Thank you.
Miss Shykora
Please see agendas for days and times for parent-teacher interviews next week. If you have any issues please write a note in your child's agenda.
Thank you. Miss Shykora
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Today we had the opportunity to wear our Evergreen shirts as well as orange shirts. The orange shirt represents a child who was placed in a residential school and told she was not allowed to wear her brand new orange shirt to school.We had an opportunity to go on our Rock Walk today. We had the chance to go to a large field and choose rocks that we will later be able to classify as igneous, sedimentary or metamorphic. Our "homework" is to wash the rocks we collected today and bring them back to school so we can put them in our egg carton cases for safe keeping.
Way to go 3K! Together we raised $54.35 for cancer research!! We even had time to stop by the park on our way back to school.
We will be participating in our Terry Fox Run on Friday, September 23, at 11:00 a.m. Our goal is to each bring in a Toonie for Terry in order to raise $1000 for Cancer Research.
Today I had the chance to come in and officially meet the kids. I must say, what a fun and awesome group we have this year. I was really impressed how tuned in they were and how excited they were to participate. I had a chance to take their portfolio pictures and I think you'll agree that we have a great looking bunch! After the fun and games outside, the students headed in for some DEAR time and some individual seat work. I took that opportunity to sneak a few shots of them around the room but will certainly get some more the next time I am in. Before I left, I snapped just a few shots of our "Best of Me" board just in case some of you missed the "Meet the Teacher" BBQ tonight. The students put in a lot of hard work on these and it shows in just how fabulous they turned out! If you get the chance, pop in and see the display just outside the classroom. Great work 3K! Click on the image below for a closer look at it. ONE MORE NOTE FROM MRS. KELLN: It was great meeting many of you tonight at the BBQ! Great to see parents coming out and showing the kids that we are all invested in them.
Now that I've said hello and been able to briefly meet the kids, I will pop in here and there but for the most part I will be spending the last few weeks soaking up the time I have left at home with my own littles. Miss Shykora is doing awesome and I'm confident you will keep going with this awesome steam she has built in the room. She will continue to post on the blog to keep you up to date and I will check back often. In the meantime, have a great fall and I'll see you in just a few short weeks! I just wanted to give a huge shout-out to our 3K family for working so hard to complete our "The Best Part of Me" projects! They will be proudly displayed tomorrow on our classroom bulletin board for all to enjoy. Way to go 3K! Looking forward to seeing everyone at the Meet the Staff Barbeque tomorrow!
Please and thank you! Also, I'll be in tomorrow mid day to take the portfolio pics of the students. These are not the formal package photos but are used instead for the portfolio that showcases their hard work this year. Can't wait to chat with everyone!
We had our first spelling test returned today. It was great to see what strong spellers we have in our classroom! Our expectations are high when it comes to spelling the word correctly, while paying attention to details in printing. I watched for capital letters in all the appropriate places, letter reversals, floating or sinking letters, as well as spacing of letters. For example, if your child spelled the word correctly but had a capital letter at the beginning or middle of the word, it was marked as incorrect. This initial spelling test is a starting point for the year and it will be exciting to see the progression throughout the rest of the school year. A side note about the spelling program from Mrs. Kelln:
This spelling assessment is done at the start of the year and at the end of the year. In grade three we now begin to distinguish between simply putting LETTERS in the correct spot and proper spelling that allows the reader to understand the word and sentence as a whole. As a result, your child may achieve lower than they (or you) expect on this initial test to begin with as they get use to the structure of properly spelling words. For example, look at the following sentence. The broWn bog is ve ry faSt, dut the blue Snail is very sLoW. You can immediately see the errors in the above sentence. I don't believe anyone would say that this sentence is correct despite all the LETTERS being in the right places. The first letter of the first word should indeed be capitalized while the "s" in the word "snail" should not be. The capitals in the middle of the words make it harder to read and the large spacing between the "ve" and "ry" requires the reader to have to read the sentence again to get the proper meaning. Additionally, the "b" and "d" reversals create new or nonsense words that are not intended (this is a very common issue in grade 2 and 3). Finally, if you could see this on paper, the word sLoW might have the letters falling down the page or floating up to the top. In grade 3, students are learning the fundamentals of reading and writing and it is important we begin to emphasize proper spelling. In our class, we model proper spelling that includes capitalization, spacing, anchoring, etc. as this will allow the total of our work to be understood and appreciated. Prior to being given this test students were reminded of all of these classic errors to watch out for. This provides you with a starting point as to where your child is in their spelling journey today and you will hopefully see great gains made over the course of the year. It is not uncommon for students to be a full grade level (or even two) below on this initial test as they learn the increased spelling expectations of grade 3. Don't worry though, students are reminded repeatedly throughout their day to ensure they are following proper spelling guidelines while writing and often show improvement quite quickly! Soon they are even catching our mistakes! (We encourage this as it shows that we are all lifelong learners and that everyone makes mistakes and that's ok!) |
Keep Up!
This blog is updated often (even daily!) to keep you up to speed with what is happening in our classroom. You'll see exactly how our days go and stay in the loop with upcoming events and special announcements. Be sure to check back often! Find Past Posts!
February 2017
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