Half Pints Presentation

As part of this month's focus on bullying and character education, the Half Pints Basketball team visited us. They talked about looking different but still being able to do everything we can do - and even doing some things better than most of us, like playing basketball! It was lots of fun to have them play tricks, shoot hoops and talk about their experiences.

Skipathon

Thank you to everyone who supported our Jump Rope for Heart event!
Students raised more than $6000 - thank you for your effort in both fundraising and in skipping. Here's to healthy hearts and bodies!!



Jump Bands




Hula hoops




Follow the leader




Jump the dragons' tail




Hula hoop hopping

February Notes

Happy Valentine's Day Week!!!

Things to look forward to this week:

Jump Rope for Heart Skipathon tomorrow - grade 3's will skip from 1:15 - 1:45 p.m.

Valentine Card Exchange during the last 2 blocks of the day

AISI project time - Mrs. Fandrick will work with us on story writing skills

Monday, February 19 - Family Day - No School - have fun with your family!!

Tuesday, February 20 - 8:40 a.m. - Half Pints Basketball presentation on bullying

Lots to look forward to during a cold, snowy winter week!!

Coming Soon

Our school is participating in theHeart and Stroke Foundation's
Jump Rope for Heart
on Febraury 14th!
We'll be improving our own heart health
and raising money to do more research
and try to find a cure for this disease.

A jump rope team from Camrose in action!
Look at the ropes go and the leg kicks - they were SO good!

We are learning to skip and practicing our tricks.
Did you know you can jump rope with a single rope, a long rope,
a hula hoop, or jump bands?

If you'd like to, please come and join in skipping with us
on Valentine's Day!

Saying Goodbye

Our school secretary has moved to a new job at Central Office and we had to say good-bye to her last week. It was a sad time for her, as she's been at Calmar school for 14 years. We will miss her dearly but wish her every success as she learns new things. Thank you for doing such an awesome job here, Carol!

Students signed a giant card for her

Everyone got a high 5 or a hug!

First Week Back

It's been cold, windy and snowy but we are back in class! It was great to see everyone on Monday and hear all about the holiday activities and fun. Wow - lots of cool presents came to lots of very good kids! Here's a quick review of this week's activities:

Monday - reading, writing, math - we were back into the groove real quick
Tuesday - started a new unit on basketball in phys ed and finished geometric solids in math
Wednesday - Mrs. K couldn't get through the snowbanks to come to school - there were only 10 kids here
Thursday - reviewing multiplication concepts and preparing for the unit test next week
Friday - finding out lots of new things about 4 countries around the world - we'd like to go on a major fieldtrip to visit!

And we had lots of indoor recess time this week! Hopefully the weather will improve and we can play outside in all the snow next week. Stay warm this weekend!

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.