The students of 3B have so much to be proud of from this year! We had a great celebration with our carnival and assembly today, and they each received an award suited to their individual talents, treasured quirks, and merits. We've had such a remarkable group of students this year who worked so well together, and I am proud of each and every one of them! I hope you all have a wonderful summer, and am looking forward to seeing the students when they're back in a couple of months!
As we reflected on the wonderful friendships from this year in 3B, the students each made a portrait of a friend. They did a great job using some helpful artistic principles, and they really captured the personalities of their classmates. We've had a great group of friends this year in 3B!
Today the grade three classes celebrated our learning about Tunisia, Ukraine, India, and Peru with a big cultural celebration! Each classroom was transformed into one of the four countries, complete with activities, decorations, and (most importantly) tasty food! The students flew around to each destination, and it was a great way to cap off all our learning about these global communities. They are officially expert global citizens! We had a meaningful, learning-filled, and fun time celebrating National Indigenous Peoples Day this week as we participated in some special performances and activities. The highlight was Métis dancer Kenton Alook visiting our school. His performance was so impressive, and we learned a lot about Métis culture and heritage. We also got to hear from some First Nations, Métis, and Inuit elders the next day, and learned from artist Lance Cardinal about traditional moose-skin moccasins. We were so lucky to learn from and celebrate with these special knowledge keepers!
Happy Father's Day! The students worked hard on their poetry and art for this special occasion. Thank you to all you wonderful 3B dads, step-dads, grandpas, and other wonderful father figures who play such an important part in these children's lives!
3B was full of book characters today as we celebrated Book Hero Day at Millgrove! We have many enthusiastic readers in our class, so unsurprisingly there were many enthusiastic book heroes in our room (and the rest of the school)!
This week we went to explore all the animals and plants at the John Janzen Nature Centre! We took a look at a local pond, explored animals in the pond with nets, and identified local species of critters and plants! We got to peer at a pond creatures life cycle from beginning to end and discovered the web of life of a pond ecosystem.
In the afternoon, we investigated habitats around the Nature Centre for tracks and traces that animals left behind. We also honed our hiding skills and practiced stalking prey with some games! It was a beautiful day to explore the river valley, and we learned so much about animal life cycles. We had a transformative experience this month as we saw our pupa metamorphosize into butterflies! The class had fun taking them out at different times to watch them fly out into the big wide world of our school field. It was very exciting to watch them come out of their chrysalises and pump up their wings. You can watch the videos below to see the life cycle of the Painted Lady butterfly. We’ve started coding in our class this month, which means that we’re telling a computer, app, phone, or website what we want it to do. This week we used an app called Lightbot and soon will use some robots named Dash and Dot to practice our skills in communicating, solving complex problems, and thinking logically and critically. The class found working with a partner to solve problems especially fun!
As this CBC article reports, "Today, computing is involved in almost all aspects of our lives, from communications and education to social media, banking, information, security and shopping. Networked computers are capable of controlling our homes’ thermostats and lighting, our cars and our health records... Computational thinking allows preschoolers to grasp concepts like algorithms, recursion and heuristics—even if they don’t understand the terms, they’ll learn the basic concepts." I had the privilege of working with Dr. Cathy Adams at the U of A on some research during my Education degree, and she was interviewed here and here about coding in our curriculum, saying, "This is not about raising a generation of coders, but about educating a new generation of creative, engaged and ethical citizens who are able to understand, participate and critically evaluate the new digital landscapes that we are increasingly working, playing and living in." You can read more about the thinking behind students being exposed to coding here, and we will keep you updated on our further adventures in coding!
Millgrove’s annual track meet was a great success today as students got to explore all sorts of track and field events and enjoy a beautiful morning outside. We tried out long distance running, hurdles, throwing challenges, and all sorts of other activities. Volunteers had also organized some wonderful treats for us to enjoy, and we had a wonderful picnic lunch. It was great for students to make use of their growing PE abilities! Today Mrs. Smith hosted us for a Literary Café where each student got to read their favourite writing piece from grade three. The class was a respectful audience, and it was wonderful to hear the range of genres and creative ideas in all of the writing pieces. Mrs. Smith had prepared special drinks for us, and the class liked munching on snacks while listening to some fantastic writing
With the lovely weather this week, our class spent some time reading outside. We got to have our guided reading groups at the picnic tables, and the class had fun with the change of scenery. As we’ve learned this year, one of the most important parts about developing a reading life is finding and getting settled in the perfect reading spot, so we had some nice practice with that reading outdoors!
We had our last Play Parkland trip of the year today as the class went swimming! They've learned so much about gymnastics, swimming, skating, and other sports this year on these field trips, and they were especially excited to cap off the year with one last trip to the pool!
We were very excited to get an update from Mrs. Hardy about our chicks this week! They're growing so well, and have a nice big home to explore now. Mrs. Hardy describes the home they're in now as the elementary school for chickens, and soon they'll be graduating on to junior high! We miss them, but are really glad they have such a wonderful home.
Our writing project this week was to write a story based on the book "Where's My Hockey Sweater." Students worked on having a clear story structure, rich vocabulary, and a funny catchphrase. You can see some of the results below!
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Mrs. BarkerMrs. Barker is a grade three 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
April 2024
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