Students combined their knowledge of colour, using water-colour paint, body shape and proportion to create this project. After having created foil sculptures students had some background in creating movement in a figure, thinking about body parts and joints.
The final projects are fantastic!
We started this art project with a discussion about foreground and background. We talked about what our body parts would look like if we were falling backwards. Where would our hands be? What about our feet? What would it look like to someone watching us fall?
Then students used their own hands and feet as templates, working together to trace around each. They added in the rest of their bodies, thinking about size and shape. The last step was to consider what they could be falling back into. Students brainstormed a large variety of places/things.
Students used permanent markers and tempura paint pucks to add the colour and details. Students realized that painting with water-colour paints is something they are going to need to practise as they discover techniques to create texture and shades.
We are so fortunate to be able to engage in a learning buddies project this year. We have partnered up with the grade 5 class. Once a week we get together to engage in reading, games, and cooperative play. The grade 5’s have the opportunity to build their leadership skills as they tutor the K’s and the K’s benefit from one-on-one learning. The amount of talk and smiles that we have observed tell us that this is a successful project!
Thank-you so much, grade 5’s for going on this learning adventure with us!
What better way to learn about money than to go shopping! So… we got to work constructing a grocery store. The students were pros at the construction having had so much experience with building. They knew how to plan what they needed, survey the land and materials and worked as a team.
The Wyevale Food Land was finally built!
Next, we talked about who would work at a grocery store and what each job would entail. We also talked about customers. After a few read alouds we determined that shoppers usually make a grocery list before going shopping. Therefore, before allowed to shop in our store, customers needed to make a grocery list!
The store has been open every day with students taking on different roles. They are learning a lot about responsibility! We’ve learned about the different coins, what kinds of things we can buy with each coin and why we need to save money. Students also talked about buying healthy foods as well as treats. Lots of cross-curricular learning happening with this project!
This week we spent a lot of time exploring the concept of diversity and thinking about how we can work and play together to make others feel good. We read the book: The World Made a Rainbow. The students realized that the colours came together to create something that made people smile, even when we couldn’t spend time together.
We then listened to and sang the song, “A Rainbow World” This song was a great way to introduce the idea that we all look different but when we come together we can be something great-just like a rainbow! Here is a video of another group of students performing the song!
Students all made a rainbow to display in our class. They used cutting and gluing skills.
Students used their drawing and writing skills to create a mural about working and playing together.
Then, students explored the concept of diversity further as they played with dolls representing children around the world!
With two more stories we made self-to-text and text-to-text connections, further exploring the idea of celebrating our differences and how we become something amazing when we come together!
It was time to do some writing! Students participated in a sharing circle, “What makes you special?” The students helped me to write some ideas to complete the sentence, “I am special because…” and then they got to work with independent writing.
It all came together with one bulletin board, “Each one of us is UNIQUE, but when we get TOGETHER the picture is COMPLETE!
Students have been learning about rhythm and beat in music as well as learning to sing in-tune. An echo song is a great tool to help us learn and practise these skills. We also talked about how the music makes us feel as well as the lyrics. Many of us felt that this was a sad song, even though it has a lively tune. Recording our production has helped us to feel a sense of accomplishment in music.
Visiters: Please reply to this post and tell us how this song makes you feel. Do you think it is a happy song or a sad song? Perhaps you have other ideas to share with us!
During our unit on linear measurement we have been exploring the length of a centimetre and a metre. We’ve established benchmarks to help with estimating and have discovered the power of 10 when converting centimetres to metres and vice versa.
Today, we thought about measuring longer distances and thought about kilometres. Students had trouble visualizing the length of a kilometre. The question posed to the class was:
How many times would you have to walk around our school yard to walk one kilometre?
Students worked in pairs to plan their strategies and carry them out. Some students used a benchmark of a giant step and some used a metre stick.
Then it was time to talk about the strategies! Most students agreed that they were getting tired taking giant steps all the way around the yard. Some students solved this problem using some paper and pencil math and the data they collected while measuring half of the yard and then walking once around the yard.
We’ve had a great beginning to our Fables Unit!
We began the unit with some sequencing, looking at pictures and putting them in order to tell the story of The Lion and the Mouse. Students told the story to each other orally first. Then we shared our stories in our community circle. This provided an opportunity for some rich discussion about the sequence of events and defending our ideas!
Next, students completed a quick write activity in which they used the pictures to help them write the story. The focus was on telling a story with a beginning, middle and end and writing complete sentences.
The next step was to read the book, “The Lion and the Mouse”. Some students were surprised by the actual order of events and some confirmed their thinking.
Students then used Flipgrid to respond to the text and talk about the lesson in the fable. The goal is for students to be able to state their thoughts and then justify those thoughts with evidence from the text.
Parents: Have your child log in to the Flipgrid with their id to view all of the videos below!
We had so much fun at the Huronnia Museum, you should go some time! While we were at the museum, we made dream-catchers, made whizzers, went into a Wendat village and had a treasure hunt.
First, when we got into the museum we dressed up as pioneers. The girls had long skirts and aprons and the boys had vests. We pretended that we were from France and went to Canada because we were poor and were looking for a better life. The boat ride lasted 8 weeks. Lots of people died because of sea sickness and rats spreading diseases. It was extremely cramped and unpleasant. When we arrived in Canada, we had to stay in quarantine before we were allowed entry. We liked the activity but we are glad that we weren’t really settlers making the journey.
Next, we made whizzers. We used string and a wooden button and tape. We put string through the holes of the button and made a knot. Then we put the button in the middle of the loop. Finally, you spin it and lightly tug on the ends to keep it spinning. It was hard for some of us to make the whizzer work.
Then, we made dream-catchers and went out to the Wendat village. The first nations people were here before the early settlers came. So, it is important to learn about them as well. We heard the story of the dream-catcher. A chief was having bad dreams and they made a plan of how to get rid of them. They made a dream-catcher to catch the bad dreams and turn them into good dreams. It was hard to make the dream-catchers. It required a lot of patience. But, they were beautiful in the end. Going out to the Wendat village was a lot of fun. We saw a longhouse and played some games.
Lastly, we did a scavenger hunt/treasure hunt in the museum. It was hard to find some things because they look very different today. The old-fashioned toilet was just a chair with a pot underneath and the ladies’ bathing suits looked like dresses. The hunt was challenging and fun!
We liked our day because we learned a lot about early settlers and were challenged.
Written by: the grade 3 students
