Mrs. Garlow's Classroom Blog

Student Led Conferences

It was so wonderful to meet all the families last week.  As I listened in to the student-led conferences, I couldn't help but feel so proud.  Every student worked so hard to highlight a few pieces from their body of work.  They reflected on their learning, identified areas of strength, and next steps to achieve personal goals. 

Winter Electives are Back!

Our grade 1 - 3 students will be given the opportunity to enjoy two, fun-filled days.  The first outing has been scheduled for Wednesday, January 9th at The ROC in Georgina, Ontario and the second outing has been scheduled for Thursday, January 24th at the Stronach Aurora Recreation Complex.  Sign up your child for skating, tobogganing, or tubing.  Registration packages outlining all the details have been sent home with every student.  Please return your completed forms, and please make your payments using School Cash Online on or before December 7th.

Gifted Screening Test

The gifted screening test will take place throughout this week.  Each student will complete the test at the same time as their classmates and will be supervised.  Only those students who score at the top levels will be considered for Stage Two.  If your child qualifies for Stage Two, you will receive a 'Consent for Intellectual Screening' form between January 9th and 11th, 2019.  If you do not receive a consent form, it means that your child is not moving on to Stage Two.

Mrs. Garlow's Classroom Blog

Student-Led Conferences

Please sign up!  It is important for families to register for Edsby as RHPS will be using this platform to schedule our Student-Led Conferences on November 22nd and 23rd.  Please accept the invitation sent to you from Edsby and create an account in Edsby in order to schedule a time for the student-led conferences.  If you require another invitation to join, please contact the school office.  Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any questions.

Remembrance Day

Last week our amazing caretaker Ms. Lacroix took time out of her busy schedule to do presentations in our classrooms about Remembrance Day and about our Canadian troops.  Students had the opportunity to show their gratitude and appreciation by writing postcards to our Canadian troops for the important work they do in protecting and servicing us.  

Scholastic Book Fair

Our Scholastic Book Fair is coming up. It is a wonderful opportunity to raise funds for continued improvements to the Learning Commons and to pick up books for presents. There is a ballot for students to fill out for the chance to win $25 worth of books for themselves and for their teacher and a number of contests during the book fair. One of the contest will be for 10 students to visit the book fair for a "private shopping experience" before the crowds, as well as book trivia to win book gift certificates.

Mrs. Garlow's Classroom Blog

What happens when...

What happens to the pumpkins after Halloween?  What happens to the trash we throw away?  These are some of the questions students were wondering about so we launched an inquiry that will set the context for our Plants and Soil unit later this school year.  

Students placed leftover objects from their lunches into a carved out pumpkin such as paper napkins, an empty chip bag, a juice box, and a corn husk from the school garden.  After lunch we walked over to the school garden and everyone took turns digging up a hole in the raised garden bed.  The Grade 3s placed the pumpkin in the hole and covered the pumpkin up with soil.  Much like scientists, they recorded their theories and predictions.  We marked the area with a large garden rock so we can dig it up in the spring to see what happened. Stay tuned...

Yearbook

Making new friends and making memories with old friends are important parts of the school year.  Help your child keep the fun and memories alive for years to come with a yearbook, a time capsule of the events and people that made this year unique.

Last year marked our very first yearbook, and it was a HUGE success.  The majority of our families ordered one. Rick Hansen Public School is pleased to announce that we will continue the yearbook tradition started last year.  The cost for the 2018-2019 full-colour yearbook is $26.

Please make your payment using SchoolCashOnline (https://yrdsb.schoolcashonline.com/). Orders are due by the end of November.

Mrs. Garlow's Classroom Blog

Halloween Dance

Thank you to all for your support in our first Halloween Dance-a-thon. The students had such a great time working up a sweat!

Math

In math we have been learning how to add using the context of measurement.  We have moved from counting and adding on a concrete number line to adding on an open number line.  Students are learning to look at numbers in more flexible ways such as keeping a number whole and splitting the addend (the other number) so the whole number can become a landmark number. 

In keeping with the Halloween spirit, students had the opportunity to scoop out pumpkin seeds from pumpkins and counted all the seeds.  They worked on using various strategies to add up all the seeds.  It was exciting to see students using efficient strategies they learned earlier this year.  We then added the seeds from all four pumpkins to find out how many seeds we had altogether.  Look at the mathematicians develop their mental math skills!

Have a happy and safe Halloween!

Mrs. Garlow's Classroom Blog

Social Studies

This past week students investigated various artefacts set up in the classroom.  They shared their observations, their thoughts, and questions.  We will continue our discussion this week and build an understanding of what life was like for different groups of people in Canada between 1780-1850 and how these communities responded to the challenges in their lives.

Math

Students have been busy with a series of investigations by measuring various lengths of art paper.  They are applying their understanding of five and ten-structures from our previous math unit of counting and place value.  We will progress into an open number line - a helpful tool used to explore and represent strategies for multiple-digit addition (and later subtraction).  An open number line is an empty line used to record children's addition and subtraction strategies.  For example, if adding 18 + 79, a strategy that can be modelled on the open number line is to keep the 79 whole and decompose the 18 into smaller numbers, moving to a landmark number of 80 (79 + 1 + 10 + 7), it would be recorded on the open number line like this:

Using the open number line helps children move beyond strategies like counting on by ones to strategies such as taking leaps of ten, splitting, and using landmark numbers.

Student-Led Conferences

It is important for families to register for Edsby as RHPS will be using this platform to schedule our Student-Led Conferences happening in November.  Parents/guardians will need to accept the invitation sent to them from Edsby and create an account in Edsby in order to, in future, schedule a time for the student-led conferences.

Invitations to join Edsby were sent out October 19, 2018 for families.  Please check your junk mail folder if you are unable to find this invitation.  If you require another invitation to join, please contact the school office.

Picture Re-take Day

Photo re-take day will be Friday, November 2nd.

Mrs. Garlow's Classroom Blog

Literacy

Students are thoroughly enjoying the novel study of our mentor text: Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner. Through our mentor text, students are learning the foundational skills of envisionment and prediction. Students are learning how to look carefully at the characters to anticipate and co-construct the story line. Students are also learning ways to check their comprehension and use fix-up strategies when they’ve lost the thread of the story.

In writing, students have been busy working on crafting true stories about their personal lives. We have studied the craft moves of several mentor texts including Owl Moon, The Leaving Morning, The Night of the Veggie Monster, and Come On, Rain! Together, we have dissected the texts and examined how we can borrow some of those moves in our own writing. Students are learning how to find story ideas (small meaningful moments) that are focused and important, telling it in small detail bit by bit.

 

Science

Students started their first inquiry in our Strong and Stable Structures unit made by living things. We will continue with our unit and look at what kinds of materials are used in human constructions and animal constructions. We will also be investigating the impact of the structures on the environment and the impact of the environment on these structures. Please continue to bring in toilet paper rolls and paper towel rolls as we still need some more for an upcoming experiment.

Math

We will continue to build our understanding of Number Sense and its relationship with Measurement. Through investigations, explorations, and practise, students have begun applying their knowledge of the 5 and 10 frame structures and using it as a landmark number for measuring and adding.

We will then move onto perimeter and adding and subtracting three-digit numbers with and without regrouping. Please regularly review basic addition and subtraction facts with your child at home. Quick recall and proficiency of these basic math facts is essential to their success with adding and subtracting larger numbers.

As in all math units, an emphasis will be on problem solving and justifying answers. Students must be able to explain their thinking. The Grade 3s have been working on solving problems in a variety of ways by making their thinking visible and using mathematical vocabulary. Students should also practise counting forward and backwards from various starting points and to skip count forward to 1000. Here is a link to some math games for Grade 3 students:

Grade 3 Skip Counting Games

https://mathies.ca/games.php

Don't forget that Monday is a P.A. Day. There is no school!

Mrs. Garlow's Classroom Blog

Math Unit Test

Just a reminder that students have their math unit test for number sense tomorrow. Happy studying!

Food Drive

Please consider donating any non-perishable food items which we will be sending to the Aurora Food Pantry to help those in need.

School Dance-a-Thon Fundraiser

Our school's Halloween Dance-a-Thon fundraiser is ongoing. Students will be looking for pledges. Your support is greatly appreciated!