Our mantises have been growing well this month with a steady diet of crickets, and they might be ready for the odd meal worm soon! We have three that we're taking care of in our classroom, and we've grown quite fond of them. They've gone through several incomplete metamorphoses where they shed their skin and grow larger, and it's always impressive to see how big they get over a matter of days and how impressive their hunting skills are! To celebrate the warm weather and the arrival of spring, Millgrove had a day themed around one of spring’s best things – rainbows! Our class enjoyed the many colours that people dressed up in, and we had fun with some rainbow-themed dancing and literature. It's always special to see the school come together, and it was definitely a colourful bunch at Millgrove today! Our class has been captivated this month by the chapter book Matilda. It is about an extraordinarily intelligent and brave young girl who uses her remarkable gifts to overcome adversity and challenge injustices. Roald Dahl's storytelling prowess is evident in every page, with vivid characters and a blend of humor and heart. His skillful use of descriptive language and a playful narrative voice makes the book a joy to read and a powerful example for us as writers. We can't wait to find out what happens next to poor Matilda! We recently wrapped up an exciting writing project inspired by the Who Would Win? books by Jerry Pallotta. These books pit two animals against each other in a fictional showdown, using facts and illustrations to compare their strengths, behaviors, and abilities to predict a winner. To create our own versions, we researched two animals of our choice, gathering information on their habitats, diets, and unique characteristics. Using the structure of Pallotta's books, we wrote nonfiction pieces that presented our findings in an engaging, comparative format. This project not only honed our research and writing skills but also sparked lively discussions and debates about the animal kingdom. It was a fun and educational way to combine creativity with factual writing. Our class has been closely observing the seeds we planted as they grow and bend toward the light at our window! This fascinating behavior is teaching us how plants have senses and respond to stimuli. We've also observed the essential needs of plants and how they obtain energy. Watching our plants thrive has made our learning on plant biology come to life!
Three grade three classes had a blast today in the gym because we had indoor recess with the rain that kept us inside. We enjoyed fun and lively guided dancing that got everyone moving and laughing! The energetic music and dance routines brightened our rainy day and brought a lot of joy to the gym, despite the inclement weather.
We've had a delightful month with the chicks, and they officially made the trip back to their farm today! We got to spend some time with Mrs. Hardy again who taught us a lot about the chicken development and behaviour and how the chicks will live on the farm, and we got to see some older chicks from a couple of months ago who had grown so much! The class was very sad to see them go because we've grown accustomed to their silly antics, musical chirping, and cuddly-soft feathers. We learned so much about this animal, and the students were devoted caretakers to these newborns. The students of 3SB were wonderful chick parents!
In our language arts class, we watched the movie Because of Winn-Dixie after reading the book, which allowed us to compare the two versions. We noticed that while the movie stayed true to the book’s core themes and major plot points, some scenes and details were changed or omitted. The characters' personalities remained consistent, though the visual and emotional interpretations differed. Overall, this experience deepened our appreciation for the story and sparked discussions on storytelling in different mediums. In both versions, we loved Kate DiCamillo's heartwarming, honest, and humourous story!
Our grade three class had an exciting visit to see the Caine's arcade creations made by the grade four students in Mrs. Gallant and Mrs. Constantin's classes! The creativity and effort put into the cardboard games were truly impressive, showcasing a variety of fun and inventive designs. We had a blast playing the games and learning about the engineering and imagination that went into building them. This visit inspired us and gave us great ideas for our own future projects!
We've really enjoyed getting to know the chicks this week and all their charming personalities! Some of them are docile, some are sassy, and some seem to think that they can fly! Mrs. Hardy will be coming to collect the chicks next week, and while we'll miss them so much, we know that they'll be happy to have lots of space on her property! We continued our learning on data analysis this week as we formulated questions, collected data, and represented information using charts, line plots and bar graphs. The students especially enjoyed surveying their peers, and we found out lots of interesting information about each other!
We had a blast sharing our poems with the school today for Poem In Your Pocket Day! Each student memorized a poem this month, and today they recited to their poem to several staff members and students around Millgrove. There were poems that made the audience laugh, others that made them say "awww," and 3SB did a great job sharing an appreciation of poetry with the school!
As part of our science learning about Living Systems, we planted some seeds this week! We have poppies and peas growing, and we've been learning about how seeds germinate. As the weeks go on, we'll talk about plant needs, senses, and conservation as well. The students were especially fascinated when we learned about plant cells and DNA which led to some rich discussions!
The most exciting event of this week has been the arrival of our chicks! We had 13 hatch, and and the different chicken breeds are all adorable and fascinating to observe. The class has been abuzz about all the interesting chick behaviour, their amusing names, and careful tending to their needs. They've even been the topic of many a poem in our class this week. We can't wait to spend more time with them next week!
We're starting a new unit this week in Math on Data Analysis. Data analysis relates to the collection, organization, and interpretation of information.
In this unit, your child will:
Here are some suggestions for activities you can do with your child.
We had an extra fun counting collection today as we worked with Digi-Blocks! Digi-Block is a base-ten model that students build by themselves using specially-designed boxes (“holders”) to assemble single blocks into blocks-of-10; then they assemble these blocks-of-10 to make blocks-of-100, and they assemble block-of-100 to make blocks-of-1000. The key to PLACE-VALUE is to think of “ten” in two different ways – as one thing and as ten things. With Digi-Block, this potentially confusing duality becomes physically obvious: a block-of-ten looks like one thing, but when it’s open, it looks like ten things! Each table counted a large group of ones, and then over a succession of groupings, we counted exactly 600 blocks as a class!
We were excited to welcome some praying mantises to our class this week! As part of our unit on living systems, our class received a delivery of three mantis hatchlings. They are Chinese mantises, and are currently snacking on flightless fruit flies. Eventually they'll grow large enough to eat crickets! The class has been dutifully checking on them throughout the day since they arrived, and we have named them Joe, Lizzy, and Mant. You can watch the video below to see a mantis laying an ootheca of eggs. This week we've been learning more about chicken adaptations and development! We got to candle a couple of the eggs, and we learned all about the different parts of the egg that allow the chick to develop inside. Students "dissected" their own egg in class to find the albumen, air pocket, embryo, chalaza, yolk, and membrane. It was egg-cellent fun! We've continued our hard work on poetry this week! We focused on writing Thank You Poems and List Poems this week, and the students' creativity was delightful. You can see some of our poems below!
For the next couple of months in Social Studies our class will be focusing on the country of Ukraine! So far the students have noticed that Ukraine has some features in common with Canada, but also some interesting differences. Ukrainian sports, industries, and communities have been interesting so far, and we'll also get to learn lots about Ukrainian culture. ми не можемо чекати (we can't wait)!
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Mrs. BarkerMrs. Barker is a grade three and literacy teacher at Millgrove School. She loves science and reading, and lives in a little brick house with Mr. Barker and her kids Jack and Ellie. Archive
May 2024
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