Learning Together!

During the first week of school we worked with a partner and brainstormed what  a good classroom looks like, sounds like and feels like.  After working in pairs and sharing our ideas we wrote our thinking on pieces of  paper and then glued them on chart paper.  We then grouped them into 3 categories - respect for others, respect for self and respect for this place.  Below is a picture of the chart that hangs in our classroom to guide us as we work together this year.  Do you have any class expectations?

Coming Soon! Global Read Aloud

 
 photo credit: buistbunch via photopincc
Soon we will be taking part in the Global Read Aloud.  What you may ask is the Global Read Aloud? The Global Read Aloud connects children from around the world over a shared book. This year there are four books to choose from.  Mrs. Betts  has chosen the book  Marty McGuire by Kate Messner .

This is a chapter book which Mrs. Betts will read to use over the course of six weeks.  We will do a variety of projects with the book.  We will read the book with many classes at once using Skype.  some of the classes that we will connect with are in Surrey, some are in Canada and some are even outside of Canada!  It should be an exciting way to learn and share our thinking!  Below is the schedule that we will follow.

Week 1 Sept 30: Chapters 1-2 (pg. 1-19)Week 2 Oct 7: Chapters 3-5 (pg. 20-38)Week 3 Oct 14: Chapters 6-7 (pg. 39-57)Week 4 Oct 21: Chapters 8-9 (pg. 58-79)Week 5 Oct 28: Chapters 10-11 (pg. 80-95)Week 6 Nov 4: Chapters 12-14 (pg. 96-131)


We are excited to be taking part in this project.  This is our first time so we have no idea of what to expect but think it should be fun!

Terry Fox . . . A Real Canadian Hero

 Last week we talked about Terry Fox and his Marathon of Hope.  We started by listing what we already knew about him.  Many of us knew all sorts of things.  We tried to watch a video about him but it kept buffering so we decided to look at some pictures and do so some reading instead.  After we recorded three facts that we had learned about him on a running shoe.  We posted our shoes in the front foyer for everyone to see.  Here is what some of us learned about Terry Fox. .








Jahan - learned that Terry Fox was a Canadian hero
Jack and Henry - learned that he wanted to raise $1.00 for every Canadian
Brasen - learned that he had a dream
Sarina - learned that he wanted to find a cure for cancer
Ken - learned that he was very brave
Lexi - learned that he had cancer
Arthur- learned that he started to run across Canada
Hannah - learned that he didn't give up
Sophia- learned that his run was called "The Marathon of Hope"

This week we plan to do some running in honour of Terry Fox.  We have been busy collecting donations to give to the Cancer Foundation.

Do you run in the Terry Fox Run?

Our First Skype Date!

Today we had our first skype date! We talked to Howard Binkow, the author of the Howard B. Wigglebottom books.  Before our chat with him, we wrote down some of our wonders about his books and what we wanted to know about being an author.

While we chatted with him he showed us his website (https://wedolisten.org/media/)  and we read two of his books.  We learned that all of his books have a message for children.  When he was in school he had a lot of trouble listening to his teacher and his friends so he decided to write, Howard B. Wigglebottom Learns to Listen to help other children learn to listen.  We also learned that the original name for the character in his stories was Harold but his family said that he had to call the character Howard because the story was all about him!  Another thing we learned is that some of the books have a different illustrator.  On their website you can actually write and colour your own Howard B. Wigglebottom book!  Here are some of the books we have in our classroom!  Have you ever read any of the Howard B. Wigglebottom books? If not, you should give them a try.   We think you would like them!

We Have a Name!

One of the things we always do in our class at the beginning of the year is choose a class name.  We brainstorm the names of many animals and talk about the characteristics or traits of each of the animals we name.  We try and see if we have any similarities to these animals.  Some of our choices this year were:  ravens, tigers, lions, eagles and cheetahs.  Do you know which one we chose?  This year we chose to be called "The Cheetahs."  Tomorrow we will learn all about cheetahs; what they eat, what they look like, where they live and maybe even something about their babies!  Do you know anything about cheetahs? 
 animals.nationalgeographic.com

Recess Fun!

Today in math we made a graph to find out what we liked to do most at recess time.  Here is our graph and what we learned from it.  What do you like to do at recess at your school?

Ready, Set, Go!

Today our classes were officially set! Mrs. Betts was so excited because she was lucky to have many of her students from last year join her as Grade 3s this year!  We also have 9 Grade 2s in our class.  Right now we are just waiting for parent permission before we can start sharing our work on our class and student blogs.  Please check back regularly as we plan to update this blog often.

A New Beginning

Mrs. Betts is anxiously awaiting to see who her new connected learners will be!  She is hoping by Monday she will meet her new group.  Check back soon to learn all about us.