The students of 3B have so much to be proud of from this year! We had a great celebration with our pet parade, 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! The class did a great job trekking to and from Jubilee Park today! We had a couple of pit stops on our way to and from the park, and the spray park was definitely the highlight of the day. Thanks to all the volunteers who helped make the day a big success (especially braving the heat)!
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
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 rainy but fun day to explore the river valley, and we learned so much about animal life cycles. We were so lucky today to have Evan's mom come and teach us all about their apiary and the bees that they take care of! We learned about the bee life cycle, the different roles that bees play, and how a hive functions. Evan's family has a website here where you can see all the amazing things that can be made from a bee hive, and the students really enjoyed answering some trivia at the end to win some excellent prizes. Thanks so much to Evan and his mom for teaching us so much about this important species!
We had a meaningful, learning-filled, and fun time celebrating National Indigenous Peoples Day today as we participated in some special activities and games. Students learned about six important symbols or items for many First Nations, Métis, or Inuit people, and we got to make art and challenge ourselves in a scavenger hunt around the school. We also went on a walk to the Participark to spend some time in nature and check on the tree seeds that we planted on the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation. We were so lucky to learn about and celebrate Indigenous culture today!
This week we've been playing bocce ball in PE to practice our throwing and aiming skills, and the students have definitely figured out some strategies to get their bocce ball close to the pallino!
The students successfully completed the research and writing for their non-fiction animal books this week! They typed up all their findings in a variety of subtopics, and published their illustrated books to Seesaw! To celebrate we had a well-deserved book publishing party and got to share our reports with each other. It's always satisfying to see our hard work in writing pay off!
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)!
Our mantises have been growing well this month with a steady diet of crickets, and even the odd meal worm here and there! We have three that we're taking care of in our classroom, and we've grown quite fond of them. They've gone through several incomplete metamorphoses where they shed their skin and grow larger, and it's always impressive to see how big they get over a matter of days! In Math this month, we've been continuing to use the Building Thinking Classrooms model, fostering collaborative problem-solving in math. Working in groups of three, our students engage in active discussions, leveraging diverse perspectives to tackle math problems. The students often look forward to the problem of the day, and are excited for their peers to see their thinking when we frequently do a gallery walk at the end of our work time. By encouraging teamwork and critical thinking, this approach empowers our young mathematicians to deepen their understanding of math concepts. The Building Thinking Classrooms model cultivates a growth mindset, as students embrace challenges, learn from mistakes, and persevere in finding innovative solutions. This equips them with essential problem-solving skills for real-life applications.
Just one more look at our amazing week at Sound School at the Winspear Centre!
We finished off an amazing week at the Winspear Centre with some math, architecture, construction, and an organ demonstration! This morning we planned a pretend budget for a visit to the Winspear including tickets and concession which made for some great math conversations! Mr. Wiley gave us a very special tour of the Winspear's construction site, and then the students created blueprints for their very own planned Winspear addition! Perhaps the unanimous highlight of the day was an organ demonstration. We learned all about the incredible 6,551 pipes on the Davis Pipe organ, how it was constructed, how it works, and we got to hear "Ode to Joy" on the organ. At the end of the day we created a time capsule of our Sound School memories that we'll open when we're in grade four. It's been an incredible week, and it's definitely left an indelible mark on the students! It was another full day at Sound School! We started the morning off hearing the ESO rehearse a piece called "Torque" by Canadian composer Gary Kulesha which had lots of dynamic range (as Miss Stephanie taught us) and similarities to some of John Williams' Star Wars music. It was so fascinating to watch the symphony practice and refine a piece, and their performance was very impressive! After watching the ESO in the Concert Hall, we became art critics and reflected on the many interesting art pieces around the Winspear Centre. After doing a little tour of the Citadel, Canada Place, and the Edmonton Convention Centre, we competed in a scavenger hunt in the afternoon. We ended the day playing music on a pump organ!
It was another exciting day at the Winspear! We got to visit backstage at the Winspear which was very interesting. We learned about the previous and current additions to the building, and a surprising solution to train sounds under the Concert Hall. We got to meet Mr. Mike the stage manager, and one of the ESO's librarians Mr. Graham taught us all about how the musicians use the library in the Winspear. Miss Alexandra inspired us to lean into our philanthropic tendencies just like Dr. Winspear, and we met our mystery musicians Miss Heather and Miss Danielle! The day wrapped up with lots of piano and violin playing!
We were all over downtown Edmonton today as part of Sound School! We started off the day exploring different instruments from different orchestra instrument families, and students even got to play the violin and accordion. We saw a graduation taking place in the Concert Hall today, and also had a tour of the incredible Stanley Milner Library from librarian Jasper. We learned all about the art of Alex Janvier and his very special art at Rogers Place, and then we performed a choral reading about his art when we visited the actual mosaic piece at Rogers Place. Of course we had to visit the Wayne Gretzky statue while we were at Rogers Place as well!
We had a day full of learning and fun for our first day of Sound School! We learned a new song, explored the Concert Hall, enjoyed Churchill Square, heard all about Dr. Francis Winspear and his legacy, examined the fossils and building materials in the lobby, worked on some Concert Hall estimation and multiplication, and evaluated different seats at the Winspear (the very tippy top Gallery was perhaps the most popular spot). Miss Stephanie took great care of us as we learned, and we can't wait for Day 2!
We had our last swimming lesson of the week today, and the students were especially excited to play some games, and check out the slide and diving board. The students were real pros in the water this week, and learned some skills from our great instructors as well. It's always cool to see all the different places we can apply and learn our PE skills!
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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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