Busy, Busy, Busy

This past Friday, we wrapped up Artist in Residency week with a special assembly on Friday by Les Bucherons, followed by Cabane à sucre - a wonderful opportunity to enjoy another French Canadian tradition of maple syrup on ice, before saying goodbye to Les Bucherons, as they moved on to delight more Canadian students with their songs and stories.  What a whirlwind adventure!

This week started off with celebrations of Halloween throughout the school on Monday, with the students partaking in a school-wide hallway parade of costumes, enjoying special activities in various A-Den classrooms, and finally returning to the classroom for snacks and games to wrap up the afternoon. The costumes were fantastic, and thank you to the families who shared treats with the class, and also to the parents who joined the class for the afternoon activities - in costume as well!  Wow! 

A quick reminder that the school-wide Remembrance Day assembly will be held tomorrow morning (Wednesday) in the gymnasium.  Please join us as we honor those who have served and sacrificed to protect the safety and freedom of Canadians and people around the world. 

Students will also be given a yellow ribbon to take home and display as part of the town-wide campaign in recognition of Master Corporal Byron Greff, a former Lacombe resident who lost his life last week in Afganistan.

...AND finally, if you haven't already bookmarked our website, or you want to recommend it to other Grade three families, or even grandparents, you can now access this blog from the school website by opening the STAFF page, and clicking on the names of Mme. Graves, Mme. Forman or myself.

Les Bucherons Performances

Reminder:
Students will be performing in the gym as a whole school this afternoon, showing off the new skills  they've been practicing with Les Bucherons.  Performance will be at 2:15 pm this afternoon.

Les Bucherons themselves will also be performing tomorrow morning as well from 9-10 am.

See you there!

Scholastic Book Orders Due Thursday, Oct. 27

I forgot to post a reminder on the blog yesterday, so I will be accepting Scholastic Book orders tomorrow as well for the Oct. / Nov. Book order.  I will be sending home one more set of order forms before Christmas, for those of you thinking about purchasing Scholastic Books as gifts for the children in your lives.  Please attach a note to your order if you are planning on giving the books as gifts so that I can contact you directly for pickup and don't give them to your child.

News Flash

Kermit the Frog here, reporting to you live from the Enchanted Forest classroom in EJSM.  There is a series of short, silly video clips that we have been enjoying with our unit studies that offer another perspective on traditional fairy tales.

Here are two class favorites to get you started:







REMINDER:


Please keep checking the Important Dates in the sidebar when you stop by the blog. They are updated as needed, even when there are no new posts on the main page. I hope you are finding this blog a helpful addition to parent communication. If you happen to stop by the blog for a peek, please take a moment and leave a comment to let us know that you are using it..


MORE NEWS:


Don't forget that we will be celebrating the Hindu Festival of Lights called Diwali tomorrow (Friday), as an extension of the grade three Social Studies program of studies.


The students have been using the computers and MS Word software to write and edit stories about their Superheros in French Language Arts.


We look forward to participating in next week's whole school Artist in Residency program with Les Bucherons. The school will be buzzing with activity as Les Bucherons share songs, stories and traditions with all of the classes at our school over the week. Have a peek at Les Bucherons website.

Once Upon a Time

Can you believe that we are already halfway through October?  The children started their week by walking through the castle doors and into the enchanted forest. There were branches dangling from the ceiling, frogs croaking, and birds singing in the background.  A couple of small  trees had appeared, along with  a hooting owl and a hiding gnome.  There was also a beanstalk, and Jack had almost reached the top.

We spent our time together this week in ELA, with partners and as a class, learning about the identifying elements of a  fairy tale, and how to tell a fairy tale from a nursery rhyme.  We also asked these questions:  

• Why do cultures have similar fairy tales?
• How can I examine fairy tales from different cultures?
• How does the setting of a fairy tale affect the message, characters, or events?

and we began to find answers after comparing Perrault's version of Cinderella to a fairy tale set in Zimbabwe called Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters.  As the unit progresses, we will continue to reflect on these questions and search for answers in a variety of literature.  We will also be exploring "fractured" fairy tales as a means to better understand point of view and character development in writing.

Book orders arrived this week, and were sent home Friday afternoon.  I am still watching the mail for the CLICK order to arrive from Scholastic.  For those of you who ordered items from the CLICK brochure, I will send them out as soon as I receive them.  I will be sending home October's order forms next week.

The students made little lamps in celebration of Diwali with Mrs. Wessner in Art today.  They also watched this lovely video about a little girl who is celebrating her first Diwali in Canada.

Parents: Check This Out!

 CPF Alberta provincial conference on Saturday, October 22nd! REGISTER SOON!

For complete information and to register, go to  www.cpfalta.ab.ca/conference2011.htm

Gobble Gobble

Splish Splash!

Our class will be going to the Kinsmen Aquatic Centre for some swimming on this Thursday at 10:00am. Don't forget to pack a swim suit and towel that day!  Yippee!  Splash!

Les chansons

The class has been practicing some French songs with Mme. Graves.  Here are the lyrics to help with practice at home. Both songs were written by Jacquot Duschesneau. (A little tip from Mrs. Somers-Brown:  The French word "bis", means "repeat".)

Les superhéros

(Refrain)

Superhéros---------------nous voici!

Superhéros---------------les voilà!

Superhéros---------------toujours serviables!

------------Nous voici---------les voilà!

Tous les jours, (bis)

On les rencontre, (bis)

Dans les rues, (bis)

Dans tous les centres. (bis)

Il est sympa. (bis)

Elle est généreuse. (bis)

Il est intelligent. (bis)

Elle est courageuse. (bis)

Refrain

Regard-le, (bis)

C'est un superhéros. (bis)

Il est très sportif, (bis)

Il est super-fort. (bis)

Regarde-la, (bis)

Elle est exceptionnelle. (bis)

Elle vole en haut (bis)

Dans le vaste ciel. (bis)

Refrain (bis)

*****************************************************************************************

Qu'est-ce que c'est?

Refrain
"Qu'est-ce que c'est?
Ah! Dis-moi! "Qu'est-ce que c'est?
"Qu'est-ce que c'est?
Ah! Dis-moi! "Qu'est-ce que c'est?
"Qu'est-ce que c'est?
Ah! Dis-moi! "Qu'est-ce que c'est?
"Qu'est-ce que c'est?
Ah! Dis-moi! "Qu'est-ce que c'est?
Regarde autour de toi,
Et dis-moi tout ce que tu vois.
Qu'est-ce que c'est?"

C'est un livre. (bis)
C'est un cahier. (bis)
C'est une fenêtre. (bis)
C'est le plancher. (bis)
C'est un tableau. (bis)
C'est le professeur. (bis)
Nous voilà à nos pupitres, (bis)
Oh! là là! C'est le directeur qui dit:
Oh! là là!

Refrain

C'est une chaise. (bis)
C'est un crayon. (bis)
C'est un magnétophone. (bis)
C'est le plafond.(bis)
C'est une règle. (bis)
C'estun ordinateur. (bis)
Nous voilà à nos pupitres, (bis)
Oh! là là! C'est le directeur qui dit:
Oh! là là!

Refrain

C'est un corridor. (bis)
C'est un escalier. (bis)
C'est une très grande porte. (bis)
C'est un écolier. (bis)
C'est un classe. (bis)
C'est un visiteur. (bis)
Nous voilà à nos pupitres, (bis)
Oh! là là! C'est le directeur qui dit:
Oh! là là!

Refrain

****************************************************************************************

Happy singing!  We are looking forward to another wonderful week with our wonderful students! 

Time for Learning!

Mme. Forman has started teaching the students about telling time in Math.  You can practice at home  - ask your child to help you tell the time using an analog clock.  You can also help build time-telling skills by practicing counting by fives with your child.

Today the students were given individual user names and passwords for the computers at school.  We discussed the responsibility and importance of keeping our passwords private as we practiced logging into the computer and accessing the Tumble Books website.  We will continue to discuss and practice responsible digital citizenship skills and practices throughout the school year.

This week we continued our discussion about Respect.  Each student has a booklet that they are personalizing as we examine different ways to demonstrate respect as we honor our class rules:

1.  We will be respectful of ourselves.

2.  We will be respectful of others.

3.  We will be respectful of our school and community.

I have been reading "George's Marvelous Medicine" by Roald Dahl to the children over the past few weeks.  This action-packed story with it's zany storyline has become a class favorite.  Ask your child to tell you a bit about what has happened in the book so far.  We have shared many laughs thanks to George and his crabby Grandma.

As we continue to lay the foundation of the Daily 5 framework (read to self, read to others, listen to reading, word work, and work on writing) in English Language Arts, students also continue to practice choosing "Good Fit" books for their personal book boxes, and today we chatted about three ways to read a book.  They are:

1. Read the pictures.

2. Read the words.

3. Retell the story to someone else.

Please continue to check the sidebar for important dates and wonderful websites, as they are changed on an ongoing basis.

Reminders

Don't forget that the last day to bring in Milk orders & Scholastic Book orders is this Tuesday, Sept. 27th.  FOIPP forms are also due ASAP. Thanks!

I hope you all enjoyed the beautiful fall weekend!

Give It A Try!

We watched this video in class the other day, and had a quick discussion about trying things that we thought that we would never like, and being surprised at the results.  We didn't have a long time to chat about it, so I thought you might like to watch the video at home, and continue the discussion.  I challenge you all to try one thing you've been hesitant to try, and let us know in the comments how things turn out...because, as the saying goes, "You'll never know until you try!"



Enjoy your weekend!

Wonderful Websites

Hello friends!


I wanted to pop in to comment on the Tumble Books link that I had previously recommended.  Due to the  school district licensing agreement, we are unable to distribute the login/password information so you can log on from the link I had in the sidebar....however, you can still access this wonderful website by going directly to our school website and clicking on the Tumble Books link on the left sidebar.

École J.S. McCormick School

You can also find a handy link to pay your school fees, hot lunches, etc on the school website main page.


Mme. Forman has also shared some new Science websites for you to explore.  Check them out in the sidebar, on click through the links below.

 Study Jams - The Rock Cycle Sing Along

Interactive Rock Cycle (Parents may need to help navigate)

Happy surfing!

Nice To Meet You!

 Thank you to all of the parents for attending the Parent Information Evenings.  It was great to have a chance to meet the families, and let you know how everyone is settling into the school year.  

This week in your student's communication book you should find milk order forms, FOIPP forms and Scholastic book order forms. 

In regards to Scholastic book orders, if you are interested in purchasing books for children in your life that may be young readers, or above grade 3, please send me a note or email, and I will be sure to include the order booklets for those age groups in your next set of order forms.  Books make fabulous gifts!

In English Language Arts we discussed the "I PICK" method of selecting "good fit" books.  Making sure that we choose "good fit" books for ourselves helps us to become better readers, and makes reading so much more fun!

We also practiced the "Five Finger Rule" when looking at a book to see if we know most of the words.  Ask your child to explain how and why they use this method as they make book selections.

In Science with Mme. Forman, the students are learning about Rocks and Minerals, as well as the layers of the Earth.  Ask your child if they can remember the four types of rocks.

In Social Studies last week we read about Rosa from Peru, and this week we are reading about Tahar from Tunisia.  In the next week, we will also read about Oksana from Ukraine, and Anil from India.  Learning about these children helps us to learn and talk about the similarities and differences between our lives and children in other parts of the world.

A Great Start!

Greetings Students & Families! 

We are pleased to welcome you to our class blog.  Here you will find updates on what's new in the class, reminders about upcoming events, and a celebration of learning as the school year progresses.  Keep an eye out for interesting links and fun photos as well.

We would like to thank parents for taking the time to share with us about your child "In a Million Words or Less".  They were a definite delight to read and will be very helpful to us as we continue to become aquainted with the students in the class. We know that September is a very busy month for families, and want to let you know that if you haven't yet sent your "Million Words..." in and would like to do so, we would welcome you to email us or send it with your child when the time is convenient for you. 

We have had a great start to the school year!  It has been wonderful getting to know the students and settling into a routine.  We look forward to meeting you on the Parent Information evenings!