SCIENCE: BUILDING A TOWER!

Hello Parents,

I'm excited about the next couple weeks as we have some fun activities and lessons planned before the Christmas break. From student feedback, I think popular consensus is that Science is the funnest class each day! Today we had students do a great job of using their Inquiry skills and designing a sliding door with very limited supplies.

Tomorrow, it is our plan to have student build towers. We have lot of materials here that we certainly can use, however, if you have any extra boxes or paper towel / toilet paper rolls they would be put to good use. I recognize that this is late notice but my previous plan fell through. C'est la vie!

Thanks for your help!!

Mr. H.

Social Studies Presentation

Hi again Parents,

Many of you are aware that your children are currently 'stressing' about their Social Studies presentations. Let me take a minute to explain what it is that they're working on and why I feel its important to do assignments like this.

The assignment has been 4 days of research into Traditions and Festivals in the four countries that we are studying right now (Peru, Ukraine, Tunisia & India) in Social Studies. All the answers needed to fill out their research sheet have been found in our Social Studies text with all necessary pages outlined. Next, students have been asked to think of one 'Critical Question' about each countries traditions and festivals and subsequently use their own skills of Inquiry to find an answer to their Critical Question.

Learning to think critically and question and analyze what they are learning about, by asking more questions, is truly an essential skill going forward. This skill will serve students well in Social Studies this year and as a reading comprehension skill going forward for many years to come. We have modelled what Critical Thinking and 'Critical Questions' might look like! Next, Inquiry is something we have and will continue to discuss at great length this year. Students must learn to use any resources possible to find answers for themselves. In Gr. 3 we really try to wean students off of a complete reliance of their teachers for finding and getting an answer to their questions. We have used classroom computers and other resources (Internet, Books etc.) to do this!

Lastly, I have held firm that presentations are to be done this Thursday (tomorrow), November 22nd. I have explained to students that I will be generous when necessary but that I also have set an expectation  for students to work collaboratively and focus on the task at hand. Most groups will be more than prepared for or presentations tomorrow but some are VERY underprepared. In most cases, student preparation for these types of assignments is a direct indication of focused group work, or lack thereof, during their four days of preparation. In these instances, I feel its an important lesson for all students to learn preparation always precedes success. Ultimately, whether or not the assignment will be a summative one (count towards report cards) will be determined based on whether or not I believe the students work is their best. I hope you can support me in this initiative!

Cheers,

Mr. J. Hill

MENTAL MATH

Hi Parents,


So far, I haven't received many responses from my previous blog. I hope that you have had a chance to check out our classroom blog. I will do my best to keep you informed on what's happening in the class and what you might work on with our students generally. If there is a specific message for your child, I will do my best to write you a message in their planner/agenda!

Today we finished up our work on Mental Math. You might want to test your children and ask them, "Why do you need to do Mental Math anyways?". I would hope by now that the response would come back: "Because we can't always use a pencil and paper and we're training our brains." This is a very difficult unit to give worksheets for or have your students practice alone. However, my final assessments show that some students are still struggling with these concepts. You might want to try some flash cards or quiz them on addition and subtraction questions to give them more practice.

Here's some links for some free flash cards that you can make or have them practice on the computer:
http://www.apples4theteacher.com/flash-cards.html

http://www.coolmath4kids.com/free-online-math-flash-cards.html


Thanks for all you do!

Mr. H.

Parents Are You Out There??

Parents,

Some of your children may return home today and tell you that Mr. Hill said, "This weekend I'm giving your parents the homework!"

I'm doing a little experiment to see how many parents are reading my blog. I'm hoping to improve on updating this blog and using this as a way to give you frequent updates on what we're currently studying. In addition, the blog will frequently have links or attachments that you can use to work with your children on specific skills.

With this in mind, I'm asking all parents that read this blog post to sign their children's planner/agenda with their signature using their middle name! For example my child's agenda would say: Jeffrey Michael David Hill.

Thanks so much!

Cheers,

Mr. H.

Funny Story!!

Hello to all!

So we had a funny story occur this past week that I just had to share! Currently in Science we are studying the unit, 'Building with a Variety of Materials'. With that I should mention that one of our major goals in Science is to allow students to cultivate and build upon their own personal investigating skills. We often refer to this as 'Inquiry' in our class or sometimes in simpler terms we call this: "being like Curious George".

Well this past week we had an activity where the students were shown some pictures of gift boxes and then asked to make their own and decorate them however they so choose! Your children did great and we had a lot of fun with this activity. Well, speaking for myself, I know I did. As I walked around the classroom asking some questions and making some observations, I stopped at Max Rompain's desk. Max had made a cylinder gift box and both ends were sealed. I asked Max, "Max, if I went to the store and bought socks, how would I get my socks into that box?" Max responded with his very thoughtful response of: "hmmmmm". I chuckled as I noticed that he was obviously having to reconsider a new predicament!

Moments later I came back to check on how Max was doing. Upon my return I found Max like this:

I realized that Max was trying to figure out how to get his socks into the box and do EXACTLY what Mr. Hill had asked. I couldn't help but laugh at how literal he took my challenge to him. When I further explained what it was I wanted, Max and I laughed together!

Parents, I want you all to know I think all your kids are great and coming along. I believe school is less about specific achievement than it is constant progression. I'm happy to report, everyone is progressing and we're having fun!