December's First Week

In lieu of a daily post, how about 4 pictures at once?!! Here are random images captured this week.

The heavenly angels bulletin board

Front display case filled with

Favorite Christmas Decorations from Staff Members

One of my favorites

(the camel came from Israel some 25+ years ago)

One of this week's Healthy Hearts activities was

Alphabet Aerobics! Try it!!

Christmas is A-Coming

Art Today

"Creche Creations"

I thought perhaps this month I would give you a little glimpse into our school as we prepare for the Christmas season.

My goal is a "picture-a-day" -

hopefully I'll remember to snap a shot every day.

End of November - already!

Another month is fading! This one has seen report cards, interviews, a fieldtrip and the beginning of Christmas Concert practices.

Due to inclement weather on Thursday night, some of the later parent teacher student interviews were cancelled. I will be contacting you to reschedule this week. Please send me a note if you have a preference for date and time.

Students have brought home words for 2 Christmas songs that they will be singing at our concert in 2 weeks on December 14th. Please memorize both of them - this will be the reader's theatre assignment for this week.

Report Cards!

Have left the building! Students will have important news to share with you about their progress in grade 3 today. It's always so amazing to reflect on how much they have learned in just 10 weeks. Already they are so different than they were in September.

Also included in the envelope is an interview time when I will be very pleased to meet with each student and their parents to discuss progress. Please let me know if you are unable to come at the interview time and I will be very happy to reschedule.

Have a great weekend!

Science Test Tomorrow!

We are finishing our unit on hearing and sound and tomorrow I would like you to show me what you know! Here are some ideas you should be able to tell me about:
vibrations
pitch
volume
parts of the ear
how your ears work
how to care for your ears

I'm looking forward to seeing everything you know!!

Operation Christmas Child

Thank you to all of our students, parents and community members who helped us fill and send 100 shoeboxes to Samaritan's Purse for distribution around the world!! There will be some very happy children receiving these boxes in places like Mexico, Thailand, Zimbabwe, Chile and India. Sometimes very small gifts like pencils, paper and toothpaste can be the best gifts!

Writing Project

Today we looked at what makes a story 'good'.
What kind of stories do we like to read?
What makes some stories interesting and others boring?
Why do we say "keep reading" sometimes?
How can a story be improved?

Tomorrow we are going to look at 3 stories and assess them using a rubric. Mrs. Fandrick will be helping us for 2 blocks every day this week. As part of our school's AISI (Alberta Initiative for School Improvements) project, we are involved in a GREAT project learning more about self reflection and individual assessments. This week our class is learning how to use a rubric to assess story writing pieces. If you are interested in learning more about this project, check the Black Gold website under the AISI tab.

November's Here!

After an awesome time celebrating Halloween this week, we are now into a new month! This is a month of tests, report cards, reflecting and planning for the learning that will happen for the rest of the year. Busy, busy stuff for all of us here at CES.

One of our focus areas next week will be on the theme of Remembrance Day and world peace. On Thursday, grade 3 - 6 students will have an opportunity to hear a parent speak about service in the armed forces. On Friday, Nov. 10th, at 10:45 a.m., there will be a school assembly in honor of those who have served our country in war and in peace keeping. Students who belong to Brownies, Guides, Scouts or any other group that wears a uniform are invited to come to assembly in their uniform. Parents are invited to join us at this time. Poppies are available in the office this week for a donation amount of your choosing.

The social test planned for today has been postponed due to a technical problem with the school photo copy machine.

A New Week

Welcome to Winter!! It's going to be so much fun playing outside at recess tomorrow! Remember to wear all your winter gear including boots.

This will be one of the most exciting weeks of the year with the much anticipated day of Halloween! Other things to note:
Our party will be Tuesday afternoon and you can get dressed in your costume at noon recess.
No school on Wednesday for Professional Development Day.
Book Fair Blizzard continues for 2 more days.
Social test on mapping skills and general geography is Friday, Nov. 3rd.
Musical instruments can go home this week. Congratulations on the good job you did, Students!

And on a personal note - our daughter, Heather, and her husband, Jonathan, welcomed tiny Helayna Lorraine into their family on October 25th. Everyone is doing fine and she is just perfect for cuddling!!

Math Update

We are working in the second math unit, Patterns and Relationships. It's great fun sorting and classifying groups of things. Today we looked at attributes of people : hair, shoes, eyes, and things we can do. We used our classroom matrix and sorted ourselves into groups that matched the attribute cards. Then we worked in groups and sorted a bag of objects. It was hard to think of 2 attributes to use for sorting. We used size, color, texture, and beauty as some of our sorting characteristics.

P.S. The green words are math vocabulary words - students, make sure you know what they mean!

Parents - you can help by asking your child to work with you and demonstrate this activity at home.. Use any objects you have handy (eg. bolts, plastic lids, crayons, seeds, etc.).

Welcome to a New Year!

Welcome to the world of learning in grade 3! We are off to a great start and very busy with learning activities.

Daily activities now include:

- morning assemblies - Tuesday and Friday with character development themes - for October our focus is on respect. On Wednesday and Thursday all students spend block 1 reading - literacy is one of our school's main academic goals.

- Healthy Hearts - activities every afternoon to get us moving and developing personal fitness. We've learnt several new games - Johnny Went to Sleep, Hide the Clothespin, Dog Tag, Quoits, Four Corners, and Traffic Tag.

- math - really focussing on the addition basic facts. Watch for some practise games coming home in the next week - be prepared to play together!

- reading - questions we ask ourselves every time we read are:
What might happen next?
What's the main idea of this paragraph?
What are some details I know now?

Remember to fill in your reading log every day and when the sheet is full, bring it to school to trade in for some prizes!!

Swimming Fieldtrips

We have gone swimming 2 times at the Tri-Leisure Centre in Spruce Grove. We are going one more time on June 23. We have tried the water slides, play house, boogie boards and just playing. It really is fun!

We are going bowling on the last day of school. Liam has never been bowling even though he did want to go for his birthday. Bryton thinks it will be hard for Liam to get the ball all the way down the lane because he had a hard time the first time he went.
But Bryton was 7 and Liam is 8 so maybe it will be easier because he is stronger. We'll see!! After bowling, we are going to have lunch at McDonald's

Grade 3 science projects

This is in the front foyer where we meet up and you can see this mural. Mrs. Brod's daughter Jeanine McIntosh painted the picture. She is a very good artist - she did this painting in one weekend - just 2 days. Stingrays are one of the biggest mammals ever! We are a good track team named the Calmar Elementary Stingrays. The track team is very fast and we get to wear tshirts with a stingray on them. On the back of our shirts it says "We will shock you!". That's a good school motto for our awesome school.

Chick News!

The mystery egg hatched last weekend. There is a new chick now. He is gray,unlike the others and he's got light yellow stripes. When he tries to walk,he does the splits. He loves sitting in his food. It seems that he is wild. He wobbles around a lot when he's scared. He is cute, funny and soft. When he gets too scared , he scrapes the bottom of the box. He is tiny too and adorable.

by Jennifer and Bailey

Chick Update!

Cheep! Cheep! Chirp! Chirp! The egg that belongs to Jayme is chirping and cheeping. I hope more eggs hatch. Buddy and TJ are doing really well. I wonder if Jayme's egg will hatch. Whenever we read a chick story, the chicks chirp! They bother us lots when we do our work. The chicks sometimes bite if you bother them. Yesterday, we created aristic poems using chick words. Buddy, who is Bronson and Brytons chick went to the bathroom on Bailey's pants! The chicks are as fluffy as cotton balls and yellow like mustard. TJ is very squirmish when you hold him. TJ, who's real name is Tucker Junior is Alyssa's chick. The chicks have a very small box. I think they need a bigger one. The chicks sometimes fight by pecking at each other. Buddy is not so squirmish and is much calmer than TJ. TJ is a boy and so is Buddy. The exotic egg that is in the incubator looks like it might have been dropped or crushed. The chicks look very cute. TJ lost his egg tooth but Buddy still has his. I think the chicks don't like each other much. I hope the chicks stay for a while longer. If they have to go, I hope they have a good home. I wonder if the chicks can swim. I wonder if we are going to do something like this in grade 4.

By Claudia and Kassidy
May 26, 2006

The Chicklets

When the chicks first hatched, everybody was really excited! Buddy was the first born followed by TJ, the second chick. TJ, the feisty little guy is now two days old. Buddy is now three days old. Buddy is the tamest of the two and TJ is the feistiest. They look like chunks of bright yellow mustard. It is very hard to concentrate when the chicks are chirping all the time while we are working. The chicks chirp and cheep when we are reading chicken books because these are their favorite types of stories to hear. They are very soft and fluffy and also very cute. When they were eggs, they were very quiet and did not distract us. Now that two are hatched, we get distracted from the noise. Buddy hatched over the May long weekend. TJ hatched sometime after school on Tuesday and his feathers were still wet when we came to school on Wednesday morning. Everyone was crowding around the incubator to see the new born chick. Buddy spent more time in the incubator than TJ did because the box was not quite ready for its new residents. Buddy moved into his new home at the end of the day and TJ moved in with his brother the following morning. When we put the food in, only buddy ate. They sometimes lay down in the food dish and they sometimes almost fall into the water dish. We love our chicks so much and hope that our chick will hatch soon. We haven't picked a name for it yet but we soon will chose one. If it is a boy, we may name him Chicken Little but if it is a girl she might be Emily. That's all for now. Bye! Chirp! Chirp!

Kassandra and Leomi

Chick Flick!

Cock-a-doodle-doo! Oh no wait, we mean Chirp! Cheep! Chirp! #2 has been born! Can you believe it? Alley the chick has HATCHED!

The chicks have been put in a box now. There is a heating lamp over top of the box to keep them warm. Alley and Buddy have some food and water in their box. They are having a lot of fun in the box.

Today ,we have 1 more chicken egg and 1 mystery egg cracking up! I wonder which egg will hatch first ? Hope it will not be a fight.

The chicks cheep very loudly now. Sometimes they cheep and interrupt us when we are reading a chick book.

Got to go the chicks are chirping very loudly bye!

by Bailey, Jayme, and Alyssa.

Chirp! Chirp!! Classroom News!!

Wow! An amazing sound greeted us when we came into the classroom this morning! A new chick was waiting for us in the incubator! He has been named Buddy and he spent a lot of time cheeping today. Everyone had a chance to hold him and checked on him every chance they got. One of the other eggs had a tiny crack in it this morning and by the end of the day there were 2 holes in it. We could see feathers and some movement inside the egg. At 4:32 p.m., after lots of pushing and peeping, chick #2 hatched. Doesn't he look cute??!!

Activities on the May Long Weekend

Did your family go camping or away for the long weeknd? Your writing journal assignment for today is to write a paragraph describing your weekend activities. Be sure to include these points:

1. Who were some of the people you saw and did things with while you were away from school?

2. Where were you? Include lots of descriptive words so that I can feel like I was there too!

3. What were some of the activities that you did? What did you like most? What would you like to change?

4. Please ask me 3 questions that are connected in some way to your entry.

5. Choose 3 phrases of at least 3 words to summarize your weekend.

HAVE FUN WRITING!! I CAN HARDLY WAIT TO READ YOUR WORK!

Go, Oilers, Go!!

It's official! We're going to Anaheim for the Western Conference Finals - the first time in 14 years. Oil Fever is gripping the school, especially in Mr. Mackiewich's classroom and the office. Be sure to wear your Oilers jersey anytime this week.

We Will Shock You!

The grade 3's at our school are entering the world of blogging! Welcome to updates about our activities and news about homework. We know you are going to love visiting us!

It's official! Our mascot is a stingray and our slogan is "We will shock you!" This week students and families have sent in orders for school tshirts and we know they will be all over town in no time at all. Enjoy wearing yours and promoting CES. I will let you know the expected delivery date for tshirt orders next week. Be sure to check the gorgeous stingray mural, painted by Jeanine Macintosh that is gracing the foyer of our school.