids. For example, a Toblerone bar is a triangular prism, and a cereal box is a rectangular prism.

Have fun!

Our blog has been quite, but we have undoubtedly been very busy…

For up to the minute updates on what is going on in our classroom you can visit our Twitter Feed.

One of the latest tools that we have been experimenting with is Edmodo. Edmodo is a safe social learning platform that lets our class connect both at school and from home. It’s a place where we can collaborate and communicate about the things that we are learning.  We already even have 3 small interest groups within Edmodo. One of our small groups focuses on polar bears. We post our comments and questions about polar bears, since it is the time when the polar bear migration begins in Churchill, Manitoba.

Parents, please encourage your children to be active participants in our virtual classroom as well!

On a cold and wet September Day we ventured off to Children’s Safety Village and Ojibway Nature Centre.

Here is a collection of some of our day working and learning!

Our Field Trip to Safety Village & Ojibway Nature Centre on PhotoPeach

We have created a WallWisher asking the question… What would you do if a 100 year old tree was going to be cut down in your neighbourhood?

Please share your thoughts with us by adding to our wall and enjoy reading some of our own ideas.

Click on the tree to visit our wall!

We thought you would enjoy just few snapshots of some of our activities during our first week of school!

Our First Week – Grade 3D on PhotoPeach

Welcome back Grade 3′s!

I’m looking forward to a wonderful year working and learning with you.

As we begin our year I can’t help but sharing this poem with you. It reminds me of our work that we did today where we talked about our “schema” for a good student.

I’ll color very carefully.
My writing will be neat.

And I will not be happy,
Till my papers are complete. 
  
I’ll always do my homework,
And try my best on every test.

I won’t forget my promise,
To do my very best! 

Author Unknown

We have been Tweeting almost daily on our classroom Twitter account.  Though we haven’t been posting here in our blog as often we are constantly posting updates about what we are working on and learning in Twitter.

If you haven’t had a look… take some time to read our tweets!

You are familiar with Earth Hour, which will be held on Saturday, March 26 , 2011 at 8:30pm. It is only a hour event but a very important one. We hope that you will participate and spread the word.

Earth Hour

The countdown is on. Every light bulb turned off adds up to a brighter environment.

The Canadian Earth Hour website can be found at http://wwf.ca/earthhour/.

Spread the word……….