As we conclude our Energy Unit on forces and simple machines, we learned a lot as we built our Rube Goldberg Machines this week. Inspired by the whimsical cartoons of Rube Goldberg, students eagerly built their own Rube Goldberg machines using materials from home and school. From levers to pulleys, each machine showcased their understanding of forces and simple machines. The classroom buzzed with creativity as we celebrated each other's designs and marveled at the creative cause-and-effect sequences. Through this project, students not only grasped scientific concepts but also honed essential skills like problem-solving and teamwork. Here's to the joy of learning and the endless possibilities that await as we learn about science! We took part in Pink Shirt Day on Wednesday and the students had a lot of ideas about how to stand up to bullying behaviour and get help when we need it. Pink Shirt Day began in 2007 when a student in Nova Scotia was bullied for wearing a pink shirt to school. It has since been recognized annually worldwide as a day to stand against bullying. We read some books about making school a welcome environment, and the students brainstormed ideas of how we can make Millgrove an inclusive environment for everyone and wrote their personal plans on silhouettes of their hands. You can watch the story The Invisible Boy below for an example of why Pink Shirt Day is so important! We built our very own cars this week to explore the simple machines of the wheel and the axle! Students built the base for the car, the axle, and carefully selected and attached their wheels. We had four criteria for these cars, and the students designs did extremely well in our driving competition.
In our grade three classroom, we've started using cuisenaire rods with some of our math activities! These colourful rods have become invaluable tools for understanding proportionality, fractions, multiplication, and addition in a hands-on and engaging way. As we explore the concept of proportionality, students are able to visually grasp the relationship between different rod lengths and their corresponding values, laying a solid foundation for more complex mathematical concepts. Recently, we celebrated our 100th day of school by creating a smiley face using exactly cuisenaire rods worth exactly 100, reinforcing our understanding of number sense and place value in a fun and creative manner. It's always fun to see numbers and values represented in unique and entertaining ways!
This past week, our grade three class examined how levers can help us to do mechanical work as part of our ongoing exploration of simple machines in science. With hands-on experimentation, students explored the principles behind levers by manipulating fulcrums and loads to observe the effects of these adjustments. Through trial and error, they discovered the important role of the fulcrum's placement in determining the balance and efficiency of the lever, as well as the impact of varying the amount of load. We can't wait to build our cars and Rube Goldberg machines next week! Taking inspiration from basketball’s iconic March Madness, Millgrove students are participating in their own book-related tournament! Instead of shooting hoops, our students are flexing their reading muscles this month. March Book Madness is a worldwide literacy initiative that pits 16 picture books against each other, similar in format to the NCAA March Madness basketball tournament. During each bracket, two books go up against each other and are then voted on—majority-rule style. Votes are then tallied, and whichever book gets the most votes moves on to the next round. In February students at Millgrove began reading the book contenders with Mrs. Pirie. Voting opens on March 6, and we can’t wait to find out which books make it to the second round!
Our Grade Three Coding Club is buzzing with excitement as students dive into the world of computational thinking! Meeting every Tuesday, students have been learning how to use block-based coding to create programs. Our group has learned about strategies like debugging, loops, and detecting patterns, and the students have been making excellent use of their problem-solving skills. We’re looking forward to working with robots and making our own arcade games in the weeks ahead!
This month in Social Studies we're starting to learn about the country of Peru! Peru is the third largest country in South America, and the class will get to learn about the Amazon rain forest, Machu Picchu, llamas, the Inca, and lots more about the culture and land in Peru. 3B is gradually becoming a class of full-fledged global citizens. We enjoyed a very artistic morning with Clay for Kids on Thursday! The students made a clay piece depicting sunflowers inspired by the art of Vincent van Gogh, and learned many clay techniques from our art teacher. After spending some time drying and being fired in a kiln, we get to add a colour glaze and bring home the finished products! This week in science we explored how pulleys, wedges, screws, and inclined planes can reduce the amount of work needed to complete a task. We also learned that if we increase the force on an object, we can increase its speed as well. The students also did an excellent job ensuring our experiments were fair tests when comparing different simple machines and the force required to move objects! We had a great Valentine's Day celebration in 3SB! We exchanged Valentine cards, had fun during centres, hung out with our grade one buddies, and enjoyed the delicious treats that parents sent in for the students. The class enjoyed exchanging Valentine's and writing notes to each other in the morning. There are plenty of great friendships to be celebrated in 3SB!
This February 7 was our annual Winter Walk Day at Millgrove, and our class enjoyed participating with most other classes at Millgrove. 3SB along with the other grade three classes went on a walk through the Participark and explored some of the trails and nature there. We even fed the birds some bird feed, and they seemed quite thrilled by our visit! It was a great day to enjoy some fresh air, get some exercise, and have fun with our peers (and we felt lucky that the weather cooperated).
We had a great time learning about Lunar New Year today! We learned from books and some online research about this special holiday, and the students were especially interested to learn about their Chinese Zodiac sign and learn how to do some Chinese calligraphy. Our class learned about the history of the Lunar New Year celebrations, and we got to partake in the celebrations with our own Hongbao (red envelopes) and special New Year candy. Happy Year of the Dragon! 新年快乐 (xīnnián kuàilè)! This week we learned about the famous painting "American Gothic" which was painted by Grant Wood in 1930. We learned from Mrs. Schmaus about his life and the style of art he created called Regionalism wich involved depicting the people and the land in everyday life. Grant Wood drew and painted country life in his own style with smooth, blended brush strokes. In the famous painting "American Gothic," he first found an old farmhouse with an interesting window. Then, he asked his dentist to pose as the father and his sister to pose as the daughter. The class had so much fun with their art, using dog and cat characters to reproduce Grant Wood's art in their own style! For the month of February our class is learning all about how to make inferences when reading both fiction and nonfiction texts! We’ve been searching for clues in our books, and taking time to observe, wonder, and infer. When we infer, we want to make an educated guess or conclusion using evidence from the text. Through inferring, students learn to read between the lines, make predictions, and draw logical conclusions, enhancing their comprehension and critical thinking abilities. This skill empowers young readers to engage more deeply with texts, interpret characters' emotions and motivations, and understand the underlying themes and messages of the story. We’ve been inferring a great deal with our read aloud Because of Winn-Dixie, and Kate DiCamillo definitely leaves a lot of space for inferring in her book!
In math recently, the class has enjoyed creating designs using pattern blocks and adding them up to calculate their "value." Hexagons are worth 6, trapezoids count for 3, rhombuses are 2, and triangles are worth 1 (it's all based on how many triangles fit into the shape). It's been a fun way to practice multiplication and division, and the way students use the shapes together geometrically has been very impressive!
In science this week we've been exploring how simple machines including wheels, axles, levers, pulleys, screws, inclined planes, and wedges can reduce the amount of work or force needed to accomplish a task. This week we focused on how rollers and inclined planes can be used effectively to move things along a path or move things upward, and the students were even able to drag the teacher across the room in a bin using some handy-dandy rollers!
Thanks to the collaboration of Mrs. Schmaus and Mrs. Mills, we've continued enjoying our weekly buddy times with Mrs. Mills' grade one class! The class has had lots of fun learning with them, and they always look forward to reading with our buddies. It's such a special way to enjoy reading and build a sense of belonging in our school!
Just one more look at our amazing week at Zoo School at the Edmonton Valley Zoo!
Our last day of Zoo School had plenty of highlights! We got to meet Lucy and learn lots about her, and Anna created a ferret enrichment with snow which was very delightful to observe. (It turns out, pretty much all of our various predictions about what Chacha would do with the snow came true!) We got to see the zookeeper Sarah feed the fruit bats (a challenging task), and we got a good sighting of the two-toed sloths. We helped Anna decide on an enrichment for the Goeldi's monkeys (who are known for being somewhat lazy), and they eventually got around to exploring the lettuce, tissue paper, and meal worms. We also got some hints about which monkey was the dominant one. We said hello to the snow leopard with her very long tail that she uses as a scarf, and had some time at the end of the day to explore the zoo with our groups. It's been an amazing week, and we're so grateful to our volunteers, our educator Anna, and to the Edmonton Valley Zoo!
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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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